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In the near future, cash could become obsolete, and your phone could completely replace your wallet.
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Mobile payments, which are already commonplace in numerous countries worldwide, are steadily gaining traction.
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In China's biggest cities, ninety-two percent of people use WeChat Pay or Alipay, the market's main competitors,
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and mobile payments are accepted by restaurants, retailers, street vendors, and even taxis.
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More broadly, in 2018, the mobile money industry completed 1.3 billion dollars of transactions daily across ninety countries.
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This underscores a shift toward a cashless society dominated by electronic banking and digital finance, where physical transactions like bartering are virtually non-existent.
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Proponents for a cashless system believe that digital money increases convenience and could reduce robbery and counterfeiting,
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while opponents argue that it endangers privacy and hurts disadvantaged communities that rely on cash.
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And while many of the long-term consequences of cashlessness remain to be seen, the movement towards a cashless society seems highly likely, if not inevitable.