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On Wednesday, Sept. 9, at 11 a.m. PDT/2 p.m. EDT/7 p.m. GMT, @eWEEKNews will host its monthly #eWEEKChat. The topic will be “Digital Money: Bitcoin and Mobile Payments.” It will be moderated by Chris Preimesberger, who serves as eWEEK’s editor of features and analysis.
Some quick facts:
Topic: Digital Money: Bitcoin and Mobile Payments
Date/time: Sept. 9, 2015 @11a.m. PDT/2 p.m. EDT/7 p.m. GMT
Hosted by: @eWEEKNews
Moderator: Chris Preimesberger: @editingwhiz
Tweetchat handle: Use #eWEEKChat to follow/participate or use the widget below.
Chatroom real-time links: We have two: http://tweetchat.com/room/eweekchat or http://www.tchat.io/rooms/eweekchat. Both work very well. These are the best way to follow the commentary.
The Truly Digital Economy Is at Hand
Will actual hard currency as we know it, such as coins and paper money, eventually disappear? Some people believe so. Currency, as it turns out, is merely a concept; it is the perceived value of a dollar bill, a chicken, a diamond or a service performed. Now currency is represented in bits in a storage container somewhere. And it all revolves around payments from anywhere using a connected device.
Bitcoin has been controversial over the past several years. Initially mentioned in a paper in 2008 and launched in early 2009, the digital currency has experienced a number of ups and downs in its fortunes. However, it turns out lots of smart people still don’t know what this is all about; we’ll examine the trend here and talk about use cases.
We’ll also define Blockchain, a public ledger of all Bitcoin transactions that have ever been executed. It is constantly growing as completed blocks are added to it with a new set of recordings. The blocks are added to the blockchain in a linear, chronological order.
But mostly we’re going to discuss mobile payment trends. Apple Pay started almost one year ago and has spread quickly among commercial enterprises. Android Pay is about to launch, and Samsung is set to launch its own pay system soon.
Android Pay Won’t Totally Replace Google Wallet
More than 700,000 stores in the United States will be supporting Android Pay from the get-go, Google said. Google Wallet will still be supported, but it will be used only to conduct Google Play store purchases on the Web. It also will facilitate peer-to-peer payments through the app and on services such as Gmail.
Samsung has looked at Apple and Android and has gone with an interesting concept that will be announced this fall: All the user needs to do is log into the payment app and verify ID on the device, and the Samsung Note or Edge phone can be tapped onto any Verifone (or other) sliding-card point-of-sale (POS) device anywhere in the world, and the sale is transacted. Just a tap; no sliding cards will ever be needed.
This is very different from Apple Pay, which requires its own specialized POS hardware.
In any case, we’ll be posing questions such as these:
–Are you using Bitcoin now, and, if so, what advantages does it bring?
–If you use Bitcoin, do you find it difficult and/or confusing to use?
–What types of mobile payment apps do you use?
–How much do you believe the success of Apple Pay, Android Pay and Samsung Pay will depend on usability and mobile platform support?
–Do you see wearables such as smartwatches playing a major role in mobile payments?
Join us Sept. 9 at 11 a.m. PDT and 2 p.m. EDT.