[icebraining]

Monero works like that just fine. You just have to actually use it for everything, rather than convert into physical cash. Just get your provider of tangible things to accept Monero.

If you really need cash, you can also just (physically) go to someone who has cash and tell them "I'll transfer you some Monero coins if you give me some cash and don't record that you did".

[grawprog]

Ok so, for a more tangible example, I hand Buddy several pounds of drugs, Buddy hands me cash, I can walk to the store immediately and use said money to acquire things. Likewise, I could turn around, go talk to other Buddy and buy more drugs, all within 5-10 minutes of receiving said handful of cash.

Until a digital currency allows this with the same level of anonyminity and ease, it's not viable as a replacement to cash. Go betweens and other things will still involve some third party to facilitate the conversion to real currency. That's the problem. This digital currency must be equally as legitimately and illegitimately useful immediately upon receipt with no hassle with any and all transactions directly doable in said currency without the need for any third party involvement or recording.