[Jhsto]

I've needed cash more often in San Francisco than I've needed anywhere in Europe in the last 5 years.

To my experience, even the smallest shops in most of Europe accept contactless payments, whereas in the States the smaller ones did not accept card payments for purchases under 2 (or sometimes even 20) dollars. I'd agree that the market for a fintech company in the States is much larger, but this is solely because its current state is so bad.

[martinald]

Depends where you are. UK/France/Spain, yes, Germany absolutely not. Even mid range restaurants are 50/50 if they'll take card. Not really sure what you are meant to do if they don't take card and you are settling a large table which costs more than your daily ATM limit...

[wastedhours]

Yep, similar experience in Germany, and more than 50/50 if you travel further east in Europe (and that's not even counting those who look actively pissed off if you want to pay by card even if they have the facilities to take it[0]).

[0] this is a bigger thing than you'd expect and goes back to my point on culture - unless you want to feel like a tourist standing out, there's plenty of places in Europe still where cash is very definitely implied to be preferred. And don't even try if you're not in a major metro area.