Goodbye cash, hello…who knows?

I was in a local Bristol bakery the other day and the person in front of me asked — “Is it ok to pay with cash?” — before he handed over a five pound note in exchange for his croissant. My colleague noticed the same recently as he watched a friend apologise before using paper money to pay for a beer.

While cash (and by that, I mean country-issued FIAT coins and bills) is not yet at risk of total extinction, a recent article in the BBC detailed the way in which it is becoming scarcer around the world.

Sweden is now almost fully cashless, with just 1% of transactions happening in the physical stuff. China — the land of WeChat Pay and Alipay — has actually had to require that merchants accept cash to ensure that it stays in circulation. Bank machines seem to be disappearing from the landscape across the UK and many shops, pubs and restaurants are thinking about eliminating cash as a payment option. It reduces the risk of robbery, makes taking payment faster and cuts the labour cost of counting and securing after close.

We have definitely moved into times where it is easier and more convenient to pay in a digital way. The Winklevoss twins once predicted that cash would soon be just for hipsters. Are we nearly there?

One thing is for sure … infrastructure for digital value exchange is improving, and at DOVU we are contributing to those advancements. We’ve just released our Wallet in Beta form. It allows users to earn DOV tokens for sharing and improving how they get around.

DOV is a utility token, secured by the Ethereum blockchain, which can be exchanged for valuable goods in the DOVU marketplace and sent to others via instant peer-to-peer transfers. We plan to make this digital form of value incredibly easy to earn and use for a worldwide audience of people who move. We hope that you’ll join us, by following us on our channels below or joining our Beta.

So, how about you? Where — if anywhere — do you think cash is going?