Bytes in the wallet

Cash is gradually disappearing from everyday life. Coins and banknotes, which still constitute the reference in the collective imaginary, are less and less part of the ordinary acts of paying, giving, receiving, lending, sharing, saving and counting. This article describes the main dimensions of the digitization of money: the development of digital currencies, the appearance of new payment intermediaries, and the innovations in mobile payment. It identifies three research areas for exploring these transformations, and maps the diverse ways in which the social sciences are addressing them: decline of cash, along with the predicted advent of cashless societies; the data of money and payment; and the appropriation of digital money.