Hypertext and Hypermedia Exercise: Cashless Society

Cash is heavy, expensive to make, move, count and guard. Technologically speaking, cash is also quaint. Notes in our wallet and coins in our pocket are as outmoded as Morse code. Cash is gradually dying.

Heading into the marketplace is a host of electronic payment systems. Telephone companies, credit card firms, internet ventures, universities and public transport systems are all trying out digital-cash schemes. Digital money is a perfect money recently. It weights nothing and moves at the speed of light. It does not get scuffed, worn or dirty. It is the ultimate extension of a process that began over a century ago when the Western Union Telegraph Company, a communications company turned cash into bits that flowing through wires. Nowadays, this company is globally known as TheWestern Union Company which offers their customers to send and receive funds to others, money orders, business payments and commercial services worldwide. 

We will carry some cash around for years to come and perhaps barely notice when we stop using it at the supermarkets, service stations and also in vending machines but rather go for online shopping on the internet. But for everyone who uses stores and regulates cash, a challenge is nearing. Some kinds of electronic currency will protect privacy, and some will violate it. Moreover, some will make crime easier, and others will make it more difficult. Some will tax commerce, while others will catalyst it.

In this era, smart cards such as credit cards and debit cards have been use widely especially for online goods. As money enters a new age, so does the counterfeiting. Smart cards rely on software, and software always has bugs. Moreover, any chip can be cracked open and examined with an electronic microscope. The solutions for these problems are by using high level security encryption and unique material for microchips manufacturing.

In conclusion, we have to prepare for this to happen. Eliminating bank notes would free the world from bribery, kidnapping, extortion, and also money laundering. All these depend on cash being an anonymous and untraceable form of payment. Yet, the cashless economy could also be a world where networked computer databases keep track of every bus we ride, every goods we spend, and every bills we pay.


Source: James Gleick, June 16, 1996