Digital Democracy and Qantas Cash Comments by Australian Futurist Anders Sorman-Nilsson

Qantas Cash: Digital Democracy

As I state in my latest book - Digilogue - everything that can be digitised will be digitised. Including the good old hard cash. Qantas is proving that cash may no longer be king. 

Today, I received my new Platinum Qantas Cash Card, which enables me to stock 8 currencies - digitally - onto my card, which can then be used around the world, and where I access the preloaded currencies. This is of course ideal for me as a Frequent Flyer, and as someone who tries to never carry cash. In my mind, this entrance by Qantas (and with Virgin following shortly behind - where is my Global Wallet card?), is another demonstration that financial services previously dominated by banks and credit card providers, are now being disrupted (albeit in partnership between MasterCard and Qantas on this occasion) by new, non-traditional financial services players. On QantasCash.com I can engage in virtual foreign exchange, and based on my analysis of future exchange rates, decide in my own time, when I should stock up on some Hong Kong Dollars. 

Now, while the card will be sitting proudly in my physical wallet, one day, it is likely to sit in my Google, Android, or iPhone wallet, meaning we are getting further and further away from scenarios like George Costanza's obsession with his fat wallet in Seinfeld. 

For tomorrow's Digital Natives, this scene may be as irrelevant and redundant as the 'save' symbol being a floppydrive. 

For digital natives, a Google Wallet, Virgin Global Wallet, and Qantas Cash may be the ways they interact financially in the future, at a moment in time when they are literally taking their financial matters into their own hands.

A quick snap shot of my virgin, QantasCash account. I am looking forward to making some foreign exchange transactions, and preloading this before upcoming speaking and consulting jobs in Europe and the North America in the next few months. (This is of course not financial advice, merely a statement of my personal intention, and the trade below is only for illustrative purposes)

*A quick illustration of the user-interface of Qantas Cash.

It will be interesting to observe the consumer behaviour around Qantas Cash and Virgin's Global Wallet. For frequent travellers this is a nice, easy service that makes our lives easier, and it further embeds the brands of our favourite airlines as we criss-cross the globe as our preferred travel partners.

Smart branding move, and an interesting potential disruption in the card and financial services market.