Cash Free society.
Consider the Cell phone. It is ubiquitous, at least in a 2nd world India. It’s a Swiss knife of the digital age. Maybe it can become your banker too? I have thought about it and I have come to wonder why can we not let that happen. Nowadays when I want to recharge my phone, I simply go to a recharge shop where a phone using his phone transfers funds into mine. Why can we not use this process in just a common a way? Say between a taxi driver and me.
You can go to the nearby mobile service provider office and offer 105$ to get a credit of 100$. This can be spent to different people by merely sending data messages from the customer’s cell phone to that of any service provider. Then when you wish to withdraw your money, you can go back to the office of the mobile service provider and make a withdrawal; just like any bank.
The market potential of this idea is tremendous. The company to first develop this into a working reality will hold network monopoly curtsy an unrivalled product. There will be a quick shift in customer base and loyalties. Eventually companies will have to agree to let the product be used between two different networks. By then however, the “Original Operators of the cashless program” would have made their fortune.
We would have achieved a truly cashless society, the only downside being: a more lucrative market for mobile phone robbery.
Hi Kinshuk,
ReplyDeleteIt's a great idea! But it already exists at some level. A lot of banks have iPhone Apps. So if I go to a restaurant with my friend and she takes care of the check, I could transfer the money right from my phone into her account. So the functionality does already exist at some level! And I am sure we will soon be getting to a point where we would only have cashless transactions...once they figure out how to make everything secure I guess! Anyways, that's my two cents! Good stuff here with the blog though...keep it going! :) Hope you are enjoying the break before you get here. Take care!
Manasvi
Thanks to the great iphone,it's already happening in the US. All you do is take front and back pictures of an endorsed check with the iphone, and upload it to your bank account via login. Once the amount has been credited, you can shred the check at home. Nice huh! Only a couple banks have started this and it seems to be a painless process. The wonders of technology!
ReplyDelete@manasvi. Thanks. I did know about phone banking but I am for making it completely phone based. I'm good and the breaks are coming to an end. Uni begins! :D
ReplyDelete@Mashia, I know. technology seems to take us closer to a kind of seamless perfection. Everything from photography to banking becomes inter related.