Get ready for the future.That means if you dole out handouts to panhandlers you’d better make sure you have a smartphone with apps such as WeChat and PayPal downloaded.That’s because in China — a nation with almost 1.4 billion consumers — paying electronically without cash is well on the way to becoming the dominate method of payment.The Wall Street Journal reported last week that it’s becoming common in Beijing for beggars to display cardboard placards with impassioned pleas for help followed by “Recommend using WeChat Pay.” Welcome to the cashless society where even panhandling is high tech and strictly no cash per se exchanges hands.To be honest I’m not too sure how many people willing to open their pocketbooks when panhandlers swoop down on them like locust at a 7-Eleven or gas station would still be willing to part with money to someone who is that high tech savvy.As a side note, I’d venture to guess that the majority of homeless today already own smartphones.Regardless of whether you have a tendency to give panhandlers money whether they ask for it in cash, electronic payment transfer, treasury bonds, or bitcoin you’d better get ready for the cashless society because — as Gavin Newsom would say — “it’s going to happen whether you like it or not.”I realized last week when I went to pay for a $2.68 purchase at a convenience store and the clerk — who I have never seen before and was barely out of puberty — gave me a quizzical look when I pulled out a five dollar bill and he asked whether I was going to pay for the items in cash.I was about to say something flippant like I intended to use seashells instead until he offered I was the first customer that day — which was his first going solo on the job — to use government-issued currency to make a purchase.Granted, as I found out during a short chat, he started his shift just 45 minutes earlier. But still, I was the first person to pay him in cash.