COVID-19 shouldn't kill cash!

Arithmetic, spelling and navigation are just a few of the brain disciplines we have ceded to AI and mobile machines. Meanwhile, much of our interpersonal communications are mediated via screens rather than face-to-face interactions.

The question is: what happens to the parts of our brains associated with these activities as we hand them to machines? The laws of nature suggest that they will atrophy.

Beyond Cashless: Biometric Payments

Contemporary studies suggest that a post-cash world might struggle with civil liberties.

The Chinese approach to cashlessness provides a troubling case study into how payment providers – and perhaps governments - might use cashless systems to control troves of sensitive user data.

As you might expect in a one-party political system, it's very difficult to ascertain just how closely payment platforms like Alipay are connected to the Chinese government. However, one thing is fairly clear: as this and other platforms become more essential to consumers, the threat of government intrusion grows.

Is there any reason why the Chinese government might not, at a time of its choosing, suspend bank or cybercurrency accounts of activists and others who question government policy?

In years to come, China's use of cashless payments will likely provide a classic example of "technology creep". This is where a tool is first introduced to the public as a way of solving a particular problem, but is later used in ways the public hadn't imagined.

Chinese authorities are already investigating how their society might move beyond app-based platforms toward biometric payment systems. Alipay's executives have said that they aim to use fingerprint, facial recognition and other forms of biometric identification within their payment systems.

The fact that Alipay collaborates with Huawei on this technology and that the latter has possible connections to China's military, raises troubling questions about civil liberties. Moreover, Alipay has investigated a potential feature known as "smile to pay". It allows a user to use a selfie as a means of authenticating an account.

The use of biometrics in cashless systems is a potential problem even for more liberal governments. Western governments have enough trouble regulating today's BigTech companies, which regularly use data in ways that are unsanctioned by users. Imagine the difficulty authorities will have regulating groups that use biometrics to gather even more personal data and potentially control financial accounts?

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