It's handing over multiple pieces of paper, getting back of mix of paper and coin, and then having to futz around with that. Compare with just tapping a single card against a machine, having records of the payment for yourself (for keeping track of spending, etc), etc. It's obviously not all "objectively better" but "strictly easier" is not true if you amortize across all usages of cash vs non-cash (going to ATMs after figuring out you don't have enough on you?)

I'm not going to argue against cash existing, but "swipe the machine" works 98 times out of 100. For the other 2 times, yeah carry some cash on you. I think it's a very good system of last resort, but especially in places with contactless payments cash is less practical

Shrug.

I guess my note book is less "convenient" than notepad.exe. More moving parts.

We're just not on the same page here, sorry, I don't get it at all. It's like, are we counting the waves of the hands or what? I'm literally here now and I've just pressed about 300 buttons to write this message, are movements rationed?

If you're going to argue that one thing is easier than another, then yes, counting movements and time is part of that.

"That'll be $15.77"

Option 1: I look in my wallet and find a ten and a five, put my hand in my pocket and grab a few coins, hand those over. The cashier takes the cash, taps a number into the till, finds the right change and hands it back. Is it arduous, hard labour and the end of the world? No of course not, but it is what it is.

Option 2: I look at my phone to unlock it and wave it over the thingy. Job done. I don't even have to remember to withdraw cash from the bank before I go.

It's easier and quicker, for you and for the cashier. The shop knows it too, particularly supermarkets - they encourage people to use faster payment methods so they can shave even a few seconds off a transaction and push more transactions through at peak times.

It's kinda funny, it used to be that "can I pay by card?" caused cashiers here to sigh and get a little annoyed by having to process a card payment. Some scolded me that I should've told them sooner (though exactly when was never clear to me). Presumably their POS systems were geared towards cash payments and card payments were bolted on as an afterthought.

You forgot to mention you no longer need to check your change at the end. You have a record of the transaction on your app and you were able to verify the amount before swiping.

I and everyone here accepts that cash is easy. But there is no way whatsoever it is strictly easier than contactless payments. With cash you need to (a) always remember to withdraw and tale enough with you for what you estimate you will need, (b) compute an approximate factorization of the value you need to pay into the bills and coins you have, (c) hope the business has just the right bills to be able to give you your change, and do it in a decent amount of bills (e.g. not trying to give you change for a hundred in 5$ bills).

All this compared to touching the card/phone/watch to the terminal, and perhaps putting in your pin/fingerprint/face ID.

Again, not saying cash is hard, we've all used it and you get used to it. But it's objectively harder than contactless by any definition.

Of course, cash has other clear advantages in terms of privacy, censorship resistance etc.

We just need to preserve the ability to perform an anonymous transaction. Convenience of cashless is predicated on the assumption that you're willing for the tx to be on record. For tx you want off the record, cashless is not convenient at all. If one's position is that there is no need for anonymous transactions, that's a different conversation.