Yes, I think paper money is going to be phased out at some point globally. In some countries, like Sweden most transactions are digital already now and paper money is quite rare. On the other hand, in countries like Germany or the US cash is still king, there still are many places where cards are not accepted.
It's a good thing cash is around, especially when we want financial privacy. Once all of the world's countries switch to a CBDC, you can say goodbye to anonymity for good. By the time that happens, our only option would be a decentralized cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin or Ethereum. That's if we still want financial freedom.
I think the question here is,
Can we ever be free or attain financial freedom?
Let’s think about that critically.
There would always be those that won’t be cool with decentralized systems or systems that aren’t backed up by some organization, agency or some thing of that nature. Not to mention the government that won’t be ready to let loose their product in fiat currency and it’s controlling power. It’s just not something that would come about.
Fiat helps either way we look at it. At least, the blind gets to use them and it needs no confirmation time for physical exchange.