Remember micropayments? Most payments providers gave up on this class of electronic payments several years ago when it became apparent that technology couldn’t crack the problem of high-cost transactions applied to very low-value goods. But now at least one player is attacking the market with cryptocurrency. On Track Innovations Ltd., …
Read More »A Scan of 35 Popular Crypto Exchanges Exposes Some Alarmingly Weak Password Policies
With digital currencies booming in popularity over the past year or so, the security of the digital exchanges that convert users’ fiat money into cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin is coming into clearer focus—and the picture isn’t consistently pretty, according to a survey released this week. Some popular exchanges allow users to …
Read More »A Double-Digit Growth Rate in Wearables Sharpens the Focus for Their Payments Potential
With the introduction of transactional capability on smart watches and fitness trackers like the Apple Watch and Fitbit, the payments industry has eyed wearable devices as a field laden with potential for growth. Just how much growth came into focus this week with new figures and projections from International Data …
Read More »Google Pay Integrates With Shopify And Starts a Mass-Transit Pilot in Las Vegas
When Alphabet Inc. last month rebranded its mobile-payment service as Google Pay, it said further changes and features were coming. On Monday, it began to deliver on that prediction with dual announcements that herald an expansion of the service’s availability online and bring it to the potentially enormous market for …
Read More »A Delivery App for Busy Air Travelers Seeks to Tap Into Rising Concession Sales
The home-delivery craze is starting to manifest itself at other venues, with the airport representing the latest example. With a new mobile app, harried passengers can have food or other products from airport stores delivered to them as they sit at their gates. The free app, called AtYourGate, comes from …
Read More »Anti-Fraud Specialist Ethoca Rolls out a Tripartite Defense Against E-Commerce Chargebacks
The rising problem of e-commerce fraud and related issues like false declines is prompting anti-fraud software companies to roll out solutions. On Thursday, Ethoca Inc. launched a new service with three lines of defense that the Toronto-based company says can potentially eliminate 90% of e-commerce chargebacks. Ethoca’s Integrated Solution Suite includes …
Read More »Who’s Afraid of Cryptocurrency? ISO Aliant Adds Ether And Litecoin to Its Bitcoin Gambit
Some experts may dismiss cryptocurrency as impractical for retail payments, but at least one independent sales organization is doubling—make that tripling—down on crypto for merchant acceptance. Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based Aliant Payment Systems Inc. last week launched programs for Ether and Litecoin to go along with one for Bitcoin that it …
Read More »A Cooling EMV Market And Slipping Chip Card Prices Show up in a Card Maker’s Results
If the payments industry needed further evidence that the EMV frenzy unleashed in the United States in 2015 is cooling off, it can find it in the fourth-quarter 2017 and full-year results posted Monday by CPI Card Group, one of the country’s chief manufacturers of chip cards. U.S. sales of …
Read More »E-Commerce Specialist Stripe Snaps up Faster EMV Developer Index in Multichannel Play
The search by online-payments kingpins for avenues into physical-world stores reached a new milestone with the acquisition by Stripe Inc. of point-of-sale technologist Index Inc. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, according to an Index spokesperson, who added the company has no immediate comment on the transaction. A Stripe …
Read More »A Trio of States Are Now Looking at Cryptocurrency for Tax Payments
Bitcoin as a payment method may have its critics, but apparently some state governments looking for new ways to collect taxes aren’t too concerned. Illinois is now the third state to introduce legislation that would clear the way for citizens to pay their obligations with cryptocurrency, joining Arizona and Georgia. …
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