Interesting... this thread was started in 2015, 2 years ago.... are we any closer to paper money going out of circulation? I think not! People still buy physical books, some prefer hard copies. There is something about actually touching and holding physical things compared to everything being digital/virtual... we are physical beings after all! I think there is room for both virtual and paper money in the future....
Some (like Raymond Kurzweil) are claiming that we will soon cease being physical beings altogether
Your point about touching and holding something physical makes sense in respect to things which are not of just a utilitarian value for you. For example, a rare paper bill can be of high value to a numismatist, but for other people to which money (paper money) is purely utilitarian, it is of no particular value on its own. So if they feel that using digital money in the form of payment cards and online payments is more handy and convenient to them, they will certainly prefer digital money over paper bills
It cannot be denied that the raw material from paper that increasingly rare of trees, paper money surely can making damage the environment. Currently all countries trying digital money so that future of paper money will disappear (maybe 50 years again).
Today's paper money is typically made from cotton and linen (these papers are more resilient and durable overall). So no tree has been hurt in the making of this paper bill