Good topical question, Stella, you always keep ‘em coming. It’ s a bit like a paint-ball ambush on SFN when you are at your keyboard. Splat! Straight between the eyes with a colourful new topic…
Seriously, I reckon cash/money is very much on a fast-declining trend, and with it all the traditional banking system with it, which is not to say that the financial system will not be transfigured by something like Bitcoin in future, and possibly much sooner than we think. How the hoi-polloi will fare in all this is hard to imagine, but think we are facing much more authoritarian control, less individual freedom, and paradoxically a more subdued and narcotised population, with more ethnic diversity, but managed in a way that restricts individual freedom of movement, except for a privileged elite (not necessarily the “rich”, more likely the top technocrats).
Stella, I know you seem sometimes claim a kind of naïveté but you are by no means unintelligent, and I think my musings may interest you, so I shall be interested to have your thoughts.
Today is my 80th birthday so I have celebrated with a long lie-in, some chocolate muesli croustillant and a mug of instant coffee. Such decadence! My OH is on a short trip to Angleterre so I am alone. Hier, j’arrosait l’année passée chez mon voisin aussi quatre-vingtieme, avec le trou Normand et la Coupe de France, PSG contre Les Herbiers au Stade de France (en Télé) Génial 
Happy Birthday!
David!
Happy Birthday Peter. Hope you continue to have a lovely day.
I will raise a glass or three in honour of your birthday Peter, as an old friend once said “live long and pee well 
”
And a big fat Happy Birthday from us too!
C&J x x
Happy Birthday Peter…! xxx (It’s my eldest daughter’s birthday today too…(30) x 
Well happy birthday Peter, hope you are celebrating well. My husband had his eightieth a few weeks ago and said that he’s still wondering what he’s going to do when he grows up!!! From reading your posts you seems to be full of life, zest and humour and energy!! Hope you are enjoying the best of things!!!
Thanks Sandy, I’m very much on the same page as your husband, my wife often has told me *grow up, you’re nearly eighty!" 
but I’m on a constant loop from 6 months to 2 3/4,and still on a dummy… your good wishes much appreciated and reciprocated to you both 
Yayayayayay! Thanks so much for the surprise party all you bears! I was washing the car when you arrived ànd nearly dropped my sponge and hosepipe. And my birthday wishes to your daughter, may she enjoy many, many more for you to share.
My daughter Mwila snapped a red balloon high in the sky and sent it to me via WhatsApp, so there’s a coincidence, the bears brought one too. They will hover over me from now on…
You are a great ally and walker-with Helen, may you long walk on, walk on, with hope in your heart, and you’ll never walk alone…x
So happy to get your greetings, Mandy. Bisous xx
You two bring a smile to my wizened chops every day, Cat, if not several times a day. Bless you both, and many thanks for helping keep me sane-if-shirty for the past two years or so. The same applies to all SFN contributors out there, what a thoroughly decent crowd! 
Reminding me of when I wanted Rhydian to win…(yes I know I’ll probably always be interested in what’s happening on X factor even though I’m now unable to watch it “live” and have to catch up on the tube…I also love Olly Murs…and Will Young although he won pop idol and I knew he would and loved him from first audition…x
Great answer Peter.
As a big fan of cryptocurrency and the improvements that blockchain technology can bring to every day life and business, I get tired of the usual ‘sounds like a scam’ or ‘it isn’t backed by anything’ type replies.
Traditional banking is flawed and blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies will improve things massively in the coming years. Bitcoin was the first and is therefore the most well known and high valued cryptocurrency, but I think it’s unlikely that it will be the one to gain mass adoption in everyday life. I feel like it will be still held in high value though - like gold or silver are.
Hope you had a great birthday
Had a lazy day, Mike, suits me nicely, no fuss, no party, no cake. Been there, the shine has worn off 
, but a cheerful pat on the shoulder is much appreciated. SFN has been grand.
Ré Bitcoin, I have no financial nous, but one sometimes senses a great shift taking place, and cryptocurrency has that unmistakable feel about it for me, as does to à slightly less reliable degree, the loss of traction amongst the masses for traditional parliamentary democracy,. Though there must be concerns about what might overtake it. It doesn’t have to be totalitarianism.
I’m distinctly unlikely to experience these changes, and more besides, but one never knows, they don’t feel remote to me. I may have fewer marbles, but they’re the big blue, green, white and orange ones…
Glad you in-joyed your birthday Peter…I’m still a stick in the mud as regards cake…preferably chocolate…”let them eat cake…!”…My daughter is not in a good place at the minute…an intimate and rare form of cancer where the “treatment” is more aggressive and horrifying and potentially disfiguring than the dis-ease presentation…we live in hope that a balance can be struck between two very different approaches…but I totally understand her excruciating fear of not being there for her youngsters…her excruciating fear of the most horrendous operations that would deprive her of all that it means to be a woman…a rock and a hard place…allopathic versus natural alternatives…Thankyou for your heartfelt wishes that we share many more turns of the wheel…the thought that we may not is too difficult to contemplate currently…Cryptocurrency…I’m not sure…I did try to buy a couple of hundred of euros worth with a view to just sitting on it but found it impossible to get verified with an exchange…not too sure why…Crypto to me feels like “same girl different party dress”…the whole concept of “money/debt/loans/“ has always felt alien to me somehow when earth is naturally abundant and giving but somewhere in our “history” everything became subject to an economic value…us included…x 