Going Cashless In Malaysia

alvinauh (69)in #cashless • 6 years ago

It was the usual crazy morning for any parent. Crying babies, preparing breakfast and of course grocery shopping. After sending my children to school, I headed to the market for some grocery shopping. Before I arrived, I noticed that I did not have enough cash. Instead of heading to the nearest ATM machine, I thought to myself, I'm into cryptocurrency, I am the future, I can definitely go cashless in Malaysia!

Thus, the self-challenge undertaken by many bloggers and social media influencers was accepted by me. No one put me up to it, but I was curious if I can survive by going cashless. After a brief 15 minutes of grocery shopping for the week, I approached the counter, ready to pay for my bills. I thought I started my challenge by asking if I can pay in Cryptocurrency.

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Paying With Cryptocurrency

I asked the lady at the counter if I could pay in Bitcoin. The middle-aged lady, looked groggy, probably from all the partying during Chinese new year did not seem to be in a good mood. She looked at me with a puzzled look and replied," No, no, no, you can't pay with a little BIT of COIN! You must pay in CASH!" I corrected her and asked if she accepted any cryptocurrency. She said "Huh? What Cryptocurrency? Is it a scam? You better pay now before I call the police!"

With a sigh, I handed over my credit card. Seeing absolutely no hope in paying with cryptocurrency. As I was keying in my pin number for my credit card, I thought that I should at least evangelize about cryptocurrency, maybe even get her on Steemit. Heck, I'm sure she uses Facebook and Instagram, surely Steemit would be an easy sell into the world of Cryptocurrency.

As I looked up at her to strike a conversation, she waved me off and shouted. "NEXT!"

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There goes my moment. I suppose there are still many businesses who have not come to accept cryptocurrency. Perhaps I should try out other means.

Boost

Aside from paying with cryptocurrency, paying with Boost seemed to be the next best thing. Many shops have started popping up accepting this app which gives some cool cashback. I once had RM88 cashback for paying my bills. That money was later spent on burgers (Don't judge me, they were really good burgers).

Anyway, Boost works because of the mass adoption by many businesses especially in where I live. So I thought that I could very much go cashless with just this app. I could for a few establishments until I had to buy from a shop located at the basement level of a mall.

Internet connection was very bad and the cashier and I had a very long awkward moment. We were both staring at my phone, avoiding eye contact as the app started processing the payment for almost 30 seconds before failing. After trying multiple times and a few awkward conversations on how the weather was, I gave up. Thank God they accepted my credit card too.

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You can get use my Invite Code: alvojml. https://myboost.app.link/Nb3vnwGxfU Image source

Conclusion

So yay, I went cashless and did it! Unfortunately, I was only able to do so on a credit card. But hey, the end justifies the means. I think there is a very important lesson that I have learned from all this.

There have been many apps and platforms that have tried promoting their payment platform to businesses, offering cashbacks and great deals. However, many of the cryptocurrency platforms have not gotten there yet. In fact, I think if Steem or any other cryptocurrency platform were to go around promoting the use of its platform like how Boost does it, mass adoption can be achieved fairly quickly.

As such, I am sure that the future is cashless. But for now, I can't give up on my credit card. At least, not yet.