🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <ARI.HUTTUNEN.92Sep9013737@supergirl.hut.fi>,
Ari.Huttunen@hut.fi (Ari Juhani Huttunen) wrote:
> 
> 
> It just shows that the current idea of an 'ATM card' is no good. We need
> intelligent tokens and pretty damn fast. By 'intelligent token' I mean
> a card that can be challenged by the computer of the bank. I've seen this
> talked about in many books, so it's nothing new. What I would like to know
> is that how soon such devices will be available? Will the patents on
> public encryption prevent such devices for another 10 years?


It's not patents that holding up smart ATM cards, it's cost and benefits.
In order to find the *maximum* amount that any rational bank[1] would spend
on a smart ATM card, divide the amount of fraud that you expect that
technology to prevent by the number of cards outstanding.  The last I
heard, for the kinds of things that smart cards might possibly prevent,
this amounted to about $0.10 per card.

-- Jim Lyon                          "... where the work is NonStop,
   Lyon_Jim@Tandem.Com                    and we do everything twice."

[1]  A contradiction in terms, I know.