The Royal Canadian Mint is introducing a new type of payment called micropayment or nanopayment.
Chief financial officer Marc Brule says "We came to the conclusion that there is still no cost-effective electronic solution that can accommodate low value transactions, protect privacy, and have some of the familiar properties and characteristics of cash."
The word is that MintChip could enable easy micro-transactions for things like buying music, news articles or add-ons for video games, or online auctions.
The mint is currently holding a contest open to software developers to design applications that use the prototype MintChip technology. Winners will be announced Sept. 24.
One report argues the Canadian economy could get a two per cent productivity boost worth $32 billion by modernizing how the country makes and handles payments.
One social issue that is really obvious is the digital divide caused between Canada and other countries which have successfully integrated digital transactions for everything. One example is China which has magnetic cards for its public transportation system, whereas Canadians are buying bus passes still. However, the Canadian government is finding ways to eliminate this divide. Micro-transaction cards seem like an effective solution.
Learn more: http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/story/2012/04/12/technology-mintchip-digital-penny-payment.html
No comments:
Post a Comment