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You state the cash is quickly becoming obsolete in many parts of the world. It isn't. Sweden is an outrider - maybe in the future, that will be the way. But for now, you can count on one hand the countries where cash volumes are falling.  

I agree with the above comments. Cash will reduce as a proportion of payment, but it won't' disappear. In most countries, it is still increasing - both in value and in volume terms. For how long who knows, but people have been predicting the death of cash for at least 30 years, and so far they have all been proved wrong. Until such time as the banks and payment providers can get their act together, implement interoperatibility and - above all - protect their systems and our data, then people will never fully trust wholly cashless alternatives. Added to which, moving from cash to cashless simply shifts the costs and the benefits. Cash, at the moment, benefits governments because of seigniorage, which in turn can be viewed as a public benefit. Putting all the means of payments in the hands of the banks and payment providers results in them accruing the benefits, with the potential of ripping us off. I am not so keen on government, but even less keen on being at the mercy of the banking community.

The years following the introduction of M-Pesa have seen a huge rise in cash in circulation in Kenya. So what M-Pesa has done has enabled P-2-P transactions, thereby increasing economic activity, thereby fuelling demand for cash. As for the irrational atatchment to cash, it's not always irrational. Look at what is happening in Greece (complete breakdwon of all payment methosds other than cash) and in Cyprus, where the govenrnment helped itself to up to 40% of peoples' money in their deposit accounts. With rock bottom interest rates and zero inflation at the moment, keeping cash is entirely rational for many people .