🗾 [Analysis] Will people ditch cash for cryptocurrency? Japan is about to find out - Mike Orcutt

The third largest economy, Japan, is flush in cash. Once the global leader in fintech, Japan has almost entirely failed to adapt to credit and debit cards, costing the Asian nation $18 billion per year. Still, Japan's fintech and government is expecting a breakout born on the back of blockchain digital payment systems. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has set 2025 as the target year to move 40% off cash payments. The countries largest bank Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG) is developing its own blockchain payment system with American internet company Akamai, which is claimed to be capable of more than one million transactions per second. Its not as if Japan's citizens lack enthusiasm for crypto either: Japan accounts for half the world's foreign exchange margin trading, boasts the first and only cryptocurrency licensing regime, and hosted infamous Mt Gox till its collapse in 2014. Japan, regardless of its affinity for cash, could leap frog today's systems for the crypto based systems of tomorrow.