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Comment by m00s3 | Hacker News Reader

One data point: As a Canadian, I rarely have cash in my pocket. I can go months at a time without handling cash. Mainly I encounter it these days when I buy & sell stuff privately (via Used.ca or Facebook or whatever). Otherwise I basically use Visa/Apple Pay for everything.

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America really needs to get its retail infrastructure upgraded, but it's not clear who is going to pay for it. A lot of companies have old computers that use magstripe readers for their point-of-sale systems. A lot of businesses have new card readers, but the NFC and/or Chip is turned off (covered with tape saying to not use it) because the attached cash register isn't certified or something.

In Canada, there is an oligopoly of banks, so they just agreed to force everyone to upgrade to Chip and PIN and/or Contactless.

This is hardly my experience at all. Maybe in the first ~6 months after they rolled out the chips nationwide, but not anymore.

How are our experiences so different? I just got back from a trip to New York, and at least half of the retailers I visited didn't have (or use) a chip card reader.

Beggars are gonna have a very hard time.

Not to mention pickpockets https://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/20/nyregion/the-pickpockets-...

Interesting thought experiment. If beggars accepted NFC payments I bet they'd make a lot more money.

Here in Las Vegas, beggars already ask if you can VENMO them a dollar.

They usually have VENMO, PAYPAL, and the CASH app.

I even met a beggar once who had a stripe terminal and could swipe your card.

Edit: Ok, actually the last one is a joke. But not the first 3.

I've seen a panhandler (in the US) flying a sign sporting a GoFundMe campaign URL.

I could see phone-to-phone contactless payment becoming commonplace in the same scenario.

Also QR codes in china: http://en.people.cn/n3/2017/0418/c90000-9204536.html

Sweden is effectively the most cash free place on the map, and there is no shortage of beggars. Not really sure how this works.

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