CyberCash is moving away from the client side with a cookie-based system, dubbed Agile Wallet. BT Array has no client-side software. CyberCash's Agile Wallet currently accepts credit cards and will add support for its CyberCoin cash in one year to 18 months, according to Russell Stevenson, senior vice president of the Reston, Va.-based company. Smart cards support micropayments because they hold electronic funds, and they have the advantage of working in both the physical and online worlds. Several hardware makers, including Hewlett-Packard, have begun adding smart card readers to some PC models, and Intelidata Technologies in Herndon, Va., is marketing a smart card reader that fits in a PC floppy drive.
Smart cards are well-established in Europe and they are moving onto the Internet.
In that same month, Proton World International announced that its 30 million smart card users in Europe are now able to reload their smart cards over the Internet as well as make purchases. Given the global appeal of content such as popular music, these announcements give some companies an immediate business case to support micropayments. Smart cards are emerging more slowly in the United States, partly because credit and debit cards are firmly established. But on the Internet you tend to do things in smaller chunks. Some analysts cite per-play online games as a potential micropayment killer application.