Huge chunks of money would suddenly drop out of circulation into thin air and the consequences would be catastrophic: cash machines and debit cards would all stop working, threatening the entire financial system with collapse, reads the article written by Fran Boait in the Independent, 7th Feb 2016.
Here’s a short extract:
It is this scenario that is keeping governments enthralled to the banks. As taxpayers we are on the hook to spend a fortune rescuing big banks, because letting them fail would mean that millions of people would lose access to their money.
However, this need not be the case if it was possible to free up this money from the big four banks. Just as if we withdrew our cash money, we must have the right to withdraw our digital money and handle it independently from banks. In short, the Bank of England could begin to issue digital cash.
Digital cash would be an electronic version of notes and coins, which is different from the money you use on your debit card because of the way it’s created.
Read the article in full here.