Here's why Sweden's record-breaking cashlessness may not be good news

If there's no cash at all to fall back on, what happens if digital networks fail? And what about cyberattacks? Such events can do a lot more damage than old-fashioned bank robberies

Sweden may be about to take its world-beating cashlessness to the next level, as the pandemic threatens to push its notes and coins close to extinction.

Stefan Ingves, the governor of the Riksbank, recently remarked that some young Swedes “have no idea” what real money looks like anymore. It’s a future that has Ingves and others worried, and he says lawmakers may need to step in before it’s too late.

It wasn’t always obvious that cashlessness could become a risk. Moving to digital transactions comes with plenty of benefits, including the kind of transparency that makes things like money laundering