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An Anonymous Coward writes:

A cashless society is a wet dream for some, a nirvana for others, and hell in a mall for retailers unable to collect payment for goods. The latter is what happened to ANZ and Westpac customers this boxing day where EFTPOS systems failed [news.com.au] leaving businesses to ask customers to pay in cash. For busy shops during boxing day being unable to process payments by card is a nightmare. This type of system wide failure puts a stake in the idea of a cashless society. In order to go fully cashless the credit systems backing payments for retailers must be robust enough to survive this kind of scenario. Which with the state of today's technology looks likely to happen any time soon.

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