[realcertify]

The current trend is to move from cash to electronic money controlled by the banks. Previously the money deposited to a bank account was the clients money that the bank just kept. Now it's the banks money that can be frozen by any reason and it's the client's responsibility to prove his innocence.

Next step is a blockchain-based crypto, controlled only by a single structure, such as Fed. Total control directly by the government, no banks involved. Full access to the history of all purchases and means to immediately lock out anyone who does anything "wrong".

Personally I'm going to move out of the country as soon as it forbids the cash transactions, as I don't want my kids to be slaves to the government.

[yakireev]

> Personally I'm going to move out of the country as soon as it forbids the cash transactions

Which country is it? In many jurisdictions cash transactions are already illegal above certain threshold. It might be that you won't have too many places to go.

[yankoff]

Theoretically, they can lock you out by suspending your passport and preventing you from traveling even if you leave the country. Also they can have full access to your bank records given the warrant and you can't make any serious purchases with cash.

Even in an unlikely apocalyptic scenario you have described they won't gain much more power than they already have. I don't see how this makes you a slave by itself. Only if government begins using this as a tool to control you but then, if we hit such a point, they have much more other tools people have to worry about.

[Towaway69]

I once had this discussion with an economics person and pointed out that if my country moves to a card-only society, then I would move to using USD notes instead.

I'm sure I won't be the only one accepting USD notes as payment.

So really either all countries go card only or people just move to other currencies, at least for certain transactions.

[xadhominemx]

What are you talking about? Deposits that came in via paper money are treated in exactly the same manner as those deposited electronically.

[yankoff]

Cash transactions over $10k have to be reported to the IRS. You'd have to provide ID and TIN. If that weren't the case, criminals wouldn't have had problems with money laundering.