Simplifying Payments for Millions of Americans 

Ijaz Anwar talks about ways in which payments can be simplified

Here’s a secret nobody would have told you two hundred years ago: cash has no intrinsic value.

Cash is just paper. It was invented as a universal medium of exchange so people could avoid the issues that come with barter systems. With barter, figuring out what to trade could be a hassle. Knowing the value of something is hard to quantify when there isn’t a universal standard. Also, some of the things you could trade now could depreciate later; for example, you might be able to trade your carton of milk now, but you won’t be able to do so when it expires three weeks from now. Money with values tattooed on them won’t depreciate as quickly. Cash was invented so people could worry less.

But cash by itself is just paper. If the government wanted to change currency from paper to chairs, the paper would be worthless. We would all carry around chairs instead (and probably gain some muscle mass as well. It could be good for public health). The reason we use papers instead of chairs though is because of convenience.

One day, we will pay for groceries through micro-chips inserted in our wrists. That will be more convenient than paper. Cash won’t exist; all people will have are dollar values recorded on the internet.

A world where micro-chips are commonplace may be hard to imagine; but we do see a semblance of that today via the cards we carry. Whether using a debit card, a metro card or a gift card, many Americans don’t use cash for most of their week. Now pre-paid cards and state-issued cards allow even people without bank accounts to avoid using cash.

Paying for things is now more simple than ever.

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Check out Ijaz’s website for more information.