Many people feel that before it has much effect in the physical world, electronic cash will be adopted on the internet for small value payments. There is also considerable pressure to use smart cards for secure payments on the internet. In the meantime, it is clear that we will all have smart cards in our wallets, although we might find that many merchants still swipe it through their existing point of sale terminals. Every country is doing it at a different rate and some are not doing it at all. It is badly co-ordinated, but deployment will eventually happen and it will be a success.
Smart cards offer users a more secure, more convenient and faster way of making payments.
Tony Slocombe, principal consultant at OSI, the management support company, believes that the wait will be worthwhile.