While NFC payments never really kicked off and Apple never paid attention to the hyped payment format, here is something that may just become the next biggest thing in alternative payment methods. PayTango is a unique system that scans your fingerprints and links them to your credit or debit cards. When you are at a store that accepts PayTango, all that you need to do is place your index and middle finger on a special scanner and you are charged the applicable amount. The biometric fingerprint scanner is directly attached to the merchant’s point-of-sale system, rendering the payment process frictionless. PayTango is developed by the students of Carnegie Mellon University and the device costs between $1500 and $1700. If it is mass manufactured, the prices might come down.
While it certainly seems like a great idea to pay with the help of one’s one fingerprints, I cannot help but imagine scenarios when someone grabs your wrist and forcibly swipe your fingers across the system to make illicit payments. If you plan to use your fingers to pay, there must at least be a way to ‘turn it off’, in order to make your fingers more ‘secure.’
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