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Estonian Economist Suggests Abandoning Cash

J-Georg writes "Raul Eamets, professor of macroeconomics at the University of Tartu, proposed today during his TEDx talk that Estonia should stop using cash at all when adopting the Euro as the national currency (Estonian original). He also pointed out that abandoning cash would not be only important for the Estonian economy as a whole but also is a real challenge for both IT and banking sectors and would also improve Estonia's image as an IT-tiger."

2 of 454 comments (clear)

  1. Might I suggest an alternative currency by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Leaves might be a better choice. Given the country's forests every citizen would become quite wealthy overnight and it wouldn't require any additional infrastructure. I believe the next US Congress will be considering adopting leaves in the next session as the new US currency since leaves are worth more than the dollar.

  2. Re:Abandon all your cash by Ethanol-fueled · · Score: 5, Funny

    While we're at it, I propose the removal of the artificial limitations of citizens' double precision data to 16 digits with a floating decimal point.

    It is an outdated model stuck on cheap hardware and a scam run by institutions paid by institutions pocketing the fractions (think salami slicing).

    I want my bank account to be able to say ".0287863987569328746598137649582736985555726938475629835576459837" after the whole numbers' place. If I make games, I want to be able to sell virtual goods at $0.000000000000000000000000056 per transaction if I want to. When your audience is the entire internet and even very poor bushmen from Africa are on it, small amounts like that can rack up to pay for my six-pack. I want computer manufacturers to be able to do that for me affordably, and I want to see that number reflect in my account instead of being thrown away.