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China Is On Track To Fully Phase Out Cash (vice.com)

An anonymous reader shares an excerpt from a report via Motherboard: Experts believe it won't be long before China, the first country to introduce paper money, becomes the first to go totally cashless. In a poky sex toy shop in Sanlitun shopping district in central Beijing, a placard with a QR code is strategically placed next to a pink, vein-knobbled dildo called the Super Emperor, and a clitoral pump. Just scan your phone, and walk out with your purchase. The cigarette vendor across the street accepts smartphone payments too. A fast-moving queue of customers purchase smokes by scanning their phones over a tatty cardboard QR code. All the bars in Sanlitun, equal parts seedy and swish, still take cash, but have likewise implemented cashless pay, largely through the ubiquitous WeChat and Alipay app, as primary payment platforms. Beijing taxi drivers accept smartphone payments too. No one in the area uses physical money, for sex toys or otherwise. Largely due to China's vibrant fintech landscape, the recent rise of phone payments in the country has shunted cash onto the endangered list, perhaps somewhere alongside the pangolin. Many experts believe it won't be long before China, the first country to introduce paper money, also becomes the first to phase it out to become fully cashless. But when will this moment come?

4 of 212 comments (clear)

  1. Obvious takeaway from TFA by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 5, Funny

    The author is hung up on sex toys - and possibly cigarettes.

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    #DeleteChrome
  2. Re:Phasing out cash is a great tool for totalitari by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Great, so instead of getting a trial by jury, I am most likely to lose at great cost and expense for growing a coca or cannabis plant or poppy pod, I am likely to skip the 'fair trial' and go right to the organ harvesting.

    Sounds like an improvement...

  3. Re:people without phones by Calydor · · Score: 4, Funny

    "Hi, yeah. I dropped my phone and it smashed, I need to buy a new one."

    "Okay, no problem! Just swipe your phone here to pay for the new phone!"

    "But my phone is destroyed ..."

    "Sucks to be you, you're OUT of the game forever!"

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    -=This sig has nothing to do with my comment. Move along now=-
  4. Re:China wants us to believe... by thegarbz · · Score: 4, Funny

    UBS-C allows you to charge a phone from another phone. It's phones all the way down.