A Look Back at Biometric-based Payments
The archive of Pay By Touch-related stories here on Payments News begins over four years ago. It's interesting to scroll back (read from the bottom up) and look at the various partnerships, financings, trials, etc. that Pay By Touch announced along the way prior to shuttering its biometrics payment service at 11:59 PM last night.
But, "the future constantly arrives late and in unexpected ways," forecaster Paul Saffo reminds us. What do you think - what's next for biometric-based payments? Add your comment below.
I'm an ex-employee, and I'll say that the demise points to several issues for the company. But there were also some interesting lessons from the experience that will be useful should anyone ever try biometric payments again.
I blog about that here:
http://bhc3.wordpress.com/2008/03/19/farewell-pay-by-touch-farewell/
Posted by: Hutch | March 20, 2008 at 01:09 PM
In my opinion it was a faulty design from the very beginning doomed to failure. What consumers desire, and need, is rock solid security and ownership of the transactional information. There is no real need to attach a name to an electronic transaction if it's guaranteed and the proper card user is authenticated and verified.
Biometrics at the point of sale will still be a major part of our future. The best solution has yet to be implemented.
Posted by: Monty | March 21, 2008 at 07:15 AM