Privacy, or the lack of it, is increasingly one of the modern world’s biggest problems. BitMEX CEO Arthur Hayes firmly believes cryptocurrency will soon replace cash to preserve financial privacy.

Cash Soon No Longer an Option

The end of cash is nigh, and “sooner than you think,” proclaims BitMEX founder and CEO Arthur Hayes. His prediction comes in a BitMEX blog post article that was also carried in the UK’s mainstream newspaper The Times together with its front-page ad celebrating Bitcoin’s 10th birthday.

Cash may be a long-standing form of financial anonymity, but it will cease to exist as governments digitize economies and intrude further on data privacy, Hayes claims.

“… in some cases, they know almost everything about you: what goods and services you purchase, as well as where and when you purchase them, which can presumably be linked to all the other data they have on you.”

“Sooner than you think, cash will not be an option for privacy, or for anything else” Hayes added. The solution? Bitcoin.

Bitcoin to the rescue?

Though technically sturdy with blockchain for its backbone, Bitcoin faces public image challenges from detractors who point to recent bearish price performances and suggestions of a popped financial bubble.

But Hayes argues that Bitcoin’s potential is limitless given its youth, and is “still very much an experiment”. The Bitcoin protocol has also not been hacked after 10 years despite being considered the biggest “bug bounty” in software history.

“…Privacy, I argue, is an important part of a well-functioning society” Hayes acknowledges, and Bitcoin’s prospective impact on humanity as “perhaps society’s best hope for a private form of electronic money.”.