Cash vs Cashless Debate

The cluster focuses on the advantages of cash for privacy, anonymity, and freedom compared to digital payments, with concerns about government efforts to phase out cash and enable transaction surveillance.

📉 Falling 0.2x Politics & Society
6,082
Comments
20
Years Active
5
Top Authors
#6462
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Keywords

US HN ApplePay ATM google.com CC U.S cash cards purchases transactions transaction trail tracked card anonymous credit

Sample Comments

freehunter Aug 6, 2012 View on HN

Because cash doesn't leave a paper trail and not everyone can accept cards.

zem Feb 23, 2022 View on HN

there's a huge difference between not having to use cash and having not to use cash

EVa5I7bHFq9mnYK Jan 24, 2023 View on HN

If a place doesn't accept cash, I leave. Cash is one of our last remaining bastions of freedom. I would gladly pay by card, if those cards were anonymous, refillable with cash. But these do not exist anymore, even for small amounts. They insist they must know your every last $0.50 transaction.

mrmetanoia Jul 20, 2024 View on HN

the lack of privacy at a business isn't a problem baked into cash. cash helps solve that problem because I don't need to go to a place of business to use it. It can be exchanged anywhere in reasonable amounts, and I don't have to deposit it I can just keep it and use it.my wife and I always keep some cash on hand in case of some sort of problem with the card, or tap device etc. never had my cash declined because a computer thought some other purchases that afternoon looked susp

buboard Nov 27, 2018 View on HN

not if you have the option to use cash for these activities. cash is more versatile and untraceable for this kind of things.

celticninja Jul 27, 2016 View on HN

That is a bit silly. First of all cash is just a medium of exchange that we have refined to the most frictionless method possible. Without it we would just be exchanging some other tokens of value. Secondly Not everywhere has access to the tech that we do, such as credit cards and ATMs, ApplePay and Android Pay. A lot of the world relies on cash, so it would be ridiculous to suggest it would be illegal.

Nifty3929 Sep 14, 2025 View on HN

Yes! But also this is why governments (including in the US) are trying to discourage the use of cash, and make it less convenient.

salawat Sep 13, 2023 View on HN

Because people tend to be encouraged not to handle cash anymore by much of payment infra being centered around cards/metadata resale.

HomeDeLaPot Feb 17, 2020 View on HN

The only thing I'll miss about cash is that it's anonymous. Without it, every purchase you make is logged somewhere and could be scanned for illegal activity or just for advertising purposes. I'm not positive that's a good thing.

Can't you just pay in cash, without leaving digital trail?