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The point is that if you give the $20 to a homeless charity they are going to use it to provide 20 or even 40 meals in places where real homeless congregate. Giving money to panhandlers is vastly less efficient not just because many are scammers but also because you aren't reaching most of the homeless population or an organization that can leverage economies of scale to buy efficiently. The people who hang out at busy intersections with signs, particularly in suburbs where they know many easy marks exist, are not representative of the real population or problem.
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Many homeless people take contactless payment, these days. Some even put it on their signs.
Anyone with a smartphone can do it. Few people don't have smartphones, anymore.
You can literally get a Square dongle for free, to swipe cards.
Homeless people jumped on Cash App faster than dealers. >

And for those wondering, the government does provide phones to homeless people who apply.  It's a program that started with Reagan with home phone service, under Obama it applied to cell phones and has seen need applied to smartphones >

I believe Hillary Clinton made that a campaign promise, but for obvious reasons that never happened >

But it's great for governments taking their cut from the productive class! >

Absolutely perfect for that. >

Cold snap before christmas I gave the dude my scarf, as no cash, and he had no scarf. It was a good scarf. >

That’s very good of you. >

I confess I was in two minds about it, because I got the scarf as a gift, but it was absolutely biting cold, and I was off to a warm home. Had a quick chat, he seemed in good spirits though. So I think there's a good chance he's ok. >

Most people would be in one mind about it, “no that’s my scarf I want to keep it”, so being in two minds about isn’t a bad thing at all. >

Thanks, OP. I appreciate the support. >

Another issue would be low income and “unlawfully” employed individuals who take cash as payment. I’m not talking about dealers, but perhaps immigrants and those getting paid in cash for their labor. 
Access to digital currency is also a trick. If you live in a large metropolitan city, you have access to internet, banks, ATMs; but if you live out of town or in the country, or maybe just don’t have reliable transportation and internet, you are also screwed. >

Yeah, I do think people are much more willing to go and get cash out of an ATM though to pay in a cash only store or pay a dealer, so it definitely affects them less than homeless people but I agree with you. >

Also bad for for power/internet outages, one fast food restaurant I used to work at had problems with their debit/credit payments almost twice a month due to connection problems >

I can't give money to those people, since in almost every case, it's just a scam. If you want to help homeless people, support local policies that support the homeless, volunteer at a soup kitchen, become a speaker for homelessness issues in your town. Giving them $20 doesn't help them. >

You may not turn their life around with your $20 gift, but you might buy them a sandwhich, and some reason to stay in a heated place for a while. That's definitely helping. Helping does not equal fix everything forever.