Today we are talking about cash and cashless society.
One day back in 2011 or 2012, I was in the Dallas Airport admiring a very cool leather satchel. The worn leather had aged well through loving use. I was clearly not your average leather bag.
The man who was carrying this bag was in the rental car shuttle bus line at the Dallas Airport. I did not him. I complemented him on this bag.
His eyes grew wide. He looked at me, looked at the bag. Back at me. He was speechless.
I hit a nerve.
I could not have imagined what made that bag so special as to trigger such a response.
It turns out I was chatting up Mr. Roberto Griori, the reclusive man who owned the market on 90% of the world’s printing of paper money. He was the third richest man in Switzerland, a third-generation owner of the company that made the printing presses that 90% of the world’s currencies were printed on.
The bag I complemented was with him the day he was hijacked and forced to land in India. He immediately told me all of the details of how he hid his identity from the hijackers, secretly communicated with armed forces ready to storm the plane, and kept calm while fearing he would most certainly have been targeted if they really knew who he was.
That leather satchel brough forth a flood of memories that he shared with me, standing waiting for our rental cars.
My kind complement of his weathered back brought back all the memories of that day. He shared with me the details, the intrigue, the events leading up to, during, and after the brazen hijacking. He shared his side of the story. It was a breathtaking story. You can read about it here.
He spoke with passion about that critical juncture of his life. He had a brush with death and he said it changed him.
Changed him to the point that he was careful to read the future into every thing he did.
His job was to run the company that sold printing presses. He was even chagrined to point out that his printing presses made it to North Korea where the illegal counterfeit money was as goood as the real thing because it was printed on the same machines! (That’s why the forgeries were so good.)
After he shared the terrifying story of being held hostage at gunpoint with blood-thirsty terrorists, he shared his point of view about paper money. Or rather, the demise of paper money. The company that had brought him his fortune, was going away he said.
I met Mr. Griori when he had just sold his business. Or was thinking about selling it. I cannot recall which.
What I recall is the passion he had for electronic currency and the conviction that paper money was going the way of the dinosaur and stage coach.
He was so passionate about this that we spent the next two hours talking about digital currency. Standing in the lobby of the rental car terminal at the Dallas Airport.
Today, I argue that most of us have access to some sort of digital currency. A debit card. A PayPay account. Pasmo/Suica.
Electronic forms of payment are everywhere.
In Africa they have mPesa. In the US, we have PayPal and debit cards. In Japan, PayPay, dPay, and other electronic currencies have proliferated. In Seattle they tried to implement “No cash” rules at some businesses (but were shot down).
Without mentioning block chain currency such as BitCoin and Ethereum, digital currencies are seemingly become the standard worldwide.
Difficult to steal: You can try to hijack my account, but otherwise, stealing my “card” does not mean you have my money. I can turn off the card and keep my money.
Difficult to hide transactions: Governments love being able to see all the transactions so they can take their taxes.
Dividing line that means: Those without electonic forms of tranacting currency might be left behind. Especially older and less technologically savvy people. They may unwittingly give away their accounts to unsrupulous criminals.
The bottom line is that digital currency is here. It is convenient. And you should have some of those accounts now so you are ready for the digital future.
Be sure to help someone else go digital too.
Along with the caveats that someone will always try to steal your account and password combination. If someone tries to scare you, good chance it is not your bank. Good chance that is a crook getting you nervous so that you give them your money.
Stay safe.
Tell me, what electronic means of transfering money do you use?
Judy子の超絶意訳:
今日は変わりゆく世界…と言う事で話を進めていきましょう。あなたは現金派ですか？ 考えてみて下さい! 現金の無いキャッシュレスな世界。すでに現金を持ち歩く習慣は消えつつありますよね。
2018年米国ではデビットカード（銀行発行の即時決済カードでチャージすることなく現金みたいに使える）が現金を抜いて最も利用されている支払い方法になり、その次はクレジットカードとなりました。クレジットカードのせいで多くの負債を抱える人も多く、これについてはまたの機会に話したいと思います。
日本ではさまざまなQRコード決済が盛んですよね、私も以前は殆どの支払いを現金で行っていましたが最近は現金はあまり持ち歩きません。アフリカにはmペイと言う携帯電話を使った電子決済サービスが普及し以前は送金代が高かったアフリカ中に容易にお金を送れるようになりました。イーロン・マスクとピーター・ティールは決済サービスPayPayを作りそれを追随するように多くのライバル企業が電子決済サービスを推し進めています。
銀行からすると現金が使われなくなると誰がお金を持つかコントロール出来なくなるので、彼らも電子決済市場に割り込もうと必死です。
各国政府も電子決済サービスが大好きです。電子決済だとお金の流れが記録として残るので脱税されにくくなるのです。
現金がなくなるとお金も盗まれにくくなります。盗まれにくく…というか電子決済の番号やアクセスコードを盗まれると言う形になるわけで、気づいたらその口座を凍結して守る事ができます。つまり人のお金を盗む形態が変わって、フィッシング詐欺などが横行し銀行や大手ネットショップの名前を語り心配を煽る恐ろしいメールを送りつけてきたりします。ですがこれらのメールには絶対に答えないで下さい。銀行はそんな怖いメールは送ってきません。心当たりのない怖い話はフィッシング詐欺です。
以前スイスで3番目に大金持ちな人と話をする機会がありました。彼のビジネスはお金の印刷機です。世界中のお金の造幣は北朝鮮の偽物のお金までも彼の会社の印刷機で作られていました。彼はその会社の三代目の社長でしたが、2011年だったか2012年だったか彼は当時すでに『現金は死んだ』と話していました。私たちはそれについて2時間くらい話しましたが彼の信念を証明するかのように彼はその会社を売却しました。
と言うことで今日の話は以上です。