I’ve always been amazed that people go cashless, meaning they literally walk around and even travel without cash, and just rely on cards to pay.
Credit and debit cards are centralized and can be shut off or denied for all sorts of reasons, or can run into technical issues. BTC/LN is better because it’s decentralized, although it still needs power+internet and merchant acceptance. Cash as physical bearer asset money is great. Of course I wish cash was redeemable for something sound, but maybe in the future that’ll be the case again. In the meantime it’s good to have a few meals or taxis or hotel rooms worth of cash on hand.
I always have a diverse mix of digital and physical payment methods on hand, so I never get caught unable to pay.
So far in life I have only had one instance where I couldn’t pay. I was at a restaurant in Cairo a few years ago and their card machine/connection was down, and were only accepting cash. I had physical US dollars but they were part of a bigger corporate restaurant chain and so didn’t have the flexibility to accept them. My husband normally carries Egyptian currency but didn’t have any on him that day, and since he carried it, I previously did not. Neither did our friend that was with us. So we had to go on an awkward search for an ATM for a while and then come back and pay. And from that point I iterated, so I always carry Egyptian currency in Egypt as well as my other methods. And it has come in handy a bunch of times, when my husband needs some spare cash for tips or something I always have a little stockpile ready to go since I am a stickler about always having a certain amount whereas he is more flexible.
I always have a kind of “prepare for everything” type of mentality and like to be in control of my situation, and thus always have like backups for my backups in various contexts, including payment or being able to access various types of value anywhere, even when such preparation is not really needed.
I’d love to know Lyn’s seed storage setup
sounds like terrible opsec to disclose on a public, immutable protocol
Most clipped winged Americans have little idea how the real world works.
Normalcy bias deeply embedded.
Cash is “redeemable” for Bitcoin 😅
Azteco, Bisq… I have yet to complete a transaction with cash. Will do it in the next month.
Lyn I get your newsletter (it's sanity!) . Your mindset/writing is inspiring. Thank you.
Have you seen or know of others that might, examples of BTN/lightening being adopted in smaller villages or hyperlocal economies?
These small(er) scale adoptions of change are very interesting to me and I'd value anything you can share.
Please don't feel the need to reply immediately to this post if nothing jumps to mind. Thanks for considering
I think #goldbacks will start to be accepted by merchants. I could see private sector rolling out goldbacks in their countries. Plus, #goldbacks could be decentralized because many private companies could issue their own #goldback and have competing issuers.
You sound like my parents lol (in a good way). I rarely ever have cash, and have to plan ahead whenever I am traveling or think I might need it.
I’ll forget I even have it sometimes, walking around with a $50 in my wallet from Christmas for 6+ months for example. I pay every bill through the bank, so I just tend to want to be able to see where it’s at at all times.
It's risky to travel some places with loads of cash though. Was on an island of the coast of Mozambique once. It had one ATM that was broken. Paypal saved the day as the lodge we were staying in accepted PayPal. So we paic them extra to pay some of the other activities. It was lucky as the of course knew everyone on the small island.
We kept some cash for when we were back on main land as we had to get someone to drive us out of there. Was fun negotiating as we had just the bare minimum abount for the drive. Since drivers didn't want to take us. One accepted in condition of no ac which we were fine with.
That country uses meticais, ZAR and USD in increasing order of preference. But carrying lots of cash is not always advisable when travelling the way we were doing it.
Anyway if ZAR is a preferred currency you know you've got it rough. BTC should be useful there...
Oh and Germany is the other place you often need cash. Cards are often not accepted at restaurants. Think it has changed in last year or two but or before covid I had gone hunting for ATM to pay for dinner often.
The new generation of young people has little contact with paper money, and basic life can be paid through mobile phones. And it's only my parents' generation who naturally don't trust digital payments. Because they experienced frequent power outages when they were young, they always felt that the mobile phone was just a number, they did not believe in numbers, more believe in physical objects or gold in their hands.
That's why having multiple passports would be great. In case the first one is not accepted, you could provide another one.
Frogs in a pot of boiling water ...
My dad, a self proclaimed "child of the depression", always kept a folded $100 bill tucked inside his wallet, behind the credit card slots. Just in case of an emergency. Today he would need to up that to at least $200.
In Cameroon, where cash is still widely used, there's a serious shortage in coins, and it's been the case for my whole life (I'm not that young anymore!).
With a 10k cfa note (~16 usd), or even a 5k note, you run the danger of not being able to use it, because merchants very often don't have change.
Ironically, despite this major issue, mobile money acceptance was very low for a very long time, initially because it was new tech and people had trust issues, but it is getting better...
I agree with the bearer instrument value of cash, but I hope for a bitcoin technology that can eventually replace it in all but the rarest cases. I would accept the need to have some electrical power for something like NFC. But not be dependent on either party having a connection to the internet or bitcoin peer to peer network, i.e., no cellular or wifi. Maybe fedimint or cashu tech could be an answer? Tap two offline phones together to exchange value? I still value cash, but tap to pay is so sweet!
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BTC does not require internet
There are workarounds but it’s a lot less slick without it.
I had several similar situations flying around the world as an airline pilot.
I always carry some (local) cash with me wherever I go. That said, in certain countries it’s more difficult that in other. Also, you end up with a whole bunch of useless paper if you travel as much as I do, considering that you often can’t spend it all and of the “I’ll keep some for the next time I’m in town” mentality🤣
Once a year I’m at the money exchange to get euros or dollars back, usually loosing some in the exchange rate.
Nevertheless it’s always good to have some cash at hand wherever you go, until everyone accepts our sats over the lightning network!
I’ll take the opportunity to thank Lyn for her always insightful and inspiring contributions, shukran.
When I'm in Jack-Reacher-mode, I also take some gold coins with me... just in case.
I feel like this "be prepared" mentality is the hallmark of a Bitcoiner, though it manifests in many different ways. E.g., I would be shocked to meet a hardcore Bitcoiner who didn't have several days of water set aside.
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Great advice! I was thinking of this on a smaller scale yesterday when I was making purchases at a book fair hosted in a museum. The authors were selling their Zines, Chapter Books, leaflets… etc… I was excited to support the artists who were producing outside the normal means (publishing companies—not that I mind those). Anyway, one artist only accepted Venmo & cash. Luckily, I had cash. Another had all the payment options & I used my Cash App. It made me think about flexibility—
if you're rich and get robbed of a few hundred bucks it's not an issue.
but if you're living paycheck to paycheck and you get robbed you will want to make sure you had as little cash on you as possible.
A good way to be resilient for sure.
Feel similar to this type of prep. Wear it like a blanket. Always knowing where the exits are is an subconscious mantra of mine.
It always comes down to better experience and better brand.
Handling cash sort of sucks, you have to count it manually, it smells weird, you have to have enough of it physically with you, it can be stolen or lost, it's not practical for large value (e.g. buying house).
If majority of people don't experience the issues with centralized plastic cards, they will prefer those to cash.
Now I'm excited about Bitcoin solutions with NFC cards and phones.
For example, I reprogrammed Hyatt hotel key card to be "tap-to-pay" Bitcoin gift card (using lnurlw) and the experience is great. I just tap someone's phone, it automatically opens their LN wallet and they get the sats... ⚡
I am cashless and happy about it.
Any cash I touch automatically gets put into a non kyc bitcoin atm. Thats my rule.
When you live in a disaster prone area you learn to do this. But then you get northern commies move down who don't do that and are helpless when the hurricane hits. Freaking commies.
100% mind boggling
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Its also a symptom of people having less disposable income. If someone has 30 dollars in their account and needs to pay for a small upcoming bill the next day from their bank, if they pay for groceries and transport by debit card today they're more likely to have enough to pay the bill tomorrow. Having spare cash around assumes that you're working with a surplus 😂
I am exactly the same way. $200-500 and multiple digital apps. About 10 years ago we were having an extreme heat wave here in San Diego and the grid went down for 12 hours. The stores would only accept cash and only let a few people in the store at a time. Even though we were well prepared with supplies and I was able to go and purchase much more in case the power was out much longer.
I had a similar experience of payment failure in the Dominican Republic. I took my friend to a high end restaurant for a very long late dinner and was unable to pay with my card, my only option.
One of the waiters drove me around Santo Doming on his motorbike until we found an ATM. 😂
It was half embarrassment, half adventure.
100%. I always have a goos amount of small denominations of cash on me, as some vendors don't have the change for big bills. Also, some vendors like taxi drivers are notorious for pretending like they don't have change for a big bill, hoping the passenger will just make the change the full tip.
Cash is King.
Change my mind.
Oh. You can’t. Nvm.
Cash is King. Only if you don't hold it for very long. Stash it in a mattress or buried in the ground, and it might be worth nothing by the time you get back to it..🧡😊
I would say now is an ok time to start burying, and it doesn’t have to be the dollar
This is so wise. In the same vein, I've always been amazed that so many wealthy people don't do basic risk management. As soon as I made money as a kid, I began using that money to get training in basic outdoor and survival skills such as how to address extended periods of time without food. Even if I never need these skills, I feel better all the time being a bit more grounded.
Great approach Lyn, I try to be also always prepared.
On the other hand there are definitely some cases when going with just phone/watch is more comfortable, like local groceries etc.
Best money, in order (IMHO):
- Bitcoin - To save
- Cash (whatever it was) - To pay
- Bank money (cards, processing payments, et alia) - Last resort
Agreed. I use cash for as much as I can in non-online interactions. Parking meters where you can use cash are quickly disappearing here in the UK, which is a major bug bear of mine. Even worse, they require you to pay online by downloading an app. Even card payments at the machine are not allowed (or rather, there often is no machine).
It just shows how you only start to miss something once it is taken away from you.
Before I discovered Bitcoin I was one of those people who thought cashless transactions are a great idea. Ironic really that Bitcoin enlightened me on this point but such are the rabbit holes that it sends us down.
To conclude - use cash and Bitcoin wherever possible.
Personally, I’m almost always cashless. Can’t say it’s the most sensible thing to do, but yet I do. Probably because card payments are very convenient. Especially when cards are used with Apple Pay, which means that the actual plastic cards are more of a backup. I can only remember one time last year that I had to rush from a store to an ATM due to some kind of network issues… but it’s very rare. I wonder what would be the equivalent of physical cash in a hyperbitcoinized world? For situations where there is no internet or mobile connectivity available 🤔
Something similar happened to me. I was at a restaurant, it was a small chinese place, and their cards reader froze and didn't work. I didn't had cash on me as this was my lunch break and I knew they always take cards.
I was amazed how much the waitress was prepared. I told her that I don't have cash and she told me I can to pay with immediate bank transfer.
She took out a phone and made a invoice with QR code. I scanned the code from my bank app and in a few seconds it was done... Just like LN 😀
There is always a solution to any problem. I usually don't carry cash because, let's face it, the coins are heavy. I might have a few bills here and there but so many places accept credit cards nowadays, having an assortment of visa and master card, debit and credit plus the option to book fares and hotels online, is usually good enough for the first few days. Afterward I can still go to the ATM and get those bills if need be.
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