[ithkuil]

I don't know but I find it very practical to not carry piles of cash in my pocket and home and know that we're less likely to get robbed just because of the cash we have.

I don't know how true the relationship between the cashless lifestyle and safety actually is, but it works and I feel ok; I'm not sure that the prospect of a few hours of national blackout once in 20 years will make me change my mind significantly.

[j1elo]

Today I was able to walk into a grocery store, pay for food, and go home to have a warm lunch (having a gas stove also helped tremendously). The matter was having a 10€ note at home. Not what I'd call "piles of cash".

As an added benefit, no bank knows where I bought and when, which I find is a great advantage over the alternatives. (I also use Gpay; this comes from someone who just found a good middle point without forgetting about the more reliable, physical and privacy friendly option)

[ithkuil]

I think I have 10€ laying around at all times, possibly in loose change between my home and car. I do not always walk around with that in my pocket and I never have more than 500€ at home.

I didn't mean literally zero cash, but once the bulk of your transactions are by card, you don't need to constantly go to the ATM and replenish your cash reserves

[j1elo]

And I myself didn't mean that I happened to have a measly 10€ note at home, I normally have around 300 minimum, to spend organically on purchases.

Of course I get that carrying coins and notes is cumbersome, but if we've managed to live all through the 80's and 90's with it, I think we can manage to keep doing it. 100% digital money is giving up on a huge level of self-determination and privacy that I wouldn't feel comfortable with, but I guess as newer generations grow up already pre-adoctrinated and not being able to compare the before-and-after, in the end society will end giving up.

[ithkuil]

I got my first cell phone as a full bearded adult so I do remember the times where you carried cash and the time you could actually meet people in places without having to constantly update one's position.

I don't think it's just a generational divide.

I do understand the privacy and self-determination problems of a cashless society but I have to admit I'm just to weak-minded to care about that in practice; the practicality of just paying even for just coffee with my phone is just too big for me to care for it.

[diggan]

> the time you could actually meet people in places without having to constantly update one's position

Not sure I understand how that's different than today? You set a time and place, then you meet there, are people doing more than that today? Seems the youngsters understand this concept as well as older people, at least from the people I tend to meet like that.

> the practicality of just paying even for just coffee with my phone is just too big for me to care for it.

Interestingly enough, no matter if you had cash or card yesterday you couldn't get a coffee anywhere, as none of the coffee machines had power and even in the fancier places where they could have made the coffee without power, they didn't have electricity for the grinder itself, so no coffee even for them.

[ithkuil]

> You set a time and place, then you meet there, are people doing more than that today?

no, today people are continuously updating you about their whereabouts and assume you can just change time, place continuously and if you don't have the phone people get lost and panic. Ok I'm exaggerating of course, but there is a grain of truth in this

[layman51]

It does seem safer to not carry cash. However, I remember around May 2024 that there were some reported incidents in Chicago were in the early morning hours, there were some groups of robbers who would force victims to do something I found especially worrying: they would be forced into resetting their phone password and logging into their mobile banking app. I’m not sure what ended up happening in these cases.

[artursapek]

Cash is extremely easy to conceal. fear of burglary is a ridiculous reason not to have some saved for a rainy day

[AStonesThrow]

More or less.

I once used an aggregator app to summon a handyman to my place. My request was simple: move two pieces of furniture around my very small apartment.

So I find a reputable service within the app, I schedule it, and they send a guy. He shows up to my door breathless, with some kind of sob story about a vehicle breakdown. I dismiss that out of hand and he gets to work. He did a fine job and it didn't take very long.

Then we get to the point of settling up, so I announce I'm going to pay in the app. He looks really disappointed and says he usually takes cash. I realized at this point that he was ready to shake me down, and also he would incidentally be discovering where I stashed my cash, when I reached for it with him there in the room. So disappointed. So I send the money out in the app and I show the confirmation screen to the guy. And I felt so bad that I followed up with a tip in the same fashion.

But at the end of the day he was just a garden-variety cash-in-hand scammer and I had no reason to feel guilty, because I had unwittingly outwitted him by trusting the app. And the company had no qualms about it.

Another time, I had a very short cab ride to the laundry. And it did not take long for the driver to spin a gigantic tale about his auntie addicted to gambling used up all their savings and they was really hurting for money. I was shifting uncomfortably wondering why I was hearing this. So the cabbie parks the car and his POS machine shuts off. He's like "oh it's out of order" so here he is, shaking me down and expecting me to go fetch cash to put in his grubby hands.

I stared him up and down, started taking photos, and got out of there. I discussed with dispatch. They said if he's not accepting cards and I intended to pay by card, I owe him nothing.

So again a cash-in-hand sob-story scammer was foiled. The cab service was crazy enough to assign him to pick me up additional times. This is why I ride Waymo, folks!!!

[phil21]

This might be one of the most paranoid things I've ever read on HN.

The laborer was simply trying to actually get paid vs. deal with the overhead of the app. Somewhat shady perhaps - since it routes around the company taking their cut for finding him the work, and likely avoids taxes. I've paid these sorts of guys cash every single time I've used such a service and exactly zero of them have "shook me down" or cared where I stored the money. They make so little already I'm happy to help them out with a smile.

Cabbies simply want cash for pretty much the same reason. They get charged an astronomical "service fee" by the cab company, and likely are avoiding taxes as well. I agree that such a situation is more shady in general, but I've actually had (NYC) cops side with cabbies on this topic and force me to go get cash at the ATM or get arrested. I also use car services now over cabs whenever possible due to this reason - mostly for convenience, never out of fear of being robbed though.

The chances of you getting mugged/stolen from for using cash are just the same as the chances of you getting mugged for no apparent reason walking home. Perhaps the collective dis-use of cash has reduced these odds, but you specifically is utterly irrelevant.

[artursapek]

Lol what? How do you know either of these guys were trying to rob you? They prefer cash because they can take it under the table and not report it for taxes. Everybody knows that.

[AStonesThrow]

> take it under the table

Yes, well, I choose not to participate in shady shit like that. Is that OK that I prefer to make transactions as laid out by their employer and not every random guy?

> happy to help them out with a smile

So you choose to be knowingly complicit in tax-avoidance schemes. That's fine; you do you, but some of us steer clear of shady shit, just on principle, you know? Perhaps the company deserves their cut as well -- they get paid so little already, amirite?

Also if there was nothing unusual about their choice of payment, then why must they regale me with these shitty sob stories? Am I supposed to be moved to tears at their hardship and heroism at making it to my door, that I must promptly cover their expenses? They are not panhandlers, they are service providers.

No, I ordered a service and I pay for the value of the service, according to the Company's rates. The cab company was clear about it: either I pay how I want to or I don't owe them. Nobody's arresting me for refusing to fork over cash. That's a scam.

That's not the only time I was cash-scammed by a cab driver. They will pull every trick in the book, and surely they compare and trade notes on their marks.

It gets even worse: my simple insistence on transacting with the cab company earned me fake receipts. Yes, they faked every receipt that they sent me in email. The totals were all fudged down to be much smaller than what I paid, including a $0 tip. It was very very obvious, especially when the rides booked in the app were generating duplicates showing different calculations. I reported it twice to their backend developers and they said that there were some coding errors in device drivers; please stand by for a fix. LOL!

That's a scam to ensure that taxpayers can't get reimbursed for out-of-pocket medical expenses. Most/all cab companies provide NEMT services as well, and they can't stand when people go outside of insurance companies. So they falsified my receipts.

And again, that's why I trust Waymo.