Discussion Virtual money can replace physical money?

Hello there people.

I daydream a lot about random things and one of the things I thought of today was;

How feasible is it that we can replace real money with a virtual currency?

My thoughts on this matter are shallow, I do not know how feasible it is but I thought it was an interesting thought to discuss.

Recently I noticed that I use my debit card for contactless payments quite a lot, this is not physical money since it's just lines of code or something in a bank which entitles me to money of that value. Does this not mean that those codes have value comparable to real money then? If so, why can we not swap to using a virtual currency instead of real money? I've always thought that money only works because we allow it to.

In all apocalypse novels I have read currency becomes useless, no matter if it previously was £1000 or $10m, it all becomes useless because no one is willing to recognise its value. In the past people used to barter goods for goods then we added money and because we recognised it having a value we used it, but if money works only because the public allow it to could we swap to a virtual currency which doesn't need to be physically created? Side note of no trees being cut for money (still for everything else though).

I'm aware that there are hackers who could steal or alter the codes, but there are also thieves who can steal physical currency too so its not a massive downside as both ways have their 'enemy'. The only massive downside is the servers holding it going down.

So yeah, these are my thoughts on the matter. My thoughts may be a bit jumbled since I'm always like this, jumping from one point to the next. Love to see what your thoughts are.

 

Yeah, let's replace nuffies with real money. I'm gonna spam the hell out of nuf and be really rich.

 

There's bitcoins, so its not out of the realm of possibility. Lol.

 

You have goals right here

 

be careful when the one who handle the system dies. It already happen to a cryptocurrency.

 

CN Spongebob : i am rich now!

 

We're going there. I know that there'll comes a time where physical money will no longer be used.

 

What do you mean by that? You mean the person dies and others take it in a different direction or they die and the system itself just fails?

 

Riding a bus or a train only needs a card nowadays.

 

I mean "real" money is fiat money anyways and a cashless future is approaching fast, it is pretty reasonable to consider money going virtual.

 

Actually, yes, but it is not about the money, it is the infrastructure that it would run on. In apocalypse novels, physical money lost its value because the infrastructure behind it have crumbled away. For virtual currency to be feasible replacement of real money, the infrastructure behind it (like the internet and computers and whatnot) must be reliable and stable enough.

 

Something like, it needs someone or something, to guarantee it's value I suppose. I guess that's right since in God and Devil world they did add money in due to a functioning organisation.

 

Does it get backed by something? From my little understanding, if the government (or another entity) cannot guarantee the value of the money, then the money is simply worthless. It is not really an issue of form, I think. Since the value of the virtual money is guaranteed to be equivalent to the real money, then there is no difference. Of course, for some people, convenience cannot be traded to security and privacy, so it is a matter of trust. As long as the trust is established between people who did the exchange, then it functions the same.

Second, if the system is reliable (and all fault can be attributed to human error, such as scamming/carding), then people can trust it. otherwise, why would you trust it?

 

In apocalypse novels, physical money lost its value because people only cares for necessities like food, water and lodgings which anyone can easily get/steal from the abandoned stores and from others as long as they are stronger and brave enough to do so. But I agree with your thinking that virtual money will be the hit as almost very place are using cashless payment for stuff.

 

Yes, visual money can and is already replacing real money.

 

according to what i read, we already reached the point where theres supposed to be more virtual money recorded in everyones accounts than the actual money itself

i myself already did a lot of transactions without ever using real, physical money

 

The current money that we use has ANY value because banks told us that they have value, be it some reserve bank or federal fede according to the country. When you are talking about virtual money, there are two distinctions. Cryptocurrency and proxies of real currency.
Proxies of real currency, or rather cashless transaction, are already becoming the norm in urban developed areas due to easy and stable internet. So, for your hoped virtual money only system, the internet must be stable all over the world and also, it must be secure.
For cryptocurrency, along with these two factors, a stable guarantor is also needed as banks are not the guarantee for the same. So, cryptocurrency has a lesser chance of making it to a completely cashless world because of the risks involved.

Also, on the context of money, what do you think stocks and stock exchanges are? Essentially, barter system. So, the future you hope for is already a reality in some pockets of the world but the entire world will not go the same path.

 

Not entirely correct. The value of money you have is dictated by the government and the banks and other entities. In the event of an apocalypse, those entities disappear, and hence the money that they issue lost the backing they have and thus they lose their value.

 

Idk about other countries, but American money hasn’t been held to the “gold standard” in years. It’s not a new implementation so I suppose the trust is already built however.

 

Imagine there's a state wide blackouts. What do you gonna do with digital money then ?