[retornam]

Where do you live? Almost all of Africa, many parts of South-East Asia, India, many parts (if not all) of China, and nearly all of South America are heavily cash-based societies. Try to work your way up to Northern Burkina Faso, which has little to no electricity in most places, and your stance on cash being a poor substitute will quickly change.

[mattdesl]

The context of my original post is referring to transactions across the globe, for which cash is obviously a poor substitute.