>So I'll have one credit card to carry around that will just pass through the charge to another card I'm carrying around, because none of this stuff is yet reliable enough to abandon my wallet entirely.
Or maybe it has to do with a completely backward aged industry that uses an insecure standard? There are NFC readers all over here and they're all disabled because the implementation on plastic cards is shit and insecure so they turn the whole reader off. This prohibits something like the Nexus 4 from being able to auth payments which could easily be done in a manner far more secure.
The sad thing is, Google is so far ahead that no one else is close enough to be compatible so this is the shim they have to implement.
This comment is so incredibly pessimistic, I'd hate to have this attitude towards something new that is challenged by virtue of its newness.
Having written code to interface with the IBM mainframes that power the credit networks... yes, I'm pessimistic about this. I absolutely welcome any improvement in the payment card space (especially around authentication and security in general) but so long as they're going over the existing networks at any point, that's going to be the weak link in the chain.
Simply put, it's a really bad chicken-and-egg problem. But offering a traditional payment card to bridge the gap does nothing to improve retailer adoption of the necessary tech to really move things forward.
Unless google is going to provide (and replace) that hardware, it's unlikely to happen. And if they do, they basically have to declare war on Visa et al due to the PCI requirements around POS hardware - they're not going to certify hardware that can be used to eventually bypass them, and merchants won't risk using uncertified hardware because they'll get shut off by their acquiring bank.
>Unless google is going to provide (and replace) that hardware
Mm, I had thought about the same thing. They could too, they could have some secure NFC smartcard and a contactful NFC card and use PKI and on and on, if you work in this area I'm sure my ideas pale in comparison to what you work with or can imagine.
I think they have to declare war on VISA. VISA doesn't seem to really give a shit to bother improving and it's probably in their best interest to keep everyone hooked on their physical infrastructure. If your phone becomes the focal point of the POS system, then I would imagine payment processor competition would be encouraged. I'm more or less just yammering now though, sorry.
Or maybe it has to do with a completely backward aged industry that uses an insecure standard? There are NFC readers all over here and they're all disabled because the implementation on plastic cards is shit and insecure so they turn the whole reader off. This prohibits something like the Nexus 4 from being able to auth payments which could easily be done in a manner far more secure.
The sad thing is, Google is so far ahead that no one else is close enough to be compatible so this is the shim they have to implement.
This comment is so incredibly pessimistic, I'd hate to have this attitude towards something new that is challenged by virtue of its newness.