Between 2016 and 2021, the per capita amount of cash kept at home as a store of value increased from around $ to $ in October 2021.2 In any case, there is a significant proportion of people who remain loyal to cash, while others may consider electronic means of payment to be more in keeping with the times.
This divide is also reflected in public opinion about cash. On one side of the spectrum, there is at times talk of cash as a "curse" or a technology of a bygone age. At the other extreme, there are some who believe that we are heading knowingly towards a cashless society – and thus entering a world devoid of privacy and data protection.