Biometric payments will go mainstream in 2019, an expert in blockchain-powered payments has predicted.Alastair Johnson, CEO and founder of blockchain-based secure payments and identity verification platform Nuggets, said that consumers are already used to the idea, thanks to payment apps like Apple Pay that the biometric scanners on smart phones.”This is just the start of things to come,” he forecast. “Fujitsu and Singapore-based TouchÉ are currently trialling payment terminals that incorporate palm or finger scanning technology, and California's CaliBurger is testing a system that lets customers serve themselves after linking their faces to loyalty cards.”Johnson said he believes the race to make shopping more convenient and as friction-less as possible will gather pace, and that having to remember passwords and use PINs will soon become a thing of the past, as will be having to fill in long online forms to make payments.”Credit and debit cards will begin to feel outdated,” he added. “Major players like Visa and Mastercard are already working hard to bolster our reliance on them, by working on fingerprint scanning cards. But technology is likely to leapfrog plastic cards altogether by enabling our biometrics to be directly linked to our accounts in 2019, allowing purchases to be authorised just by having those biometrics verified. In 2019 there will be a proliferation of payment apps and wallets launched by brands, like the M&S Payment App and Walmart Pay, but the vast majority won't get the take-up they need. The industry need a universally accepted payment wallet – for convenience, but also for security.”Johnson also said he expects the emergence of sovereign payments solutions in 2019 – platforms that allow users to make payments to businesses online or offline without giving that information away to a third party: “Advances in the fields of biometrics, blockchain technology and cryptography will make this possible,” he concluded.
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