Innovative but disadvantageous.

The national coin shortage inspires contemplation on what it would truly look like to live in a cashless society. 

In an on-the-go society, digital currency is both innovative and convenient. With the United States enduring a nationwide coin shortage, digital currency has been put to use more than ever. Encountering this lifestyle puts to question just how progressive digital currency actually is. 

As a society progresses, people are always looking for new and more efficient ways to do daily tasks. Which is exactly why people have started looking more and more into digital currency. Digital currency allows for an instantaneous and seamless transaction with just the touch of a button on a phone or a simple card swipe. Although digital currency isn’t a new idea, it has become more apparent given the need to use contactless payment like Apple Pay, Venmo, etc.

 According to a study done by Consumer Credit 100% of 18-24 year olds reported that they used their debit card for everyday purchases. So when the U.S entered a coin shortage and businesses began encouraging customers to pay using card and contactless payment, it doesn’t seem like there is much of a change in daily life. However for the 14% who rely on cash for their daily purchases, their life has changed drastically. “The implications of the current coin shortage are similar to those of a cashless business but exacerbated because the shortage affects so many retailers,” wrote Samantha Masunaga in Free drinks, store credit and cries for help: How we’re handling the coin shortage.

Even though it might take years to completely adapt to a cashless society, those who rely on cash, such as the low income and homeless population are already seeing the effects of what it means to live in this modern world of transactions. “If you strictly become a no-cash operation, then you begin to marginalize those people in the community because they just don’t have the same access to the instruments that everyone else has access to,” Shelle Santana, assistant professor of marketing at Bentley University in Massachusetts in Free drinks, store credit and cries for help: How we’re handling the coin shortage by Samantha Masunaga said.

Many people and companies have already pondered how digital currencies will affect low income and homeless populations offering up possible solutions to this problem. All have the general concept of donating to the homeless through an app, machine or something the homeless population can carry around. In Europe one company, N=5, tried and tested something called the Helping Heart contactless jacket. It’s a card reader on the chest of a homeless person’s coat that can be pressed as you walk by that allows you to donate €1. In Oxford a company introduced the Greater Change platform that allows people to donate through an app. The monitors the person’s spending to make sure their money only goes to daily necessities or the person’s “personal development plan”.