This is one of the first demo videos of the Citi MasterCard + Google Wallet app. I like the accidental additional transaction in the demo. Whoops! It is kind of scary that you’re walking around with a digitized Credit Card. The hacker community is going to have a hell of a fun time with NFC (I’m sure plenty of security measures have been taken by the industry, but even then there are plenty of flaws that can be exploited on less-sophisticated phones and users).
Nonetheless, Google Wallet will be a game changer down the road. Good news for them, people have accepted giving up a certain level of control and information in exchange for convenience as apparent from the rapid adoption of online banking and PFM tools.
The whole “store your Citi MasterCard information in Google Wallet” is semi useless if you think about, as it just adds another layer. Tech like Google Wallet will eliminate plastic all together, and will turn the Credit Card companies into just Credit companies. The winner here may ultimately just be Citi and Google, not MasterCard. It will be really interesting to see how this all plays out and how the payments (and credit and debit) industry in general evolves over the next decade. I personally find it to be fascinating.
Read more about the integration. If your credit card company offered something like this and your phone was compatible, would you use it?
UPDATE: Google Wallet now has a commercial (embeded below). Meh. Don’t they remember the failed Seinfeld + Bill Gates commercials? Showing the actual technology would be much more badass.
Source: Engadget
