[wolfgke]

> To be honest, I always kind of lol at these kinds of rants. Wishing for the "one true payment system" is like thinking that everyone will switch over to speaking Esperanto in the near future.

There always exists cash (except for internet transactions, of course).

[Legogris]

Unfortunately, no. Cash is effectively getting phased out in Sweden; these days, there are more physical shops denying cash than accepting it.

Trying to make either a deposit or a withdrawal of "large sums" (> ~1K USD equivalent is my understanding) cash at a bank will get serious scrutiny and may even result in funds being seized or frozen.

Things have changed really fast, too. Just 2 years ago I don't recall ever being in a store which didn't accept cash.

And yet, all solutions other than cash are from private banks, which have no obligations to take you as a customer.

Unfortunately it seems like Sweden is far from alone in being on this trajectory, they're just a little bit ahead in this sense.

I do think that there's a case to be made for permissionlessly operated cryptocurrency on a public ledger here.

[bgschulman31]

I never understood why some shops/restaurants do not take cash. It's only a minor inconvenience having to deposit the cash in-person and you don't lose money on any transaction fee. Maybe to protect against theft? But still, using cash saves the seller 1-3% on that transaction.

[pjc50]

Even that isn't a universally acceptable solution; most countries will take dollars as well as local currency in some shops, but by no means all. And if you're from a non-dollar country your chances of international acceptance are much lower.