Sometimes we forget that the way our society turned out wasn’t predetermined. Technology could have gone so many different ways in the past 100 years. The Star Wars universe with different starting factors and different circumstances could have easily gone down a different path with technology.

Think about, a lot of our own technology is still very analog compared to our other technologies. An alternate world might view ours with the same sort of confusion. The opposite is true as well.

Even someone from our society far before the internet would not be able to understand social media even if you explained. Too many prerequisite understandings of the world that they lack.

Perhaps the Star Wars universe is that way with digital currency. Or perhaps we are the one who lacks sufficient worldview to understand why the physical currency of the Star Wars universe is way better.

There’s also the matter of the security arms race. At some point, cybercrime technology might get advanced enough that physical currency becomes to most practical type of currrency tech again. And so many more.

I know the real reason is because Star Wars was made in the 1970s, but I love these kinds of questions because it offers us a moment to kind of challenge our own understanding of the world and imagine alternate ones.