LoopWallet Designed to Close Mobile Phone-POS Gap
George Wallner, inventor of magnetic stripe transmission technology, is focused on reinventing payments once again as co-founder of Loop, where he is creating a solution to close the gap between mobile phones and traditional point of sale systems. Wallner says NFC technology sparked his interest, particularly with his realization that the industry is using it “in a way that will make it very difficult to adopt.” This understanding inspired Wallner to help develop the Loop mobile commerce platform’s underlying magnetic secure transmission technology, which enables engagement between mobile phones and standard POS terminals. The advantage of this approach is that it helps ameliorate the drawbacks of storing card data on traditional mag-stripe products without requiring merchants to upgrade their terminals. Wallner describes Loop and the accompanying LoopWallet as highly secure, encrypting the cardholder’s card data and storing it inside a dedicated hardware service module. Users cannot use LoopWallet and Loop to pay without proper authentication, and Wallner says LoopWallet requires a PIN for every transaction in which the user employs one of his credit cards in the LoopWallet with the Loop. He says LoopWallet and the Loop payment will register on the merchant’s POS system, and a receipt requiring a signature will be printed.
From “Reinventing Payments for the Second Time”
Pymnts.com (08/12/13) Carsley, Ben