Tillmann Prüfer is a member of the editor-in-chief of “Zeit-Magazin”.
I keep hearing that cash is on the decline because cash always causes trouble. For example, it is often used for money laundering. And it’s used on the black market. If you pay with a banknote, you don’t have to make it transparent where you got it from, and it also remains in the dark where you’re going.
You don’t even know if such a banknote even exists. You can have a suitcase of money under your bed and no one needs to know about it. This means that cash can be used about as flexibly as Bitcoin. And you don’t even have to go online to do it.
A survey by the Statista institute has now shown that in 2020, 84 percent of all those surveyed still paid in cash – while today it is only 72 percent. A drop of twelve percentage points in two years. People use credit cards, debit cards or mobile payment methods like Paypal.
One wonders how long Bundesdruckerei can continue to print cash given this lack of demand. If things continue like this, in six years less than half of Germans will still be paying in cash. And if you’re unlucky, then maybe those are the ones who hardly have any money.
Top jobs of the day
Find the best jobs now and
be notified by email.
You hear it again and again that, for example, print media also have a hard time asserting themselves against the digital competition. But there are definitely things you can do. One should work on the image of the cash, for example with a campaign that emphasizes the special, the aesthetic, haptic quality of the banknotes, I also think the claim “Slow Money” is quite nice.
Other columns by Tillmann Prüfer:
I recently read that the Bundesbank has an analysis center for damaged money. You can send torn, moldy and burnt notes there and they will replace them. Even money that has been eaten by a cow and passed out again, or banknotes that have accidentally ended up in a paper shredder.
Who does this with lost bitcoin? About every fifth bitcoin is said to have been lost, for example because data was lost on storage media or the notes with key phrases. Some are said to have lost hundreds of millions of dollars this way. Who is helping these poor people?
Bitcoin is also supposed to be a new favorite currency of the criminal elements in the world. I think that this much-maligned criminal milieu is a target group that can be interesting despite all the justified reservations. Cryptocurrencies consume a lot of electricity, so cash is an environmentally friendly alternative. Who says criminals don’t have an ecological conscience? At the latest when you get a replacement for one of the notes that faded during money laundering, you know what paper money you have.
More: Without late risers, the US Vice President would break his ankle.