1) Digital crimes involving fraud and finance in many places in the world show no tapering off, yet the skills and materials needed to make counterfeit currency are likely extremely hard to find. The relative ease and frequency in electronic theft is amazing, but when was the last time you read about a cash counterfeiting group being imprisoned?

2) I have read a few news articles and at least one study (I can’t quote them here) showing that there is a more pronounced tendency for individuals to run into financial trouble when living on finances you aren’t intimately involved with. Instant payments, credit sales, debits and other electronic maneuvers lead to a dim awareness of the actual coins available in one’s purse. Being bothered with actually counting and keeping track of your money in a more physical way has been shown to provide more financial awareness and hence less trouble with finances.

3) Digital transactions build a personal profile, whether you like it or not. Your profile will be bought and sold like a cheap pastry… whether you like it or not. How much invasiveness are you willing to give to people or corrupt governments that have ill intentions? That nonsense is stopped in its tracks with cash payments.

4) Digital finances can and have been turned off. That means YOU got shut down. You aren’t going out tonight, and you might not be going home if you can’t purchase a ticket for the tram. You might not be able to buy food or pay your heating bill. You’re stuck, my friend. You are now nothing.

Keep in mind that it just doesn’t matter if you are a good person, with nothing to hide and you’re not a threat. The fact remains uncontested that a reliance on digital currency means: Your life and every personal detail can and is being sold to people, governments or institutions that have nothing good in store for you. Those same people can and will shut you off like a sad lightbulb, but that might not matter for your finances anyway if you are only dimly aware that you have bought 19 cups of coffee this month at 70 NOK each on an account that is being bled dry by incidental purchases you forgot about…

Stay with cash. Use electronic banking for significant, controlled and infrequent purchases.