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by throwaway22032 289 days ago
Budgeting with the data trail of a card is significantly easier if you have a lot of transactions.

It's also generally cheaper due to cashback and other incentives.

Other than that I've always found the idea that cash is "inconvenient" a bit of a child-like argument. Okay, yeah, you have to count some coins, you also have to brush your teeth and use a knife and fork instead of your hands, come on.
3 comments
beeflet 289 days ago
The necessity of making change is major usability/privacy/fungibility roadblock that shows up in more than just cash. For example, it presents a problem for chaumian e-cash or other private money systems like pre-MLSAG monero.

If it's possible to do the equivalent of cash, but with some sort of smartcards that exchange some sort of offline zero-knowlege proofs, then that would be preferable over physical cash, because it could eliminate the need for change or marked bills and it would be even more private.

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dlcarrier 289 days ago
Most of the places I shop charge a credit card fee that's far more than cashback would get you, so oftan that benefit is moot.
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theamk 289 days ago
We improve our life with technology all the time. Electric lights, refrigerator, AC, washing machine, dishwasher, electric toothbrush...

Nothing "child-like" in trying to make your life better, even in small ways.

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throwaway22032 289 days ago
Sure.

I suppose my argument is along the following lines - books are too cumbersome so let's scroll Instagram instead.

It's a fake argument, it's not that big a deal, you just didn't care enough about reading books.

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XorNot 289 days ago
Why would I care about how I pay for things though? You're the one saying I should value some particular method over others. But the reality is I don't care at all: I'm trying to buy milk and go home.
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throwaway22032 289 days ago
Because there are significant privacy benefits and benefits in removing the middlemen etc.

If you don’t care, you don’t care. I gave up a long time ago too. In that case it would be annoying enough if the privacy preserving card were just 1cm longer or something that you wouldn’t use it.

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