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The Times They Are A-Changin: A Cashless Future Is Approaching Faster Than We Think Only in a cashless society built by trustworthy players with dependable technology can we make sure everyone gets access to the right digital tools in new, authentic, and equitable ways.

By Muhannad Ebwini Edited by Aby Sam Thomas

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

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If you've been increasingly feeling like physical money is about to be a thing of the past, you might not be imagining it. And you're definitely not alone.

The concept of money as we know and use it today has evolved throughout thousands of years, but its current iteration hasn't changed much since the beginning of modernization. From the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, however, digital payments have surged globally and almost without exceptions: across the board, over 40% of low and middle-income adults who made merchant in-store or online payments using a card, phone, or the internet did so for the first time since March 2020. And even though the implementation of measures such as contactless and digital payments was undeniably accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, 74% of respondents to a Mastercard survey said they will keep using contactless payments in a post-pandemic world- meaning it didn't take long for people to get used to the "new normal."

For online payments solutions providers, the challenge is now to draw up business models able to create value beyond transactions alone, as well as keeping up with evolving technologies, while continuing to build public trust in services that remain relatively new. Of course, global policy changes are happening fast and also need to be kept in consideration: "creating an enabling policy environment, promoting the digitalization of payments, and further broadening access to formal accounts and financial services" is now a World Bank Group priority, said its President David Malpass. In 2022, all data overwhelmingly points in the direction of a cashless society. But in our haste to adapt to COVID-19 measures and take advantage of the latest technological innovations, we might have forgotten to ask an important question: is this a future we should want to work towards?

Related: How Digital Payments Can Enable SMEs To Become More Competitive In The Post-Pandemic Era

Let's start by defining a cashless society, which is simply one in which physical banknotes and coins cease to be accepted in financial transactions in favor of newer devices like credit or debit cards, electronic transfers, digital currencies, or online and mobile payment services. Although no existing society can currently be defined as such, some countries do come quite close. With only 20% of transactions made in cash, Sweden is often considered the most cash-free society in the world; India, Denmark, and Australia have begun a similar process by eliminating small bills; China is now pioneering a government digital currency, and Saudi Arabia has set a target to achieve 70% of non-cash transactions by 2030.

Evidently, their governments must appreciate the advantages of a steady transition to eliminate cash: to its proponents, the benefits of a cashless society include convenience, reduction in fraud and tax evasion, as well as the elimination of physical theft and violent crime. To this point, research into the correlation between "less cash and less crime" found that crime in Missouri dropped by 9.8% as the state replaced cash welfare benefits with electronic benefit transfer cards. Of course, as we've seen during the pandemic, handling cash facilitates the spread of contagious illnesses -not only COVID-19, but also norovirus, MRSA (methicillin-resistantsStaphylococcus aureus), and salmonella- and a transition to cashless would completely eradicate this problem. Finally, digital payments eliminate the costs associated with handling money, make it easier for people to spend globally and to stick to a budget (for example, by enabling joint-budgeting with a partner,) and are even "likely to be beneficial in any drive to reduce illegal immigration and modern-day slavery."

On the other hand, the downsides to going cashless greatly revolve around privacy concerns, theft by way of exposure to hacking, and dependency on technology and the internet. The increased risk of cyberattacks in a cashless society is undeniable, as is the possibility of technology downtime. But it's also easy to see that the further we move in this direction, the greater will be the effort by policymakers and key players on every side to secure what is now a developing system- just in the same way that banks did when they first grew from the merchant-based institutions to the fully fledged ones we know today. Opponents also voice their concerns about the potential for intermediary fees, and more practical matters such as how the undocumented, the elderly, and the homeless might fare in such a scenario.

The truth is we can't truly stop what is coming, because it's already happening all around us. What we can, and should concern ourselves with as the transformation unfolds, is how to envision and create a cashless system subject to checks and balances, safe from threats -from natural disasters to hacking - and ensuring we build it so that it doesn't exclude part of the population, but instead encourages people to participate in this new digital economy. Only in a cashless society built by trustworthy players with dependable technology can we make sure everyone gets access to the right digital tools in new, authentic, and equitable ways.

Related: How Succession Planning And Corporate Governance Will Ensure The Longevity Of UAE Family Businesses

Muhannad Ebwini

Founder and CEO, HyperPay

Muhannad Ebwini is the founder and CEO of HyperPay. Ebwini has led the business to its current position as a one of the Middle East’s fastest growing and successful online payment businesses. It is regarded as highly innovative, and it is also seen as one of the new generation payment service providers. The company has offices in Amman, Dubai, Riyadh, and Cairo soon.

Ebwini has over 20 years of experience in the fintech, e-commerce, gaming, and payment industries, having successfully grown the business of OneCard, a leading regional alternative payment mechanism between 2004 and Feb 2010. During his tenure at OneCard, Muhannad spearheaded the development of the online payment and e-commerce industry in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), working successfully with international and regional players, provide alternative payment solutions for them, assist and provide support in localizing them, and adapting them to the MENA culture, as well as providing them with a suite of value-added services such as support centers and marketing.

Prior to joining OneCard, Ebwini worked at Maktoob, the leading regional portal acquired by Yahoo as the Business Development Manager of Souq.com. Prior to Maktoob, he held sales and marketing management positions at eSolution, a local web development company in Amman, Jordan. In 2017, Ebwini was appointed as board member of GatetoPay, a leading card issuing company to issue prepaid MasterCard, Visa, and UnionPay card and cards solution in the Middle East region.

Ebwini is a certified e-commerce consultant and project manager in e-business, and holds an MBA in Management and International Business from NYIT and a B.Sc. in Computer Software Engineering from Princess Sumayya University in Amman, Jordan. hyperpay.com

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