"Until the mid 1990’s payments has seen very little innovation. From the ancient times where metals where used as a way of value to encourage trade amongst individuals who were unknown to each other, we have seen the evolution of money take only very small steps. From metals, to paper, to plastic and now we are in a digital world where regulated currency is nothing more than zero’s and one’s in the ledgers of large financial institutions or the rise of Cryptocurrencies using Blockchain technology to replace those financial institutions. However this is not a post, where I want to go into Cryptocurrencies, but rather the Battle that is going on in the Payments Industry for the domination in accepting and processing the digital world of regulated currencies and commerce.
The Internet changed everything
Where the transition from paper to plastic took quite a while for people to adapt, at least three decades, the internet and especially e-commerce is again changing the way that we pay. Most of the online transactions still involve a Credit/Debit card, from which you enter the PAN (Primary Account Number a.k.a. Payment Card Number or Card Number), a CVC (Card Verification Code a.k.a. Card Verification Value), and an Card Expiration Date, but as we get more accustomed to using Payments Features (PayPal, ApplePay, WePay) that are build on top of the current technologies (Bank Transfers, Credit Cards) that we use, there will be further development into replacing cards by using services that improve the checkout process, either through usernames and passwords, two-step verification or even biometrics (fingerprint, facial-recognization)."
https://medium.com/swlh/the-battle-between-startups-and-incumbents-in-the-payments-industry-618a626825ab
