- If the data communication stops working or the electricity disappears, we can not pay for food, fuel and medicine.

It will be challenging, says Joeri van Laere, senior lecturer at the University of Skövde, who has researched the role of cash in society.

Banknotes and coins have long served as a reserve system that we can return to if electronic means of payment stop working.

But since fewer and fewer Swedes use cash and not all shops and cafés accept banknotes and coins anymore, this "reserve infrastructure" is threatened.

- Cash does not work as a reserve system if everyone were to start using them throughout Sweden.

Because then cash-in-transit cars are not enough to fill ATMs and to collect cash in the shops, says Joeri van Laere.

MSB: Have banknotes at home

Ten years ago, about 40 percent of Swedes still used cash, but now we are moving quickly towards an increasingly cash-free society and the development has been accelerated during the pandemic, when more and more people shop online.

At the same time, banknotes and coins are needed as a reserve system if other payment systems are eliminated.

For example, the MSB (Swedish Agency for Civil Contingencies) recommends that all private individuals have cash at home in order to be able to deal with power outages that have triggered card payments.

The Riksbank warns

And the Swedish Riksbank is also now warning of the risks of moving towards a completely cashless society.

- If we get into a crisis situation and people want to use cash again, it is very important that we have the cash system left, as a backup solution during times of crisis, says Deputy Governor Henry Ohlsson to SVT.

What would happen if modern payment systems broke down?

- Then we would have a society that does not work.

Many Swedes are worried that society has become too cashless and are worried that shops do not always accept their banknotes and coins, but the trade does not believe in a "cash constraint" for business owners.

- Consumers themselves choose how to pay.

To force someone who has never had cash payment in their store to have cash, I am very hesitant about that, says Bengt Nilervall, payment expert at Svensk Handel.

Hear the protesters' criticism of the contactless society in the clip above.