I've found this Deutsche Welle video stating that Denmark heads for cashless society. Are these expectations realistic? Could we really rely on cards and phones for payments and live in cashless society? What about anonymity that cash provides?
Most of all, the it is the Danish Government that wants a cashless society and the opportunity to monitor every single financial transaction its citizens make. Danes have the highest taxes in the world and the biggest public sector. It would be dreadful if a transaction escaped being taxed! Well, the abolition of cash should complete the stranglehold.
... whereas, in the US, all transactions, trips and conversations are already monitored by one or more public and private security agencies, and if the government wants somebody discomfited, an IRS audit can always be arranged and made maximally inconvenient, whether they'd cheated on their taxes or not, so there is no point in interfering with Business. Yes, a cashless economy is certainly possible, but IMO, not desirable, since it must rely on technologies that I don't consider all that reliable.
Denmark is not the only country wanting to become cashless. The Bank of Korea is planning a "cashless society" by 2020. If a shopper buys a 9,500 won item and pays with a 10,000 won banknote, for instance, the shopper will be credited 500 won to his or her prepaid card instead of getting a 500 won coin in change. The move comes from the expectation that a cashless society will partly solve the problem of the underground economy, according to Kwak Hyun-soo, an analyst at Shinhan Investment Corp. http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/biz/2016/03/488_199146.html
The underground economy will just convert to a different currency. It's never going away - which is just as well: something has to pick up the slack when the bank-based economies collapse under their debt-load.
Here's the other side of the coin. The Guardian analyzes why we should fear a cashless world. Poor people and small businesses rely on cash. A contactless system will likely entrench poverty and pave the way for terrifying levels of surveillance. In other words, striving toward the cashless society is fine as long as people are making this choice freely. http://www.theguardian.com/money/commentisfree/2016/mar/21/fear-cashless-world-contactless
