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Scan the Code and Move On!

Scan the Code and Move On!
Published On: 29-Nov-2021
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Soon in our world there will be no such thing as cash. In Shenzhen, China, cash is quickly becoming a thing of the past. All over the world, you need a bank account, get the paperwork done, go to the bank, open an account, and after three workdays, you will get the card. In China, you download an app, WeChat and you get your bank account.

Paper money was invented by the Chinese in the 7th Century. Before that, people used to trade goods, and the barter trade system was the deal. If you wanted food and had a t-shirt, and someone wanted a t-shirt, but had food on them. Bang on! Deal done! A third good was required, that both parties could deal and trade with, and thus gold came into play.

However, the Chinese came up with this idea of paper-currency where pieces of paper, withheld the same amount of gold coins, and the amount of gold coin(s) was written as assurance on the paper. The idea of this new form of a trade was to exchange gold coins with pieces of paper, i.e., the paper currency. Since gold was heavy to carry, they replaced it with paper money. Now, the Chinese are the first who moved on from cash. They might stop using cash for good.

In the banking system, it’s a prerequisite for the client to have a debit or a credit card for transactions. But banking has it’s cons, for instance, you pay $50 to buy from the seller. The bank is the third best here. The seller instead of receiving $50, gets $47 instead. The three dollars go to the bank, as commission: bank commission, card commission, seller’s commission, and the payment method.

Then WeChat came into play and ruled out this idea. WeChat is the biggest mobile app in China right now, and among the biggest in the whole world. The country is becoming cashless. American banks are afraid of this bankless transaction system.

In Shenzhen and Shanghai, everything works with QR Code, you scan the code and bam! They call WeChat an app for everything… a super app… cash is certainly not the King anymore. WeChat and AliPay are. AliPay belongs to the AliBaba company. WeChat is a multimedia messenger app like WhatsApp. Imagine, you could do all the purchases and buy anything from WhatsApp. From juices, to fruits, to screen projectors, to bus fare… you could pay just by scanning the QR code. It is not only limited to supermarkets and big stores or local shops, but even fruit vendors with carts use WeChat for payment.

If you pay an extra amount accidentally, they reimburse your amount, from their account. No more waiting three to ten days for the bank. Half the Chinese don’t even have bank accounts. A tourist in China asked a Chinese local about this deal of not having cash. He replied “That’s rare and weird. Only the elderly and people who don’t know how to use a phone pay in cash”.

All you need to do is download the app to have a bank account. Any transaction can be done using this app. You can receive your salary or donate money to the homeless, the homeless have it too. Shanghai has got to a point where they don’t use cash AT ALL! Just don’t run out of battery.

It’s a loss for all the banks, however, you are being watched by the government. All the transactions from WeChat are connected to the government. When you sign up, you give all your information away. The app knows how much you paid and what you bought, and what you received.

 Alibaba and Tencent collect so much information, they know what you buy, they know how much you spent. The government knows everything about you, it’s not a conspiracy anymore. The Chinese are not bothered about privacy issues: the government oversees every transaction their citizens make. Such a system might not work in the US or other developed nations.

In 2019, some tourists found out that they could connect to the Visa Card and use the application. If you think about it, this can happen soon. In the Post-Covid world, cash can transmit viruses. A cashless society might help the cause, or the cure. Cash could get abolished.

Some Chinese citizens haven’t used cash in years, and it’s not that they don’t want to, instead, it’s a case of “they don’t have to”. Paper money might become a memory, stuck in the deep-vivid layers of the past. The world might not need cash anymore, just scan the code, and voila!

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