What would the world be like if physical money were to exist?

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The advancement of technology is making this process natural. The digital transactions guarantee much more security, that would eliminate some criminal practices like break-ins of ATMs, back robberies and other shopping facilities. The government would save millions spent on banknote printing and transport of securities.

Predictions

Even if the removal of paper banknotes may seen like the natural course of economic evolution and be tempting to visualize that future, things aren't so simple. Specialists have been making this prediction a long ago and this has not happened yet.

But it never had so much strenght before. With the growth of credit cards, digital coins and alternative forms of payment, this teories are coming back like never before. For us from Steemit and other people engaged on cryptocurrencies, feels like using physical money will be past soon, but we can't deny that the human already developed a psychological relationship with it, so might be to soon catch a glimpse of this.

However we are in a period of transition of realities. So a world without money would be something really close to what it was in the past, people carriyng coins and precious metals; or the future, with payments been made by eletronic devices.

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Possibilities

In the past, before the popularization of the paper money in many important west nations, te coins were used to represent wealth, just like metals and precious stones or rare itens. In a probable return to the past, the missing of banknotes could generate more production of coins and a different form of transactions.

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Reality Confrontation

Is not for nothing that the physical money is with us for thousands of years. Banknotes are easy to carry with us, easily acceptable and reliable. At an eventual blackout or fail at eletronic systems that affects digital devices, the psysical money still is a viable option. If someone want to be sure that wil be able to make a buy without rely on card compatibility or payment systems, the money will be accept.

Considering our reality, it's difficult accept that the world would work without money. Even with the tecnological advances, some aspects of the banknotes still can't be reproduced on digital forms. While the tecnology still tries to create this systems, we still can't rely on that.

Hong Kong is one of the few places on the world that the eletronic money achieved success on routine activities. The Octopus Card is a inteligent card that allows financial transactions for payment of meals, public transportation, bills, and shopping facilities and many other stores. As it is a prepaid card, you just need to insert de desirable quantity and recharge.

Even with the sucess of the Octopus Card, it wasn't enough to eliminate the traditional money, but is a alternative for who wants to avoid the physical money.

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Will we someday be able to live in a world without psysical money? In fact, it would be very practical, but just by imagining the chaos created by a blackout or a internet failure, I already miss the smell of banknotes before they even left. And you, what's your opinion?