Switzerland slaps cashless: Uruguay almost condemns itself with the same madness

Yesterday, March 8, 2026, Swiss citizens sent a resounding message to the world: cash is not a vestige of the past, but a pillar of individual freedom. With a resounding 73% approval, they voted in favor of the government and parliament's counterproposal, which enshrines in the federal Constitution the guarantee that Swiss franc coins and notes will always be available. The Swiss National Bank is obliged to ensure its permanent supply, thus shielding cash against any future attempt to completely eliminate it in favor of a

100% digital system.

The most radical popular initiative - “Cash is freedom” -, promoted by the Swiss Freedom Movement, which called for a stricter and more explicit wording on coins and banknotes, garnered only about 45% of support. But the practical result is the same: cash is constitutionally protected. Any future change would require a new referendum with a double majority (town and cantons). In the mecca of global private banking, where global fortunes are held, the Swiss rejected the dream of bankers and technocrats to impose mandatory “financial inclusion” and

total cashless.

Why this blow? Because cash isn't just a means of payment: it's privacy, autonomy and resilience. No one tracks you every coffee purchase, every tip, every intimate transaction. There are no commissions that take your blood out, there are no apps that fail when you need them most, there are no cyberattacks that leave you penniless in the street. It's your money, in your pocket, without the digital Big Brother sticking its nose in.

The polls had anticipated it: most see cash as the last bastion against digital slavery. It protects retirees who are not proficient in technology, inland residents without easy access to branches, anyone who values their independence

.

Switzerland, with its direct democracy, was ahead of the global cashless delusion. While other countries are moving towards central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) that could track and control every movement, the Swiss said: this is how far we have come. The virtual Swiss franc may one day be studied, but never at the cost of eliminating physical cash

.

Meanwhile, in Uruguay, we have already experienced firsthand what happens when the State imposes banking by force. The Financial Inclusion Act (19,210 of 2014) was a pure interventionist experiment: large transactions only by transfer or check, mandatory rents by bank account, prohibition of discounts for paying in cash. The excuse was to “modernize”, “combat informality”, “include the excluded”. In reality: a brutal invasion of privacy, an ordeal for the ordinary worker and a million-dollar business for banks, who were charging even to exist

.

People resisted. Common sense clashed with state coercion. In 2020, the Urgent Consideration Act (19,889) repealed the most aberrant thing: it eliminated the obligation of ineffective means and regained the freedom to offer cash discounts. Other rules adjusted electronic money, but the lesson was caught in fire: top-down taxation not only fails, but it generates more damage than the problem it

intended to solve.

Switzerland, with its overwhelming 73%, shows that cash is neither nostalgia nor whim: it is a shield against digital totalitarian control. Uruguay has already paid dearly for that authoritarian error and had to retreat. Let it serve as a warning.

But this doesn't end here. Pedro Bordaberry, a historic figure in the Colorado Party, has defended strict financial controls. In February 2026, deputies from his sector supported the lowering of the ceiling for cash transactions (from US$ 160,000 in the LUC to about US$ 33,000-34,000), yielding to

somewhat nefarious and anti-freedom regulatory pressures.

This is a worrying sign: when the free use of cash is allowed to be further restricted, the door is opened to what Switzerland has just rejected. Economic freedom does not allow half measures.

True inclusion is not decreed with a heavy hand; it emerges when everyone chooses freely. If you want to pay with a card or app, do so. If you prefer cash to defend your privacy and autonomy, it must be an untouchable right. Switzerland understood this and enshrined it in its Constitution. Uruguay corrected course, but may that statist aberration never be repeated

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Because without free cash, there is no economic freedom. And without economic freedom, there is no freedom of any kind.