Vitalik Buterin: Ethereum needs to become private and resilient to compete with cash.

Co-founder of Ethereum, Vitalik Buterin, recently spoke on social media X, emphasizing that Ethereum needs to maintain resilience and privacy if it wants to continue to serve as a true alternative to cash.

Buterin cites a new report showing that Nordic countries – once at the forefront of the cashless trend – are gradually returning to cash due to concerns about the fragility of centralized digital payment systems. Specifically, Sweden and Norway were once models of the future of digital finance. In the 2010s, the cash usage rate in Sweden dropped significantly, to the point where only a small percentage of transactions were conducted in cash by the early 2020s, mainly thanks to apps like Swish. Sweden was once expected to be completely cashless by 2025.

However, this trend is reversing. The Swedish government is currently urging citizens to use cash more frequently for civil defense purposes, as payment platforms like Swish could become ineffective in the event of a cyber attack. In Norway, many stores could be fined for not accepting cash payments.

According to Buterin, the return to cash by these two advanced countries shows that centralized digital payment systems are still vulnerable, even in the most technologically advanced societies. From this, he believes that Ethereum – if it wants to take on a similar role to cash – needs to enhance its resilience and privacy security for users.

Nevertheless, it remains an open question whether cryptocurrency can truly replace cash in the context of increasingly complex globalization.

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