It's 2018, and most of us still buy and sell using currency notes (and coins...), but with the advent of debit cards, credit cards, cryptocurrencies, it's becoming increasingly uncertain if physical monies would still remain with us in future.

Cashless alternatives to money have been embraced by an increasing number of people and that might be precedent to the phasing out of physical cash. People find it a lot easier to perform transactions using cashless alternatives, and a bit "economical" too!, These reasons have earned the cashless policy quite some popularity and some level of confidence from the world population. What, then, is the fate of physical currency notes?

Physical currencies are printed (minted) legal tenders accepted for trade and business. Its features (portability, physicality, etc) makes it a good means for exchange but inefficient in large amounts. However, the one peculiar advantage it has is that it's not essentially traceable and buyers and sellers still have some level of anonymity with trading with currency notes (although this is generally viewed as an advantage, it can actually have some negative effects too).

The advent of "virtual money" has largely improved the efficiency of legal tenders no matter how large the amount is; people can now store monetary values virtually -something that thrills, sort of- Conversely, transactions are heavily related to the persons concerned -buying and selling using "virtual money" would have some sort of records somewhere, and depending on what hands these records are in, buyers and sellers can be exposed to both authorized and unauthorized supervision, not to mention the possibility of these records being illegally exploited.

In spite of the seeming security and privacy issues, more people are opting for the cashless solutions. For instance, a country such as Kenya has gone far with mobile payments solutions (exchange of money done over mobile devices) such that majority of its citizens use them to buy most of the things they want. With the proliferation of NFC-enabled smartphones in the US and Europe, it is now common to see consumers pay using their smartphones at POS systems: services such as Apple Pay and Google Pay have further made cashless payments as effortless as can be.

Conclusively, it is expected to see cashless means of exchange -cryptocurrencies too- dominating the future, but, the phaseout of physical currencies is going to be a slow one, given the considerable level of confidence physical money still enjoy amongst the world population; you still can't beat the feeling you get when you see some *real* money in your wallet!

From: https://medium.com/@adeboyewareez

No! At least, not in our generation. Not until NFC systems are chipped into smartphone and widely accepted as a means of payment. The speed at which modern technology advances was deliberately abated by Tech nerds. Some technologies will make humans to loose their worth, ethics and value. We're gradually creating life into these technology. If we don't step with caution, the whole system might be hijacked from us.