Today, in almost every industry, we see digital payments playing a crucial role. Instant and easy digital payments are on the rise—no matter what, why, and where, individuals and businesses are pursuing them. In fact, they have become part of our everyday lives.
Digital payments are safe, instant, fast, like in the blink of an eye. The advanced technologies are a boost to make virtual payments. Primarily, we see fintech and e-commerce industries stand first in utilizing digital payments. You cannot imagine paying in physical cash anymore, right.
Now comes an interesting question about how these digital payments take part in wearable devices. Wearable devices are often seen in capturing the number of our footsteps, monitoring our heartbeat, observing our health all-time, keeping us up-to-date on messages, calls, and daily schedules.
But today, eventually, wearable devices are coming in to allow us to make digital payments – a gesture of advancements, isn’t it? The upgraded version of wearable devices is to have debit and credit cards added to them.
The Wearable Devices for Contactless Payments
While Europe and East Asia are already witnessing the pilot testing for iris scanners and facial and payment technologies, these could best fit into the wearable platforms. With updated security systems for wearable devices, we might be seeing less usage of PINs and passwords as security measures.
Recently DIGISEQ announced a breakthrough in payment wearable technology by adding key functionality to turn any object of choice into a payment device with a user-friendly mobile application.
Interestingly, Axis Bank became the first bank in India to launch its own range of wearable contactless payment devices called ‘Wear N Pay’ with NFC-based functionality. The device will be directly linked to a customer’s bank account that acts as a debit card while making contactless payments.
The giants such as Disney, Lyle & Scott, Visa, Apple, Samsung, Sony, Alibaba, and Mastercard have taken steps to promote wearables for payments.
The Challenge
Although it is pretty exciting to see wearable devices designed to make contactless payments, there is an equal amount of risk involved. Since these devices have access to personal and financial data and information being circulated between devices, and the cloud, this might result in risks. So to avoid the risk, the devices will have to be backed up by robust security that manages personal and financial data and minimizes the risk.
While wearable devices access information from the cloud and most are operated with smartphone applications, there is this risk associated with products. So manufacturers will have to deal with these challenges to keep the wearable devices away from illicit or fraudulent activities.
The Conclusion
As the trend continues to grow, digital payments, wearable devices, of course, digital currencies, cross-border payment, and digital wallets are going to change the future. The most competitive space awaits with advanced technologies, potential revenue flows, and technological innovations.