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cards
This page looks at
smart card systems.
background
The first electronic transaction
systems for consumers were credit cards and automatic teller machine (ATM) cards based
on a magnetic stripe that allowed the user to gain access to a line of
credit or bank account. In essence, they authenticated a
transaction over a network and the individual card did not
embody a monetary value.
By the late 1980s developers were experimenting with magnetic stripe cards
that could act as "electronic wallets" or "purses".
A value, typically somewhere between twenty and two
hundred dollars, would be loaded onto the card - the card
itself served as currency, rather than as authentication
for money held in a separate account.
The relentless fall in the cost of microchips encouraged
some developers to add them to cards. The expectation is
that these stored value cards (Smart Card) would serve as both an access device
- eg linked to your account as an ATM card - and a self contained store of value.
Some reports suggest a figure of around 2 billion smart
cards issued each year, of which 80% relate to phones and
20% cover uses such as finance, pay television and
personal identification. Most German citizens have a
health care smart card.
bibliographies
We are in the process of adding
pointers to digital cash, smart cards and online payment systems. For
the moment an excellent introduction is provided by the electronic money
bibliography
at Exeter University.
introductions
Among the slew of books and articles
about new currency systems - we sometimes think more money's being made
from publishing than from doing - Digital Money (New York, Wiley
96) by Cybercash
chairman Daniel Lynch & Leslie Lundquist provides an excellent
introduction to digital money products and associated issues such as
authentication, cryptography and ecommerce standards.
Seth Godin's Presenting Digital Cash
(Indianapolis, Sams.net Publishing 95) is somewhat dated. For a less
evangelistic analysis consult Leo Van Hove's paper
on Electronic Purses: (Which) Way To Go?
NetCheque, NetCash, and the
Characteristics of Internet Payment Services is a perceptive article
by B Clifford Neuman & Gennady Medvinsky from the 1995 Journal of
Electronic Publishing.
bodies and standards
The US Smart Card Forum
is an industry body concerned with credit card sized devices that act as
rechargeable electronic purses and, in more sophisticated versions, can
hold digital signatures, medical records and other data. The competing
Smart Card Association (SCIA)
has a wider ambit
The UK-based Mondex has
attracted a number of Australian partners, although so far with
uncertain success.
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