[Cryptography] What is total world transaction volume?

[arxlight]

On 07/02/17 20:16, Jameson Lopp wrote:
> From some quick googling it appears that there are ~100 Billion credit &
> debit card transactions per year. But the real question is how many
> /cash/ transactions occur? I suspect (globally) it is probably far
> higher than electronic transactions.


"In 2015, cash remained the most frequently used retail payment
instrument, used in nearly one-third (32 percent) of all transactions,
including bill payments (Figure 3). Consumers used debit cards for 27
percent of their transactions, followed by credit cards for 21 percent
of transactions. Electronic payments (e.g. ACH transfers and online bill
pay) and checks comprised a small share of transaction volume, though
the value of these payments tended to be higher than cash, debit, or
credit payments."

You should be able to plug (estimated) cash transactions in from these
figures in the United States anyhow given that you have figures for
credit and debit cards.

Source: The San Francisco Fed: "The State of Cash: Preliminary Findings
from the 2015 Diary of Consumer Payment Choice" (November 3, 2016)

.pdf here:

http://www.frbsf.org/cash/files/FedNotes-The-State-of-Cash-Preliminary-Findings-2015-Diary-of-Consumer-Payment-Choice.pdf

The US is probably low.  India has (had) more like 75%-80% rates for
cash as a payment method as recently as last year.