More and more everyday things are coming in digital form now, money included.
Jamaica is adopting its own version of the digital currency this month, joining a short but growing list of nations that are hoping to ditch the banknote for good in favour of virtual money.
Well, to be clear, it’s not virtual in the sense that it’s not real money. You could buy things with it. But there will be no more crisp notes coming out of the ATM.
The Caribbean nations have been at the forefront of the change from notes and coins to bits and bytes.
Making payments in digital form is not exactly a recent phenomenon. It was first conceived in 1983 as a method of payment that did not require physically handing over cash to another person. It came to be known as electronic money, or simply “eCash”.
The first digital currency that did not come under the jurisdiction of any central bank was Bitcoin, first minted in 2009. Several followed suit.
In some countries where cryptocurrencies have begun to threaten the authority of the
central banks, governments have responded by introducing their own digital money. Ecuador took the first byte … bite … in 2015.
Several more countries have gone the electronic way. Apart from Ecuador, on the digital train are the Bahamas, El Salvador, Nigeria and Grenada.
China has been working on developing its own digital currency since 2014, but it has yet to come into circulation.
On the other hand, Malaysia has chosen to stick with the traditional way. At the recently concluded Dewan Rakyat meeting, MPs were told that Putrajaya has ruled out adopting cryptocurrency as legal tender.
One could see that as a lack of foresight. It’s almost like paying for purchases with cowry shells when others are already using banknotes.
The government could have at least adopted a wait-and-see attitude.
After all, even in countries where the use of virtual money is highly recommended by the authorities, the enthusiasm has been less fervent at the ground level.
Many countries have had to offer incentives to woo their people to trade in their leather wallets for the electronic purse.
In Jamaica, the government has promised to give the first 100,000 adopters 2,500 Jamaican dollars each upon them logging in. That’s equivalent to RM73.
If science fiction is an intimation of things to come, digital currency will eventually be the standard legal tender.
Notes and coins will become museum pieces … items of curiosity for those born in the new era.
ATMs will become obsolete.
How much more incentives it will take to drive humanity into the digital realm is anybody’s guess.
Seventy-three ringgit may be a tad too little. - FMT
The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.