Abolish Checks

It’s time to pay rent and I’m remembering how much I hate checks.

Imagine this world: it’s 2022 and money as a concept is flimsier than ever. I’m never certain how the digits on my screens convert to real-world value. How these digits transform into food, shelter, and luxury goods. Not that I’m worried, but I often think about how my peers analyze and balance these digits to stay buoyant.

Imagine further: value is transferable across time and borders. Fungibility is peak status game. The rich rely on software to tabulate their net worth, rarely do physical dollars cross their palms. Yet every month, once per month, I’m reminded how external I am to this new arrangement. Why? Because checks exist.

Decentralization is more than cryptocurrency and DAOs. It represents a structural shift in trust, ethics, and communication in a world whose scaffolding awaits assignment.

We want to be slick, lean, and digital. In our looks, our time, our money. We’ve not arrived in this new tech-first world and checks prove this.

I understand most individuals and institutions who only accept checks do so out of a sense of security. But how are these glorified notes any more secure than digital transfers when they obligate tellers to “cash” them through a process of redundant data entry?

Paper checks mean paper envelopes and paper envelopes mean stamps. All this paper everywhere and nowhere for it to land but a screen.

Abolish checks. Burn them all and warm the world.