"Token" Bracelet Concept, Manages Your Money from Your Wrist

Using a Writstband to Keep Yourself Healthy is so Passé. Instead, How about Using the Same Technology to Keep your Finances in Shape ? Design Firm, Artefact, is Using Fitness Trackers such as Fitbit, Jawbone's Up and the Nike Fuelband as Jumping Off Point. From there, they've Applied the Concept to a Person's Finances. The Company's Wearable is Called, "Token" and it Sure is Smart — Well, it would be, if it really Existed but, for Now, we Have to Make do with a Concept. Picture this: you are the Proud Owner of a "Token". After Uploading All your Card / Account Details onto the Wearable, you then Decide to Spend Some Money. Thanks to the Wristband's Wi-Fi, it Connects Up to the Payment System of Whoever it is Who Wants to Take your Money. They Put the Item through on their System and the Item Flashes Up on your Wristband. Do you Want to Buy this ? Yup. How do you Want to Pay ? You Select the Relevant Account, Adding in a Security Step or 3 for Good Measure. The Transaction Goes through. You Leave the Shop. Fist Pump. So, What are these Security Steps ? There are 2. You Can Choose to Use a PIN or Password as Option One. And for Extra Security, "Token" Can then Read either your Heartbeat or your Fingerprints, via its Fingerprint Sensor. Fellow "Token" Wearers Can Fistbump — Yay ! — to Transfer Funds between them. What's Not to Like ?


With Research Pointing to 2020 as the Tipping Point to When People will be Pulling Out their Smartphones to Pay, instead of Using Whatever is Contained in their Wallets, a Wristband is Merely a Wearable Extension of the Same Idea. Other Players in the Walletless Revolution include Coin, which is Due to Launch Sometime this Summer. There is Jack Dorsey's Startup, Square — which Works in Starbucks — and Apple has Long been the Focus of Rumors about Using NFC, or Near Field Communication, on a Future Iteration of the iPhone to Allow Users to Pay for Stuff. There is One Big, Gnarly Old Issue, however — and let's Focus on What is Arguably the Most Credible, Successful, Boundary-Pushing, Device-Inventing Hardware Firm of the Past 15 Years. It Took Apple a Long Time to Perfect its Fingerprint Reader on the iPhone 5s but, it Works (Samsung's Equivalent, on its Galaxy S5 Can be Unpredictable). As Yet, there is No NFC on the iPhone. Where is the iWatch ? All of this Technology is Very Hard to Get Right. And, with Hackers Using Increasingly Sophisticated Methods to Steal Data and Plunder Bank Accounts, you've Got to Get these Things Absolutely Perfect. But, you Can be Sure that, there is a Secretive Department Somewhere in a Building in Cupertino that has Either Considered and Discarded the "Token" Concept, or has already Taken the Idea further than you or I could Even Guess.




Info Sources:

http://www.theverge.com/2014/6/17/5818468/track-your-cash-like-calories-with-this-new-smart-wristband-concept

http://www.artefactgroup.com/content/token-a-wallet-on-your-wrist