When Sweden overtakes his advance right into a cashless society, the co -founder of Ethereum Vitalik Buterin emphasized the fragility of central digital payments and the chance that was presented by decentralized payment alternatives.
In recent years, Sweden has run the fee for a cashless future, with digital payment platforms being widespread. However, since concerns about cyber threats, civil defense and instability have arisen, the Swedish authorities now actively encourage residents to maintain some money.
Buterin found that the reversal shows that centralized solutions are efficient, but they will not be reliable in times of crisis.
“Nordics are returning the initiative of cashless society because its centralized implementation of the concept is just too fragile,” but wrote butterin, citing an article by the Guardian on March 16. “Cash is obligatory as a backup.”
Source: Vitalik Buterin
How Ethereum can play a job in a crisis
A former Central Bank official predicted in 2018 that Sweden can be cashless after seven years. In 2025, the prediction mostly stated, with only certainly one of ten transactions within the country in money, based on the Guardian.
While the Nordic country was a former user of digital payments, his government published a brochure during which the residents encouraged residents to maintain money within the event of a war or a crisis. The review of the Sweden reliably showed the query of the centralized digital payment infrastructure in times of instability.
Butterin said Ethereum said that in times of crisis, a decentralized financial fallback might be. “Ethereum have to be resilient enough and personal enough to credibly play such a role,” said Buterin.
When asked whether the private transfers of zero knowledge technologies were completely for practical implementation shortly before the sensible implementation, but Beterin said that the technical know-how is already there, but there are still restrictions:
“Basically, we all know easy methods to do it, but with the restriction that each solution relies on trustworthy hardware and/or post-hoc enforcement against double-participants.”
Crypto Payments Exec believes that Crypto Fiat doesn’t replace
While crypto payment solutions have gotten increasingly common, Mercuryo co-founder and CEO Petr Kozyakov said that Crypto Fiat is not going to replace.
In an interview, Kozyakov said CoinTelegraph that crypto payments are increasing to extend demand and adoption.
However, the chief said that the 2 payment options will coexist as an alternative of cryptocurrencies that Fiat money fully replace as a payment method.
Kozyakov told CoinTelegraph that folks would use crypto if it is less complicated and more practical.