The Economist reports that NTT DoCoMo, Japan’s top mobile operator, is embedding credit cards into the wireless chips of cell phones:
It believes the next big thing is using phones to pay for things, by embedding a credit card into a wireless chip built into each handset.
But Kenya was first, say the BBC:
A new service allowing Safaricom subscribers to buy prepaid phone cards [enables] them to transfer any selected amount of surplus minutes to other subscribers, using text messaging. You can pay a supplier with it, or even create a little bank of phone call credits to sell to others. What Michael Joseph has actually done is to create a new currency --a cyber currency that can be sent anywhere in the country at the press of a button, without needing a bank account or incurring high bank charges.
“Empowering the poor” and slaying inflation – two birds with one stone.
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