My New Years Resolution: Use More Cash \ stacker news ~bitcoin

12.3k sats \ 24 comments \ @chungkingexpress 3 Jan 2023 bitcoin

I have made a new year's resolution to use as much cash possible.

In New Zealand cash is pretty uncommon, with upwards of 90% of transactions being card-based. In my day-to-day experience though this number is closer to 95%.

PayWave and contactless payment options are available everywhere and there are many shops that are cashless. This sometimes backfires though as the legacy EFTPOS payment network is prone to outages.

But for the most part it is so easy to use EFTPOS & credit / debit cards in New Zealand that I have literally not used cash in over a year, and in the last couple of years I have only used it a handful of times. Cash is a bit like watching plain old TV: you grew up with and it was so familiar, yet it slowly but surely disappears and you think "when was the last time I even saw it?"

With recent motioning towards a potential NZ CBDC I have realised that cash is a privilege that if not used will be taken away.

Starting this week I withdrew a bunch of cash from an ATM and have made every in-person purchase with cash.

It was actually quite exciting! NZ money looks like monopoly money and I had to retrain my automatic reflex to pay with my phone or card. I even had to remember the quaint little tricks like giving extra coins to get a round number in change back!

Having now consciously made the effort to try using cash I appreciate its simplicity and beauty.

Sure, it is still fiat, but by withdrawing cash I am "pegging out" of mass surveillance. I can go and use that cash for whatever I want without being tracked. I also get to save $0.1 - $0.15 in many transactions that would otherwise attract a card surcharge!

I don't expect to save with my physical cash and I accept that it needs to be used or else it will lose its purchasing power.

I wonder if we may see a hybrid world where Bitcoin is generally accepted as the best long-term savings vehicle for most people, with cash being withdraw and used alongside Lightning in day-to-day transactions?

ENDS

– CE

Follow me @TTOVpodcast

My new Podcast, the Transformation of Value

view all related items

440 sats \ 1 reply \ @petertodd 4 Jan 2023

Tipped you 10k sats.

It's really, really, important that more people use cash. Frankly getting the numbers of cash transactions up will do a lot more good for the world in keeping the threat of CBDC's at bay than Bitcoin ever will.

20 sats \ 0 replies \ @chungkingexpress OP 4 Jan 2023

Hey thank you so much!

65 sats \ 0 replies \ @ln123 3 Jan 2023

Totally right about the moral imperative to use Cash

If we don't fight for cash.. we WILL lose it

40 sats \ 1 reply \ @Jbana 4 Jan 2023

As long as fiat payments are required, cash is best for day to day. Like physical lightning! (/s)

Seriously though, much better than losing it to CBDCs

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @chungkingexpress OP 4 Jan 2023

Cash is kind of like a little physical stablecoin lol. Just don’t save in it.

10 sats \ 2 replies \ @sam 7 Jan 2023

Interesting that you mentioned a surcharge on card payments. In the US we have the opposite. Cards have cash back programs that give basically a floor of 1% back on every purchase. Depending on the card you have, it can be a lot more. Now we have the Fold card that gives cash back in Bitcoin. As you can imagine, it heavily incentivizes everyone to use a card for everything. Unless these programs go away, I have a hard time seeing cash getting a lot of use in the US.

1 sat \ 1 reply \ @chungkingexpress OP 7 Jan 2023

Vendors in U.S. must pay a fee to have credit card / contactless services etc? In New Zealand it is often passed onto the consumer. Especially at smaller stores you will be prompted on the payment terminal to accept a $0.15 fee for Visa PayWave etc.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @sam 17 Jan 2023

Yes, merchants in the US pay a fee to payment processors. I think it can range from 1-5%. It's transparent to the consumer, though.

10 sats \ 0 replies \ @Trey 4 Jan 2023

Your caption pulled me in and I was initially wondering why your choice would be Fiat, however reading to the end made me realize the point was valid and relatable....

20 sats \ 2 replies \ @ek 4 Jan 2023

Unfortunately, paying with cash makes tracking my expenses harder.

I use YNAB and it integrates with my bank account.

I hold some emergency cash but paying electronically is just better UX.

I know I should feel bad lol

I agree with the sentiment of this post though

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @jgbtc 4 Jan 2023

You may need to do offline YNAB, aka the Envelope System: https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/finance/envelope-system

P.S. I love YNAB, it's awesome!

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @0308b86719 4 Jan 2023

Use your phone to scan each receipt when you buy something. Dropbox app will do it. Built-in files app on iOS will do it. Takes 30 seconds.

10 sats \ 2 replies \ @swmtr 4 Jan 2023

I respect your decision and understand it. Unfortunately, the reality is that convenience will always win, so I am afraid, as noble as it is to use cash, majority of people will not do this. It is like saying, let's all ride horses instead of cars. (unless there is some catastrophy which will cause us to revert - might not be a bad thing, eventhough it sounds cruel).

12 sats \ 1 reply \ @chungkingexpress OP 4 Jan 2023

I don’t agree and I don’t think that is the right analogy. Cash is still huge in most of the world. Just happens to be that NZ is trying to go digital. A few people (literally just a few) making a stink in a small place like NZ can make a difference.

Better analogy: cash is like owning your own reliable car, card is relying on Uber.

10 sats \ 0 replies \ @swmtr 4 Jan 2023

You could very well be right, but I do not believe it. How many people do you know that went back to paying by credit cards or cash after they used their phone to pay for stuff? People will always select the easier path and cash is not it if there are easier to use alternatives. Majority of people do not care about privacy (eventhough they think they do). Just look at all that crap people post on social media. I am just a sceptic when it comes to majority of the earth's population making any wise choices :(.

1 sat \ 0 replies \ @022a8a1886 5 Jan 2023

Cash is a piece freedom. As long as we can not shift to Bitcoin we should use cash whenever possible. Whenever you can use bitcoin, do it! Bitcoin is freedom.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @eluc 4 Jan 2023

I had a period, 5-7 years ago where I was paying as much as possible with cash and it was awesome. At the time I was single and earning enough not to count my money. I made the mistake to spend a bit too much and didn't save as much as I could/should (e.g. didn't bought enough cheap sats). Now I have to split my earning and we must track our expense and follow a buget. It's almost impossible if we pay too much cash, so card help to have a list of purchases easy to export to a spreadsheet. Also I have card with some cashback that help to save a little extra.

But I really wish I could earn enough more to not care again about budget and tracking expenses. I hate to know that I'm tracked as easily as I do by my banks, card company and even Google (for the rare cases I need to pay with phone).

At least in my country it's still very common to pay cash, 99% of the time it's accepted and even sometimes it's cash only (barbershop, small restaurant, food trucks, itinary fair attractions, ...)

0 sats \ 2 replies \ @pillar 4 Jan 2023

Private, bearer asset, fee-less... Cash carries the sins of fiat, but also has a lot of cool features that even ourselves have trouble replicating in Bitcoin.

I think the world would definitely be much better if a lot of people switched from credit cards to cash in their day to day transactions.

0 sats \ 1 reply \ @chungkingexpress OP 4 Jan 2023

Cash is kind of old school cool, too. Anyone can swipe a card, but not everyone can roll monopoly money 20s.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @pillar 4 Jan 2023

Indeed. Coming from another country where card payments have become the norm, it's always fun to go to some third world country that's still cash-based and see someone on the street pull a fat wad of bills to pay someone else. If someone pulls a wad of bills in the west, everyone's eyes would center there like it was a magnet, but in the third world I've never seen anyone care.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @chungkingexpress OP 4 Jan 2023

Thinking about this more, I have come to realise that not all money is equal even in the fiat realm. Most people look at fiat as they look at Bitcoin: along the single dimension of market price in the local currency.

$1 = $1 and 1BTC = 1BTC, right?

However there are intangible values to cash which I would estimate AT LEAST in the range of 2 - 3% for the privacy, finality, and portability you get. It sounds ridiculous but $100 in cash is indeed worth $102+.

For example: If there is a power cut or network issue that means your debit card won't work when you need it most (buying food, gas in a storm), what premium would you pay to still be able to transact? That is the value of cash.

How about having your bank account frozen for some political reason, what premium would you pay to have the cash on hand to still pay your rent and not get kicked out? That is the value of cash.

How about wanting to buy with absolute privacy and finality? That is the value of cash.

This intangible value of cash is on a different axis and so is hard for most people to understand at first until you need it the most.

Ultimately, if you are on a Bitcoin standard, the interface between you and the vendor does not actually matter too much right now (Besides tax implications). Lightning, stable coin, and cash all fill the roll of an interface for value transfer. With cash I am "pegging out" into fiat to make the payment and not holding it so there is no value lost to inflation. The main thing is that your savings are not being held in fiat so they are not being debased.

0 sats \ 2 replies \ @thrown 4 Jan 2023

restaurant workers are the true heroes

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @chungkingexpress OP 4 Jan 2023

Interestingly we don't have any tipping culture in New Zealand. Though I am thinking of starting to give people at the places I regularly go to a Lightning tip print out card from tipcards.io.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Kaffi 4 Jan 2023

and drug dealers /s