Opinion: Is the cashless age about to dawn?

Alternatives to cash are coming thick and fast, but banknotes are unlikely to disappear soon

Innovation in payment technology has stepped up a gear recently. At Xendpay, we have to stay abreast of any new technologies that might improve the experience of people sending money overseas. One such development is the recent launch by Barclays of Ping-it, a mobile app that allows person-to-person transfers, which has re-energised the talk of an "end to cash".

But is the eradication of cash really possible? And do any of the new payments technologies or mobile apps look like they are leading the way?

The idea of making a payment by tapping your phone on an in-store reader, or perhaps even by simply looking at a camera in a shop might sound like a cool way to pay for a sandwich or at a vending machine, but could you imagine using these methods when buying a bunch of flowers in a street market, or handing out pocket-money?

Cash doesn't need batteries or a signal. It doesn't cost anything to use it or accept it. It's very portable, not easy to forge and it's accepted everywhere - so it's a hard act to follow. However, financial institutions, mobile phone manufacturers and network operators, software suppliers and a host of interesting start-ups everywhere are working hard right now to replace the cash in your pocket with something else.

The new kids on the payments block like Google Wallet, Square (www.squareup. com) and Facecash (www.facecash. com) - and more established mobile-based payments services like M-pesa (http:// www.safaricom.co.ke) from Kenya all offer glimpses of a future without cash. Perhaps based on special mobile phones that contain tap-to-pay near-field communication (NFC) technology, or on individuals creating accounts that allow them to use face recognition technology to pay for goods.

Peer-to-peer mobile services like Ping-it from Barclays and PayPal work on a different basis. Behind the "future of payments" hype, the mobile app is simply used to securely communicate with your account once authorised by you - without using clever chips or NFC. So it's simple and there is an existing customer base signed up to the service.

So with all this innovation going on (banks, credit card issuers, mobile phone companies, payment service provider start-ups, etc) are we closer to having a new way to pay for our potatoes? In my opinion, while there are big changes on the way, there are still some unanswered questions and problems we have to address before we can totally abandon cash for good.

Jake Holloway, head of e-commerce, Xendpay.com