As Sweden Moves Towards Cashless Society, is Cryptocurrency the Answer?

Perhaps the first case of its kind, Swedish government is decreasing the supply of Swedish Krona in the country. Data collected from the last 8 years show that circulating cash in the European country has decreased from Swedish Krona (SEK) 95 billion to SEK 55 billion. This represents an overall 42 percent decrease, or SEK 5 billion per year.

With the cash disappearing in even everyday use, the supply of SEK has gone down to around 1% of Sweden’s GDP.

Cashless Society

The use of credit cards and other digital payment systems is nearly embedded into the day to day activities of Swedes. This cashless environment is so developed that businesses, even small ones, are allowed by law to refuse cash. The use of plastic and digital forms of monetary transactions has led to the rise of different third-party services, which handle the SEK transfer digitally.

This means that Swedes are now completely dependent on financial services companies, such as banks and other tertiary monetary transfer services. The people are losing control over their own money. A bank or any other payment service can easily block, reverse transaction or add their own fee or charges structure.

Cryptocurrency: Empowering Swedes

With the looming danger of loss of control of own funds through the hands of financial and payment services, the Swedes are heading down a road that will create a severe negative impact on the economy.

The Swedish government, as a social state, perhaps has only one way left to ensure the safety and ownership of money of its citizens: Cryptocurrency.

Cryptocurrency, being truly decentralized, means there is no single ownership or controlling authority. Each token holder is the actual owner of his or her money. The Swedes will be free from third party payment services. Cryptos have other advantages, such as keeping citizens free from worry of reversals, unnecessary increase in transactional charges. Furthermore, the speed and efficiency of cryptocurrencies also mean faster transactions and even lower fee compared to the current ones.

Another National Crypto?

A national level cryptocurrency is not a new concept. Several countries have dabbled into the possibility of a central bank digital asset. Iran has announced the launch of its own crypto and Venezuela already using its Petro. At the other end of the spectrum, Israel’s central bank has rejected the option. Even Russia, is contemplating launching its own stable crypto token.