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."

Comments

Re:Abandon all your cash

[naz404]

While we're at it, I propose the removal of the artificial rounding off of citizens' bank accounts to 2 digits after the decimal point.

It is an outdated model stuck on physical money and a scam run by institutions pocketing the fractions (think salami slicing).

The rise of "paperless" money, rapid currency exchange fluctuations + digital microtransactions at consumer level have made this very feasible.

I want my bank account to be able to say ".0238538327" after the whole numbers' place. If I make games, I want to be able to sell virtual goods at $0.00056 per transaction if I want to. When your audience is the entire internet, small amounts like that can rack up to substantial numbers. I want institutions 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.

I mean in this age of digital, how much does it cost to actually make/record/monitor a transaction when everything's already digital?

Any takers? Maybe this is an opportunity to create a new startup. Maybe this is a niche that can challenge Paypal. Take it. Run away with the idea. I don't care who implements it, as long as it gets implemented.