And like any monarchy it exploits and oppresses people.
To all those ostriches who are continually whining on the social medias about cashless businesses, self-service tills and using cash. You need to wake up. You're wasting your energy on a lost cause. And indeed the wrong cause. All because you are frightened of change. These changes are inevitable. You will not stop them. The cashless society is coming. The real enemy is not the cashless society. The real enemy is capitalism. Capitalism is all consuming. It is wasteful. It is inherently unfair. And it has total control. But, It doesn't have to be like this. Put your energy into something productive. Take back control in the only way possible. Support, promote and fight for socialism. It is the only sane, equitable, fair and credible solution. Socialism will ensure your safety. Nothing else will.
At best all you'll do by complaining is delay the demise of cash a little. If you think that cash somehow makes you immune from control then you are a complete idiot. Governments can make cash valueless overnight if they so wished. It could be that easy. Cash only has value if it is backed by a government. In other words it only has value if a government says it has value.
Stop worrying about the minutiae and focus on the bigger picture. You have no freedom because you have opted out of democracy. Because you are too lazy or stupid to join in. As a consequence the cancer that is right-wingery (the political wing of capitalism) has taken hold. If you'd been a bit more vociferous about losing control of your rights, or just plainly voting them away then you might not be so fearful. Cash isn't going to save you. Nothing will save the completely stupid. FFS wake up.