What bacteria and viruses are actually on that dollar bill you gave the cashier? According to steptohealth.com, you can expect Staphylococcus epidermitis, Staphylococcus aureus (the one that causes acne), Bacillus, Streptococcus, and E-Coli just to name a few we are familiar with. In addition those coins in your pocket can contain up to 2,400 bacteria and more! To make matters even grosser (and worse!) the bacteria found on money actually GROWS as we pass it around! That’s right; we are literally passing around Petri dishes full of living cultures to each other.

Passing around money is literally one of the best ways to transfer nasty diseases among the population. I have a habit of keeping my money in an account and using a debit or credit card but sometimes that isn’t possible or convenient. For instance, cash works better at festivals, craft shows, garage sales, estate sales, and flea markets for example. But a USA Today article informs us that a credit or debit card could actually be worse than cash for transmitting diseases. Why? Because viruses tend to live longer on hard surfaces. So, what is a person to do?

Perhaps crypto currency is the very thing we need to radically slow down the spread of some viruses and bacteria? All is would take is a card and a hand held scanner. Only you would touch your card and only the cashier would handle the scanner. Or perhaps the card could be read by the scanner like grocery store scanners read UPC codes? Just a swipe over the scanner and the card is read.

Also it wasn’t just viruses and bacteria that were found on paper currency. Other contaminants frequently found were cocaine, feces, yeast, mold and to a lesser extent, heroin. Think about this the next time you hand the cashier money at the street festival then chow down on that burger and fries. Perhaps carrying a pack of disinfectant wipes at all times is not a bad idea. Times are changing and we must change with the times.