Slashdot Mirror
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?
I've toured rural China with my Wife's family.
In which century? China's economy has risen eight-fold in the last few decades. You might want to visit again.
Most folks outside the big cities only have power during the day
Nonsense. There may be a few remote villages that still use generators, but that is not "most people". For 99% of Chinese, grid electricity is available and reliable.
Their payment system doesn't rely on wall-power anyway. It is based on phones and the cellular network, which, btw, is faster, more reliable, and more ubiquitous than it is in America.
I was in Shanghai earlier this year, and I hired a handyman to fix my toilet. When he was finished, he popped up a QR code on his phone, I scanned it with my phone, and the bill was paid.
I would rather have a US $100 dollar bill than an electronic promise to pay me.
Wechat is not a credit based system. You tap, and there is an immediate transfer of money from your account to mine. No "promise" is involved.
In Europe interchange is more like 0,2 - 0,3% per transaction, which means 2-3 EUR per every thousand EUR spent - acceptable for all but the poorest. China has limits on interchange at 0,35 - 0,45%. Its only the US that commonly has fees about 5-10 times higher...
link about limits in China:
http://www.paymentlawadvisor.c...
sorry bill but this is just not true.
I too lived in Shanghai. But China is a big country and it is a huge difference between Shanghai and some of the smaller inland cities. Not to mention real rural areas.
And even in Shanghai, cash is prevalent, more than in the EU city I now live. The main reason to use electronic payments is the nuisance of paying any significant amount with 100 RMB bills.
But try to go to a lokal market as any not upper middle class native and you will see cash everywhere.
Those who insist on not having a bank account are those who want to skip alimony payments.
Nice strawman, fuckface. Go off yourself.
Actually, he has a point. I worked in payroll over a decade and that was the large majority of them.
China has barely implemented a slightly functional credit card system. As with most stories from there, don't believe 99% of it. And of course its all about tracking people, not helping them.
"In which century? China's economy has risen eight-fold in the last few decades. You might want to visit again."
This fucking century. I do tons of business with China and once you get outside the major city areas it's fucking dirt poor rural areas.
Perhaps you should try looking for real Chinese culture instead of sticking your ass in the metro areas.
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.