Cryptocurrency: War On Cash - China Twists CoVirus to Deplatform Cash

[grarpamp]

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/business/china-cleans-banknotes-stop-covid19-spread-12438254
https://www.msn.com/en-us/finance/other/china-quarantines-cash-to-sanitize-old-bank-notes-from-virus/ar-BB101osx
https://qz.com/1803255/china-is-disinfecting-banknotes-to-stop-spread-of-coronavirus/
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/8f19/aaa05f8e385f3c02f18b8679a2ebbf394f5f.pdf


Today China announced it was taking unusual new steps to help stop the
spread of the coronavirus. It's blocking the transfer of old bank
notes between provinces and cities affected by the outbreak, according
to the deputy governor of the People's Bank of China — and that's just
the beginning.
Bloomberg reports: The central bank also ramped up measures to
sanitize old money to reduce contagion risks and added 600 billion
yuan ($85.9 billion) of new cash for Hubei, the epicenter of the
coronavirus, he said.
"Money from key virus-hit areas will be sanitized with ultraviolet
rays or heated and locked up for at least 14 days, before it is
distributed again," Fan said at a press conference on Saturday. Money
circulated in less riskier areas is subject to a week of quarantine
and commercial lenders have been asked to separate cash from hospitals
and food markets, he said.
The share of cash in broad money supply has dropped steadily in recent
years in China, with the rise of mobile payments largely replacing
bank notes in daily life.
"It's an extreme move that makes sense," argues Quartz: Whether it's
dollars, pounds, euros, shekels, or in this case yuan, currency is
notoriously dirty. A 2017 study [PDF] of $1 bills in New York found
some 397 bacterial species living on the surface. And when someone
with the flu handles it, that virus has been shown to survive for up
to 12 days.
The World Health Organization has said that it is still not known how
long the the coronavirus can survive on surfaces and objects,
including money. Preliminary information has shown it can survive a
few hours or more, but can be killed with basic disinfectants.