Dirty Money
Could Coronavirus Be the End of Cash?
The other day I found a £20 note in my wallet. I have no recollection of how it got there, no clue on who gave it to me, and when. It must have been sitting there, Patiently, for months. I have been shopping, almost daily, buying food and sweets (lots of sweets) and yet I didn’t notice it until now. All of this time I haven't needed, haven’t even thought, of using cash.
When Coronavirus started to spread it was clear that social distancing is in order. Unprecedented restrictions and steps were taken in order to stop people from spreading the virus from one to the other. The notion of giving or receiving a piece of paper touched by someone else made no sense. The WHO itself said so, warned that notes could help the spread as they can potentially carry the virus for days. China and South-Korea initiated a major operation in which they disinfected and isolated used notes. This was a lot of work, even for such a sum of money. All medical organizations made a very clear recommendation to use cash as little as possible and instead move to contactless and electronic payments. The revolution that has been slowly moving forward for years suddenly received a massive boost.
It is, as mentioned, not a new phenomenon. Cash use has been declining for a few years, in the UK we saw debit card payments overtaking cash for the…
