I'm tired of talking about cash and being compared to flat earthers scared of the government tracking them. Don't bring them into this, right now you're talking to me, not them. I'm begging you to listen to what I'm saying.

Retail doesnt like cash. Its annoying to handle, costs money to count and deposit. They have to have cash on hand for change, and they have to account for loss from miscounted change or poorly supervised employees scooping the till. But currently, retail has to accept cash as legal tender.

If you make society cashless, if you give businsses the right to be card only, to not handle cash; then most of them wont. You make cash almost useless.

it's not about cash being illegal. It's about businesses not being obliged to accept it.

As it is, sometimes I cover for a friend and I beg them to just pay me back with a bank deposit because if they give me $50 notes the only place I can reliably use that is the supermarket, where less and less of their self-checkout machines support cash (and if my flatmates do Click and Collect, it can't help me pay them because they don't want it either).

Or they're making me do a special trip to a bank that is barely open anymore (because most services are online-only) just so I can deposit it into something I can use for all my other online-only services.

It doesn't need to be illegal, it just won't help you.