Could we be just one or two years away from solving all security-related complications of cash systems today? Daryl de Jori, Head of New Technologies at EDAQS, a German-Austrian technology company, says that may very well be the case.
De Jori, a small business analyst and finance critic by background and renowned Hamburg based economy scientist, Reimund Homann,along with a small team of scientists, technicians, and developers, have spent the last few years perfecting and testing the cash security system DICE, its first hybrid product that unifies artificial intelligence and the daily life, that they believe could prevent cash crimes, as well as solving all security-related complications of cash systems today, including passports and terrorism.
The innovation offers the chance of global change which will solve countless conventional problems with one single system and allows central and national banks to supervise and analyze all cash circulation without interfering with the privacy of the citizen. It not merely produces anti-counterfeit bills but provides for the first time in the annals of cash an insurmountable protection. Categorized as Bitcoin Revolution -governmental project for the general public benefit and classified as a “Governmental Reformation Venture” (since an effective implementation could only be achieved through official ways and with the support from governments), the technology happens to be at the mercy of negotiations with governments and national banks for a worldwide implementation of the system.
The development of the DICE (acronym: Dynamic Intelligent Currency Encryption) emerged from the unquestionable need for a economic climate that protects money while upholding the highest level of security and privacy. Contingent identifiable banknotes, preferably with a custom-frequency and secure RFID or machine readable codes like Datamatrix, the DICE integrates reliable and innovative technologies that combine their benefits to incorporate them into an optimized security. Beginning with the identifiable banknote that connects to a digital security system to verify the banknote’s validity, a key feature is also the ability to devaluate banknotes that may have already been stolen from the DICE user or which are illegally circulating.
It is the goal of EDAQS that the whole banking and retail sector as well as all entities with regular cash circulation will participate in the DICE system.So far, EDAQS has concentrated the majority of its resources on preventing cash crimes and forgery, but additionally to save cash from vanishing as it is going on in Scandinavian countries. But thanks to the recent series of external appraisals, the DICE has been estimated at an averaged valuation of $5.6 billion and contains plans to skip a scheduled seeding process to immediately raise capital in a Series A financing, after undisclosed leading capital investors and EDAQS lobbyists showed interest to jointly take over the global implementation of the innovative and futuristic banknote system. Within the planned spin-off, the brand new company will generate two strong market leaders with distinct brands, partners, operating characteristics and industry dynamics.
DICE combines several technologies and intelligent ways to solve almost all problems that governments claim to be the reason for the planned abolition of cash. DICE protects the citizen, the retailers and even the banks. Also it gives cash a fresh and indisputable reason to call home on.
Among a variety of new development models there are lots of advantages of DICE. Firstly, counterfeiting of banknotes is a thing of the past and with the counterfeited value being greater than the production costs, counterfeiters would naturally have to undergo immeasurable efforts. Second, robberies can be less attractive and even with a limited use of DICE, the chance of a worthless robbery will be higher than the ultimate gain. DICE also combats crime and as a result general cash-related crime will undoubtedly be reduced by almost a quarter on the basis of the official crime statistics for Germany released by the police (5.96 million offenses in 2013). The incidental registration of the banknotes would also make it easier for banks and companies to control cash as the complications of handling illicit money bring about higher tax revenues.
In addition to mapping out preventing cash crimes and forgery, EDAQS hopes to fight drug cartels and terror financing on a completely different level. The remote deactivation of banknotes opens up new effective tools in the fight the financing of terrorism. From drug cartels to Mafia organizations, the ever-present chance for the money being devalued later and the potential of determining the last retailer scanned position makes cash uninteresting and risky. With a profound change for legal tenders along with other securities where its use would seem sensible, DICE provides passive protection mechanisms which have a preventive effect on the users’ security without impairing their privacy and gathers valuable geographical data of cash circulation along the way. Such data could be used to investigate the financial stability of a country.
If current government trends continue, a cashless economy does seem on the rise. And while there are certainly positive outcomes that may be obtained by going cashless not absolutely all is rosy however. The darker aspect of a cashless society, is the one that few are debating or discussing, but is in fact the most pivotal with regards to social engineering and transforming communities and societies. There are understandably concerns about privacy, especially when payments are made through internet sites and above all there is an incalculable cost to your humanity. We would lose our freedom to make decisions. You can easily imagine a totalitarian regime using these tools to great harm. In the digital age, cash is directly confronted by technological progress with crypto-currencies like Bitcoin and contact-less payment methods like Apple Pay, Google Wallet or QuickPay. However such technologies can be subject to monitoring and may be regulated in ways that could limit and even end its utility.
In his book “The End of Money”, Wired contributing editor David Wolman, explored the twilight of cash and its own replacement with a panoply of better means of exchange. For one thing, Wolman notes, that national identity is strongly linked with having a physical currency. Then there’s the ultimate advantage of cash – its capability to enable off-the-books transactions. In a culture as paranoid about surveillance as our very own, imagine the outcry if we were to go to means of exchange that were always traceable? The problem challenging arguments for a cashless society is that they are rational, and our attachment to cash isn’t. A cashless society is also a society where there is absolutely no longer any anonymity.
Philosopher and economist Adam Smith observed that people are economic beings in the sense our essence as humans is due to our capability to make fair trades for the labor or our products. We make these transactions in the presence of the usually benevolent “invisible hand,” as Smith called it in his book “An Inquiry in to the Nature and Factors behind the Wealth of Nations.” The invisible hand optimizes our total production, and, by and large, fosters our freedom. A “visible hand” monitoring each and every transaction we make could be one of the greatest – and least expected – threats to freedom we have ever encountered in human history.
In light of the dystopian outcomes in the evolution in the creation of a cashless society, DICE is billed at breaking the mold with regards to the protection of cash, since it not merely improves cash circulation, but also the caliber of people’s life. The benefits of the DICE system can only be positive.Although it would obviously apply to the economy as a whole and to any place where money plays a significant role, however a lot would also change for private individuals. The technology is so far without the competition and in the long term, the best point of arrival, needless to say, is that it is unavoidable that banknotes become digital hybrids. Which is definitely a better substitute for a state-controlled digital cash system.
Ambitious as that could be, it is really just the end of the iceberg. Needless to say, society has been through times of innovation in monetary technology before. And while cash has been fighting the digital tide for some time now with the need to get beyond cash having been recognized in a number of countries, there’s no escaping the fact that we will will have a need for cash. Cash continues to be king and will stay in circulation for generations to come – for consumers and businesses. Hence, it’s never too late for businesses to protect themselves by safeguarding cash as a target. Additionally, de Jori thinks that DICE may also revolutionize the planet of finance through an effective long-term protection strategy that maintains confidence in global currencies.