- Politco makes it sound much bigger than it actually is.
Only two things are now secured in the constitution:
- The franc is the national currency
- The swiss national bank is responsible for the supply of cash.
This doesn't have any effect in practice, since this is straight up copy and paste from the law about currency.
This change only means that a change requires a mandatory referendum rather than having to launch a referendum.
It does nothing about acceptance of cash, afaik that initiative failed to reach the neccesary support to be voted on.
- Not surprised by the 73%. Even people who never carry cash anymore can see the problem with going fully digital — you're one outage or one policy change away from not being able to buy groceries. Cash doesn't need wifi, doesn't need approval, doesn't go down for maintenance.
The 30% usage stat makes it even more interesting. These aren't cash diehards. These are people who tap their card for everything but still don't want the analog option killed off. You protect the thing you might need, not just the thing you use every day.
by iamnothere
1 subcomments
- Fantastic news. I don’t mind digital payments as an option, but without a guarantee like this, gatekeepers will always be motivated to kill off cash.
by SilverElfin
2 subcomments
- We need this in America. I am increasingly seeing stores see that they do not accept cash. But it is also in public services. For example, transit systems where the only option is to use a smart phone because they’re getting rid of the cards that you could previously get from a kiosk.
- Not mentioned - not unlike Finland's home emergency supply kits, having a cash-based backup payment system is an important part of national resilience.
- I contrast this with all then noise about megacorps passing private information to law enforcement, age verification, when discussing how (method of payment) we pay for services actually makes so much difference when facing these attempts at policing what is done online
by 7777777phil
0 subcomment
- This is the defensive complement to what the EU is doing offensively with Wero and/or Digital Euro. Different direction but payment sovereignty is the same strategic impulse..
by like_any_other
0 subcomment
- Meanwhile Canadian government funded media research organizations are tarring resistance to going cashless as conspiratorial:
They argue that digitization will enable governments to monitor financial transactions, restrict purchases, travel, and access to healthcare, freeze accounts, and punish people for exceeding their carbon limits or for dissent.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47299410
by nine_zeros
0 subcomment
- [dead]
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