People have been predicting a cashless society for a very long time. So far it hasn’t come close. Between our fondness for black markets and our fondness for convenience and our paranoia about somebody getting our precious numbers there will always be a demand for cash.
I’m not talking about going backwards at all. The black market is mostly cash driven now and will stay that way for the foreseeable future. The only way it’s changing is if something comes up that has all the same safeguards as cash: 100% untraceable in any direction, able to completely control the amount you carry, and able to prove the transaction happened with no trust. Some SF movies movies have credit chits that you can move money in and out of or simply handover the chit, something like that could replace cash (assuming the transferring from one to another didn’t involve any for of communicating with any other computer, communication is traceable), short of that the black market will stay on cash. And for many of the same reasons even the legit portion of the populace will continue to use cash in high enough demand for governments to keep making it.
I understand how people have been predicting it - and that’s actually because there are some good reasons for doing so, and it’s been gradually moving that way. That movement is continuing - and someone saying that we’re not at that finish line yet — doesn’t mean that we’re not getting there. We’re definitely not running back to the “start line” on this one ... :-) ...
SO ... what you’re talking about is for “now” (and I can see that for now) - but we won’t be remaining in this “now” forever. We will be getting to that future, no matter if people like it or not.
When I said there are good reason for going cashless, I can see it. However, at the same time, it leads - potentially - to a greater degree of control over people. And I do believe that’s the way it’s going to go.