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Technology News
UK to be primarily using digital currency by 2016
Matt - November 24th, 2011 2:30 PM
Tags: digital currency, nfc, paypal, smartphones
With the introduction of digital money and NFC (near field communications) payments this past year or so, physical money could be redundant within five years according to new reports.
PayPal carried out a study recently, which suggested that within the next five years, Brits could be using smartphones to pay for virtually everything whether that be your weekly shopping or perhaps some new furniture.
There’s still a long way to go though before NFC is fully operational and readily available during everyday life.
A majority of new smartphones do have support for NFC technology though, so it’s something that could easily be implemented once the technology is ironed and smoothed out.
Carl Scheible, Managing Director of PayPal UK recently said, “We’re not saying cash will disappear entirely, but we’ll increasingly use our phones and other devices rather than our wallets to pay in-store as well as online.”
He added, “We’ll see a huge change over the next few years in the way we shop and pay for things. By 2016, you’ll be able to leave your wallet at home and use your mobile as the 21st century digital wallet. Our vision of money is to enable you to pay for something from wherever you are, whatever device you’re on – a PC, mobile phone, tablet, games console and a whole lot more.”
“The lines between the online world and high street will soon disappear altogether. Children born today will become the UK’s first ‘cashless generation’. It will be completely natural for them to pay by mobile.”
What do you make of abandoning physical money and adopting the new ‘digital currency’? Let us know in the comments section below.
