I'm not sure what the situation is in the rest of the world , but the paper money at least isn't going away until they find a way to resolve the issue of the "unbanked." There's still a good chunk of the population that doesn't have a checking account or a credit card and they don't have easy access to a bank. The situation is or is going to get worse for some people because banks are increasingly going online and encouraging people to bank exclusively online - even cashing checks, when you actually get one, with an app on your phone. If you switch to requiring people to have electronic money which they are going to be required to monitor and access electronically you're then going to have to deal with the idea how internet connectivity / smart phones / data plans as a basic right or something people absolutely have to have in order to function within the society.

We're not going paperless or cashless yet. 

1 hour ago, Revenant said:

We're not going paperless or cashless yet. 

Agreed, but this is just another push towards going paperless. I don't expect that the U.S. will go 100% paperless in the next 50 years (maybe not ever 100%) but by then I would think the production of paper currency will be primarily driven by the collectibles market. In under developed areas/countries it will take longer or we may see a step backwards towards barter systems, pseudo currencies, or people are automatically issued a bank account, who knows what the future will bring but it is interesting to speculate. National Banks around the world are developing digital currencies in anticipation of the future and to retain their market share in the financial system vs cryptocurrency creation by private players. Ukraine has been developing a digital currency, the E-hryvnia, since 2016 and launched a pilot project for issuing E-hryvnia into circulation in 2018. Paperless will not be immediate but it is imminent for the majority. 

People being born now or who have already been born, may not ever use physical money in there life. My 14 year old nephew got into my 1996 Ford F250 and asked me how to roll down the window, I pointed to the window crank/handle and the look on his face was one of disbelief. As was the look on my face, when I realized he had never seen a manually operated window before. He had no idea what to do, as far as he was concerned that truck might as well have been equivalent to Fred Flintstones footmobile. Not that he would have understood that reference anyway. 

18 minutes ago, Fenntucky Mike said:

People being born now or who have already been born, may not ever use physical money in there life. My 14 year old nephew got into my 1996 Ford F250 and asked me how to roll down the window, I pointed to the window crank/handle and the look on his face was one of disbelief. As was the look on my face, when I realized he had never seen a manually operated window before. He had no idea what to do, as far as he was concerned that truck might as well have been equivalent to Fred Flintstones footmobile. Not that he would have understood that reference anyway. 

I hear ya. I do.

My 4 year old had trouble understanding recently that my laptop - which was bought 3 months after his birth - did not have a touchscreen like his tablet and you have to use the keyboard and mouse.

I am soon to be 34 years old and I have received my paycheck as a physical check precisely 1 time in the ~16 years of my working life. When I was on unemployment they mailed me a pre-paid debit card and they just loaded my benefits onto the card every 2 weeks.