Geronimo Emili is the founder of NoCashDay.org and the promoter of “No Cash Day” initiative in Italy
Italy is a beautiful and ancient place, and I’ve always been awestruck by the ancestral relationship that we’ve had with coins. In Rome, the city where I live, I often visit the ancient ruins of “Mercati di Traiano”, the old roman market square. So many trades and businesses began there, and it’s fascinating to think about its history and the importance of the ancient coins and their impact on commerce overall.
But on the other side of the coin..so to speak, Italy is also a country full of old habits, among which there is the old way to pay. Which got me thinking and led to the development of the “No Cash Day” project, an initiative I hope will help transform our country’s old commerce habits and allow us to benefit from the value of electronic commerce. But in order to do so, I quickly realized that we had to change our perspective about cash.
Why not mention the negative aspects of coins and banknotes?
Why not examine the reasons why Italians are so in love with the “old” cash?
I believe that promoting a life beyond cash should not only be a target for payment companies, but also for governments because less cash means less corruption, less tax evasion, and less crime. I am proud to say that Italy’s Government and Ministry of Economic Development is now sponsoring our initiative!
Last June, we challenged bloggers to live a week without using cash and to find a way to live a normal life, whether they lived in a big city or in the province. The diaries they produced have been incredible, and I will never forget the post of the blogger that won the contest – he managed to buy a slice of melon in the street of a small town using only his credit card!
Now we are working on the second edition of NoCashDay, and I hope that it will become an international opportunity to understand that we must assume a responsible use of cash.
We have not yet confirmed where the debate will take place, but I think it would be really interesting to find a way to facilitate the discussion from the old roman market, with the precise objective to bury the old coins inside an open air museum.
Time passes by, and so our habits do, and what hope remains is only the beauty of our historical past, and continued drive to become more modern…
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