By what I mean by cashless society is where currency (paper money and coin) are all but eliminated for all financial transactions. Most financial transactions will be handled by electronic transfers through the use of debit cards, etc. I forsee the time when it will be illegal to use currency (paper money or coin) to purchase anything over $1.00. Any financial transaction over $1.00 will have to be done by a electronic transfer.

Well I don't think they'll ever make it illegal to use hard currency.

They'll just make it inaccessible, sort of like how you no longer buy a used car with 8 head of cattle.

But I don't believe they'll actually do away with paper money, it's harder to counterfeit than it is to hack into a computer

Sure, it'll be done away with in order to stymie black marketers, drug traffikers and the like.

Go ahead, try and buy that musch needed and totally illegal (statutorially, anyway) firearm by government-issued debit card!

The point is not to stymie criminals. The point is to be able to track financial transfers. I made the point before - assets held in banks are easily seized by the government. In the coming day of electronic transfer, the IRS can totally wipe you out and never leave their office. They just type your SSN into the computer and the financial records of the entire country will be searched for your accounts. All of 30 milliseconds later, you are broke.

[Edited on 21-5-2003 by jagdflieger]