Denmark Moves Toward No Cash
According to a report by Bloomberg, Denmark’s central bank has stopped printing banknotes and, by the end of December 2016, will have shut down its last mint.
While a handful of countries are moving to a cashless society, Scandinavia is by far the leader and is often called out for being a trailblazer in moving to a cashless society. Bloomberg noted Denmarkand Sweden are among the countries with the lowest percentage of notes and coins that are in circulation.
I'm cautious in these regards. I would like to learn more about this move. While I embrace digital currency and find it to have an excellent potential, I trust neither Governments nor banks too much. Someone once said that Government is like fire, very useful as long as it is small and controlled. I would question what is behind this decision to eliminate hard currency - for once all currency becomes 0's and 1's and is under the control of either banks or government, then all kinds of not-so-attractive things can happen (negative interest rates come to mind, not to mention draconian monetary policy). One of the things I like so much about crypto-currency is that it is not connected to a centralized government. This decentralization can actually insulate us to some extent from the whims and effects of corruption. In summary, while I note the article is of interest - it also warrants additional monitoring.
In my opinion, the Digital Currency brings more convenience to public, but more control power to government. And the Crypto-Currency will grow.
I think an important factor in this story is whether or not the digital currency is a separate entity from the crypto-currency. In general, they are one-in-the-same but if I'm reading your post correctly, we both are saying that Digital Currency that is in the hands of/traceable to/influenced by the Government will lead to more control, more oversight, more power to the Government. I can easily see a world where the government and the banks confiscate all paper currency and basically give us a government issued debit card and bank account that they control exclusively. On the other hand, digital currency (or crypto-currency) that is decentralized and block-chain based can not be controlled by the Government (at least, not to my limited, neophyte knowledge) and this is a true Paradigm shift. I recently heard someone who was talking about Steem yesterday declare that money can easily be moved or transported world wide with really nothing more than a good memory. It is the knowledge of the password that enables currency to move. That has major implications across many disciplines.