• In the midst of the era of financial digitalization, where central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) and electronic payments proliferate, a concerning trend is also growing: the progressive marginalization of cash. Some discourses, cloaked in modernity and efficiency, present its disappearance as inevitable.

• However, preserving cash is not an anachronism: it is an active defense of individual freedom, social inclusion, and economic resilience.

Cash guarantees an essential right: the ability to exchange goods and services without intermediaries, without commissions, and without the need for digital infrastructures. For millions of people—in rural areas, among the elderly population, or in contexts of vulnerability—cash and coins remain essential tools for economic participation. Moreover, in crisis situations—blackouts, system failures, or natural disasters—cash becomes an immediate lifeline when electronic payments simply stop working.

A recent and tangible example of this need was experienced yesterday, April 28, 2025. A massive power outage left a large part of the Iberian Peninsula without supply, affecting millions of people in Spain and Portugal. The outage, caused by a sudden loss of generation that disconnected Spain from the European electrical system, paralyzed critical infrastructures: public transport, traffic lights, mobile networks... and, of course, electronic payment systems. Many businesses could not process cards or transfers, leaving the purchase of basic goods dependent on the cash each person had in their pocket.

This episode is not an isolated incident. It is a reminder of how much our digital societies depend on fragile infrastructures, vulnerable to technical failures, cyberattacks, or natural phenomena. Betting everything on a single digital payment system, eliminating the circulation of cash, would expose the population to unnecessary risks and reduce collective economic resilience.

Beyond its operational role in emergencies, cash preserves an increasingly scarce value: financial privacy. Each electronic payment leaves a trail of data that third parties—be they banks, tech platforms, or even governments—can track, store, or analyze. Completely giving up cash would mean ceding another piece of our autonomy in daily life.

Defending the existence of cash does not imply denying technological advancements or rejecting innovation in payment methods. On the contrary: it means demanding that progress includes everyone and respects fundamental rights. A truly modern financial system is not one that imposes total digitalization, but one that offers diverse options and guarantees that no person is excluded or unprotected.

The lesson from this blackout is clear. Keeping cash alive is not a nostalgic resistance to change: it is a measure of democratic responsibility. The cash in hand remains, and must remain, a tool of freedom.

José Félix Sanz is a Professor of Applied Economics at the Complutense University of Madrid.

Source: El Mundo