Re: How much longer until paper money is no longer in circulation?
In most western countries, branches, atms and so on have started to decline in their availability instead of expanding like the past. When this transition is complete, the only way you will be able to contact a bank is digitally or by the phone. Cash won't be available from them, and cash will probably only be able to be traded in with the limited access points available or by established facilities, or encouraged to be spent/deposited as soon as possible.
Governments are going to accelerate the process if they want to have full control of the economy. Their main excuse would be to eliminate (or at least reduce) money laundering, tax evasion, and other illegal activities by phasing out paper money for good. But we all know there are other intentions behind this. Many say Internet access would be an issue for mainstream adoption of CBDCs, but satellites already provide the solution. Governments can spend on the necessary infrastructure to include even poor people in the system.
With crypto becoming popular each day, banks will rush in the development of CBDCs to avoid being left behind in the dust. Once paper money is gone, we'll have no way to achieve financial privacy other than using a privacy-oriented cryptocurrency such as Zcash or Monero. Who knows if paper money is phased out faster than we've previously imagined? Just my thoughts
When paper money is completely phased out and replaced by CBDCs, our privacy is seriously threatened as they can control our entire finances, even with the smallest expenditures. Using privacy coins like Zcash or Monero will also not be able to guarantee our privacy if CBDC is the main currency of the world. I mean, we still need to convert crypto to CBDC, which is very easy to expose our privacy. I really don't want paper money to disappear, it's really not in our favor.