I wrote a long series of tweets about cash:
Cash transactions are not as bad
A few things to add:
- Cash transactions are not useful for long distance transactions. It actually sucks. (Not reliable, not exact and so on)
- Larger transactions are a little more difficult with cash that with other mechanisms, because of the unwieldy nature of cash in larger quantities. However, it continues to be a useful payment mechanism for the illiterate, and with a Rs. 2,000 note even what is unwieldy is gone.
- Cash has another big use: it is accepted everywhere. You can make interpersonal payments, business payments, small payments, donations – all of them with the same instrument.
- The other payment systems are useful for specific purposes – NEFT and online transactions for business payments, some wallets or NEFT for small interpersonal payments when you have distance, cheques for advance payments and so on. Cash isn’t as convenient for some of these purposes.
