Left your wallet at home? Pretty soon, that might not be a problem.
Key Details
- A walletless future could be upon us as technology will replace it.
- With online shopping being the main way to purchase items, shoppers can access payment options on a smartphone.
- Innovations like Apple Wallet and Apple Pay house debit and credit cards and in some states your personal IDs.
- Government agencies have always enforced the hard copy of most forms of identification, but they too are joining the virtual ties and slowly allowing things to be more virtual.
- Buildings and hotels are also switching to virtual by adding virtual keycards. Customers can now swipe into their rooms with their phones and not a physical keycard.
Why it’s news
People need their wallet everyday whether it be for an ID, debit card, or other personal documents but in the future that might not be the case.
In the future people could have all identification, tickets, and payment cards right in their phone and not have to worry about carrying a wallet.
New technology continues to be introduced to make people’s lives easier and one of the next things could be all of your personal items living in the palm of your hand.
Between virtual wallets and finger-print scanning technology—the future could be totally walletless.
Problems
When it comes to things being fully virtual—there are typically issues.
It is no surprise that things online get hacked and sometimes it’s often. If all documents live virtually—including sensitive information like social security cards and payment cards—that gives hackers even more reason to pry into networks.
Before a walletless future arrives networks will have to do some big security advancements to ensure safety.
Other innovations
Another way of leaving your wallet behind is with Amazon’s One-palm scanning.
One-palm links customer’s’ palm print to their credit card information, and once registered, all customers have to do is hover their hand over the device. Amazon says the new technology is a quick and easy way to make a payment, enter a venue, or identify yourself.
Amazon reassures customers that their information is safe and not stored in the device. The technology has “multiple layers of security controls are used to protect data, including encryption and data isolation.”
