The End of Cash - Room for Debate - NYTimes.com Alternatives to cash are proliferating: not only point-of-sale technologies like Square and Google Wallet but also a digital currency, bitcoin, which has attracted the interest of rivals, criminals and regulators, along with plenty of skepticism. But still, most holiday shoppers this year are wielding credit cards, debit cards and cash. Is there a better way? Should the U.S. eliminate cash and stop printing currency?