Month: November 2006

[Dave Birch] Even in the Magic Kingdom. This sort of thing would never happen in an advanced nation, where consumers can use their mobile phones if they want to pay for something. So is Japan a special case, or a window to the wireless world. More evidence for the latter is accumulating. (Incidentally, I’m reliably assured that yesterday’s press release from NTT DoCoMo says that their DCMX “credit card” now has more than 1 million users only six months after launch).

Technorati Tags: cash, security

Continue reading “Cash, parking and videotape”

[Dave Birch] The poor old greenback (ie, the Federal Reserve note, or FRN, not the scaled sardine of the same name) is under assault from all sides. We’ve noted before the unusual fact about U.S. currency that most of it isn’t in the U.S. In fact about $450 billion of the $760 billion in circulation as of December 2005 is held abroad. And the Federal Reserve report on the use and counterfeiting of United States Currency Abroad says that about 1 in 10,000 of the FRNs in circulation is counterfeit, the same as in the U.S. So the FRN seems to work pretty well, but there are some people around who want to change it.

Technorati Tags: cash, costs, security

Continue reading “US Currency notes”

[Dave Birch] I love this kind of serendipity.  I was wandering down the road to meet William Heath of Idealgovernment for a coffee when I happened to glance down a passageway in Old Gloucester Road opposite the October gallery.  I was utterly surprised to see a piece of ironwork from 1925 advertising "British Monomarks".  I was even more surprised to see an office marked British Monomarks behind it: it turns out they still exist.

Technorati Tags: history, ID cards

Continue reading “Monomania”

[Dave Birch]  There was an interesting discussion about biometrics at the Digital Identity Forum and there were some idea floating around about how biometrics could be used as part of an identity infrastructure in the mass market.  Meanwhile, in Japan, DoCoMo’s new handsets include the 903i series which come preinstalled with the software required to use DoCoMo’s DCMX™ mobile credit card on DoCoMo’s iD™ platform (contactless payments), a GPS service that enables a misplaced handset to be located with a PC, biometric authentication (based on fingerprint, face or voice), the Omakase Lock and Data Security Service that enables users who lose their phone to call a 24/7 number and have the phone’s smart card and personal data locked immediately, Original Certificate which enables user identification certificates issued by service providers such as banks to be downloaded and stored in the handset and used as digital signatures for SSL client authentication.  They also come with the ANSHIN-KEY, a special IC-card key carried in a wallet or handbag to automatically lock/unlock the phone depending on the proximity of the key and the phone.  My new UK phone came with… well, nothing really.  But it has got a much better camera than my old one.

Technorati Tags: biometrics, contactless, e-purse, identity, mobile, security

Continue reading “The national identity phone”

[Dave Birch] More contactless action. The Visa UK Board of Directors has announced the nationwide roll out of contactless payment cards across the UK, starting in London, by the end of 2007. Sandra Alzetta, Visa Europe Senior Vice President Consumer Market Development, and sponsor of last years’ Digital Money Forum, said: “With over 75% of all cash payments being less than £10, the introduction of contactless payments will play a major role in encouraging the use of cards over cash for low value transactions. In addition, the decision to go live in less than a year supports our vision for a cashless Olympic Games in London in 2012.”

Technorati Tags: contactless, nfc, payments

Continue reading “Contactless UK is on the way”

[Dave Birch] When the Snap Cafe in Georgetown, Washington D.C., decided to stop accepting cash they did so for many reasons. The owner says that it has saved her time and money, means she doesn’t have to go to the bank any more and doesn’t have to trust staff she doesn’t know. She got a lower MSC from her card acquirer as well. Note the point about trust. This is a recurrent theme in surveys of retailers and cashlessness: even if they perceive cash to be cheaper than electronic payments, cash has a tendency to evaporate. It’s also downright dangerous: attacks on security vans carrying cash are up 20% in the UK this year.

Technorati Tags: cash, costs, retail

Continue reading “Snap!”