On the web:

• Google Wallet Is Leaking Money - BusinessWeek - "After two years, most consumers still can’t use the app."
• Why Google Is Missing Out on the Mobile-Payments Boom - BusinessWeek - "NFC’s poor take-up represents one of the bigger whiffs by the mobile industry in recent years."
• Visa Doesn't See Big Impact From Retailers Opting Out of Settlement - Wall St. Journal - "Mr. Scharf said it appears roughly 25% of merchants won't participate in the settlement."
• Payments: 'tap and go' is so 2012 - Sydney Morning Herald - "You’ll be able to visualise the prices of items as overlays when you walk through a store and the customer will tap the side of the glasses to make a purchase."
• New York Merchants Sue to Stop Ban on Card-Fee Surcharges - Bloomberg - "Five merchants including a hair salon, ice-cream parlor and liquor store filed a complaint today in federal court in Manhattan demanding that the law be declared unconstitutional."
• China’s romance with Bitcoin continues - CoinDesk - "The country’s increased interest in the currency has shown no signs of abating over the past couple of months…"
• Bitcoin payments could be a landmine for companies - CSO Online - "The problem is in the way the Bitcoin peer-to-peer network works."
• How Bitcoin Lets You Spy on Careless Companies - Wired - "…because all transactions are recorded publicly on the Bitcoin peer-to-peer network, once you know the Bitcoin address of the person you’re paying, it’s possible to track all other payments made to that address."

On the wires:

• NXP and SES Achieve Breakthrough for Mass Adoption of NFC in Retail - "Embedding NFC tags into electronic shelf labels enables retailers to offer a number of different services to brands, from digital marketing and social media integration to personalized cross-selling, up-selling and loyalty schemes."
• INSIDE Secure and CPI Card Group Announce Availability of MasterCard M/Chip Advance in the U.S. - "These new card products give issuers the greatest flexibility in migrating to EMV. One product has been optimized to support online-only EMV card programs, while the other supports both online and offline payment transactions."

The FIDO Alliance today announced several new members - including Google, NXP and CrucialTec as board members, Entersekt and Fingerprint Cards as founding sponsors, and Allweb Technologies, Check2Protect, Crocus Technology, Diamond Fortress Technologies, and Insyndia Global as associate members.

The FIDO Alliance is an industry consortium focused on introducing "the first standards-based open specifications for overcoming password dependency with universal strong authentication."

"We are very pleased to count these outstanding global leaders among the ranks of the FIDO Alliance," said Michael Barrett, FIDO Alliance president and PayPal Chief Information Security Officer (CISO).

"FIDO is compelling to those who can lead and affect change, because the open FIDO specifications promise to restore trust with stronger security that also simplifies the user experience and ensures privacy. By overcoming the limits of proprietary authentication methods, FIDO opens up a vast marketplace for strong authentication where FIDO enabled devices and services interoperate. We encourage all who require secure user authentication, and those who provide various methodologies to join us on a very fast track to FIDO universal strong authentication."

According to the Alliance, "The open FIDO specifications will support a full range of authentication technologies, including biometrics such as fingerprint scanners, voice and facial recognition, as well as existing solutions and communications standards, such as Trusted Platform Modules (TPM), USB Security Tokens, Near Field Communication (NFC), One Time Passwords (OTP) and many other existing and future technology options."

Google, Citi, MasterCard, First Data and Sprint have announced and demonstrated Google Wallet, "an app that will make your phone your wallet so you can tap, pay and save money and time while you shop. For businesses, Google Wallet is an opportunity to strengthen customer relationships by offering a faster, easier shopping experience with relevant deals, promotions and loyalty rewards."

“Today, we’ve joined with leaders in the industry to build the next generation of mobile commerce,” said Stephanie Tilenius, vice president, commerce and payments, Google. “With Citi, MasterCard, First Data and Sprint we’re building an open commerce ecosystem that for the first time will make it possible for you to pay with an NFC wallet and redeem consumer promotions all in one tap, while shopping offline.”

Google Wallet is currently in a field test and will be available to consumers this summer. The official site is www.google.com/wallet. The Google Wallet merchant acceptance site is www.firstdata.com/googlewallet.

If you missed the announcement — and all the Q&A — EnGadget was live blogging everything with photos. Nice job.

Sprint, VeriFone, and NXP all issued related announcements.

On the wires:

• MIFARE4Mobile Industry Group Announces Roadmap
• Pitney Bowes Announces International Ecommerce SuiteApp for NetSuite’s SuiteCloud Computing Platform
• Zuora Launches Z-NetSuite, Combining Cloud-based Subscription Management and ERP/Financials
• Hypercom Introduces Next Generation Network Technology for ISOs
• RocketPay to offer Planet Payment’s Multi-Currency Pricing Service
• ViVOtech Introduces POS Add-On NFC Reader for Delivering Personalized Shopping and Quick Check Out

On the web:

• NFC World: Google Raises Concerns Over the Viability of NFC card Emulation Mode for Mobile Payments (with Video)
• MSNBC: Crowded Coupon Industry Competes for Users

Seven players in the Near Field Communication (NFC) ecosystem, Ericsson, Gemalto, NXP, Oberthur Technologies, STMicroelectronics, Venyon, and ViVOtech have announced they are forming a MIFARE4Mobile Industry Group that will "enable its members to collaborate and work together to standardize and advance the uniform management of MIFARE™ applications on NFC-enabled secure elements, such as SIM cards, and mobile phones." READ MORE »

NXP and Trusted Logic have announced the release of an open source NFC Android API. According to the companies, "this will enable mobile phone users to access a new range of contactless applications such as mobile payments, transport and event ticketing as well as data sharing directly from their Android phones." READ MORE »

NXP and Giesecke & Devrient have announced the introduction of NXP’s new Fast Pay contactless security chip and a new line of G&D contactless payment devices based on this IC. According to the two companies, "Fast Pay-based devices have been specifically designed to provide consumers in the USA and Canada with a convenient and swift contactless payment solution – replacing the need for cash and reducing transaction times." READ MORE »