[f38zf5vdt]

It will cause people to stop using government money. There are many other ways to barter and exchange goods. I expect it will only increase tax evasion as less transactions are even reported.

It's no surprise to me to see government gold buying on an absolute tear. [1] The powers that be are well aware of the importance of having real physical goods for the sake of trading and maintaining wealth.

[1] https://financialpost.com/commodities/mining/central-banks-b...

[iamben]

> There are many other ways to barter and exchange goods.

Genuinely curious - what do you think will happen (and what would be used)?

I genuinely can't imagine most of the people in my life (be that older relatives, non-tech friends, whoever) using anything but whatever 'money' is convenient. None of them care the government might be watching, and if they were going to barter for anything they're probably already doing it ("you help me with this DIY, I'll take you for dinner").

FWIW I'm in the UK, so perhaps my perspective is skewed?

[f38zf5vdt]

Whatever is readily available to be converted into digital "cash" when needed will be used. Wealthy people maintain most of their assets outside of cash in property of various types. When they need "on the books" spending, they bring it into the cash economy with on/off ramps.

I don't know if the UK is different from much else of the developed world, but here there is a tremendous amount of off-by-book transactions in the largest industries such as farming and construction. I do not think that the disappearance of cash will remove this economy, but it will have to migrate to other assets with similar qualities.

[starkd]

Maybe for large significant transactions, but barter economy is next to impossible for consumer goods. If a lot of the economy goes off the books, it will come with greater friction between transactions, less overall liquidity.

[tomatocracy]

Fortunately though there are lots of substitute currency-like instruments out there. Prepaid debit cards, Amazon gift cards, etc. Or even foreign currency cash like US dollars.

[d110af5ccf]

you can "barter" with something like XMR though. that seems to be even lower friction than physical cash in some ways

[JumpCrisscross]

> government gold buying on an absolute tear

China and Russia buying non-dollar reserve assets has nothing to do with “people…using government money.”