As digital payments become the norm and cash fades into obscurity, European authorities are urging citizens to prepare for a very analog kind of emergency: one where your phone doesn't work, your card gets declined, and your only lifeline is a stash of physical cash tucked away at home.
The trend toward a cashless society is accelerating around the world. In Sweden, one of the most digitized economies globally, many businesses no longer accept banknotes or coins at all. Consumers use credit cards or the mobile payment app Swish for nearly everything. China has gone even further, with QR code-based platforms like WeChat Pay and Alipay handling billions of transactions. Other countries—South Korea, Norway, and the United Kingdom among them—are rapidly moving in the same direction, embracing apps and cards over hard currency.
But this drive toward a fully digital economy has its risks, and those risks came into sharp focus during a massive power outage that hit Spain and Portugal on April 28, 2025. The blackout, caused by a failure in the electrical grid, brought modern life to a standstill. More crucially, it exposed just how vulnerable a cashless society can be when the infrastructure supporting digital payments suddenly disappears.
For hours, and in some places days, point-of-sale terminals stopped functioning. Shops couldn't process card payments. Internet connections went down. In cities and towns across the Iberian Peninsula, people found themselves unable to buy groceries, medicine, or even a bottle of water—unless they had cash. Most ATMs were also out of service, having been knocked offline or rendered inoperable by the lack of electricity. Only a few, powered by backup generators, remained usable, and long lines formed around them as people scrambled to withdraw money.
The crisis served as a wake-up call, not just for southern Europe, but for the entire continent. In the Netherlands, the central bank responded with unusual candor. Citizens were advised to keep a modest amount of cash at home—specifically, €70 per adult and €30 per child—enough to cover three days' worth of basic expenses such as food, water, transport, and medicine in case of emergency.
This wasn't paranoia. The Dutch central bank cited a growing risk of cyberattacks amid worsening global geopolitical tensions as a key reason for its recommendation. If power grids or digital infrastructure were ever sabotaged, everyday transactions could once again depend on paper currency.
That concern is being echoed at the EU level. In March, the European Commission issued a broader emergency preparedness strategy urging all member states and citizens to be able to survive at least 72 hours in the event of war, natural disaster, cyberattack, or sabotage of critical infrastructure. While the focus is often on stockpiling food, water, and medicine, access to cash is increasingly being treated as a vital resource.
The broader message is clear: even in the age of smartphones and contactless payments, it's risky to assume that digital systems will always work. When the power goes out, your mattress may be the best ATM you have.
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