At ATMIA Europe in Rome, ATM Marketplace caught up with Mike Lee, ATMIA CEO over cappuccino for a long chat about the war on cash and the future of ATMs. We even asked him about bitcoin.
Q: What are your thoughts on the war on cash?
A: The war on cash has become a philosophical and a political issue. It has reached a stage where the entities that want to abolish cash are impacting human beings around the world, and we are neglecting to look at the realities of the need for cash as well as some of the qualities that cash offers, such as privacy, which can't be replicated in a digital equivalence.
Q: Earlier, you said something about the public not fully understanding the consequences of access to cash being taken away from them. What did you mean?
A:It is a kind of brainwashing through openly propagandistic anti-cash messages, which are completely phony. These messages have no basis in reality or fact. They are designed to brainwash people into thinking that it is inevitable that cash has to go away.
Q: Does it have to be one or the other? Cash or digital?
It is actually a false dichotomy. You have cash, and you have digital payments. They co-exist quite happily. Keep your access to cash. It is one of the most important freedoms that we have in society.