PayPal Demos Auto-Debit Gumball Machine 124
ForgedArtificer writes "At their recent developers conference in San Diego, CA, PayPal unveiled a proof-of-concept gumball machine that would instantly pay for a gumball through a PayPal account using a smart phone and a QR code, sending a confirmation of the purchase through Twitter. Ok, maybe we all don't really care if we can get a gumball without a quarter, but the possibilities for this technology are endless."
Why not challenge-response? (Score:4, Interesting)
A more interesting type of system would use a QR code challenge-response. A small screen on the gumball machine, or at the supermarket checkout flashes a QR code. You point your phone camera at it and details of the transaction come up on the screen. If you hit "confirm", your private key is used to sign the transaction and produce a response QR code which appears on your screen and is read back by the merchant.
This way, your phone doesn't need to connect back to the payment gateway provider at all. This is an advantage if there is bad reception inside the store, or your provider is having a bad day, or your pre-paid plan ran out, or you only have an iPod and not a smart phone. Banks could probably even produce dedicated devices that performed only this function and provide them to customers.
Re:Banking regulations. (Score:2, Interesting)
e.g. Last year, I needed a new bulb for my DLP flat panel TV. Everywhere else, it was $3-4-500. Found several, new(?) on eBay for $100. The only payment allowed/accepted was PayPal. No way I'm linking PayPal to an actual account of mine that has actual money/credit. So...go to the local drugstore, buy a prepaid card, put enough money in it to cover, link that card to a PayPal acct....then actually buy the thing. PITA, especially if I were buying regularly from eBay.
The possibilities for the technology... (Score:2, Interesting)
I like many people here will avoid PayPal like the plague if I can. So let's take paypal, add the privacy issues of Twitter, and the insecurities of being able to deduct money without requiring a passcode that is immune to someone stealing my mobile phone. I think people who use this kind of payment system deserve whatever they get.
Actually here's silently hoping that these are rolled out everywhere, a hacker gets access to a few accounts and rips people off for millions. Crossing my fingers that this puts paypal out of business.
Already have this here (Score:1, Interesting)
We already have something similar here in Finland. We have some Cola vending machines that you call with your cellphone which in turn is some sort of service number that charges the amount for whatever drink you want onto your cellular bill. Really handy no cash needed. Although in comparison to the article this is somewhat different but almost the same. Things like this really take off here since _a lot_ of people here basically live a cash free life.
We already have that technology! (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Banking regulations. (Score:2, Interesting)
Once I sold an item via ebay to someone in Italy, even though I specified that my sale would only be to US customers, because even though his listed address with ebay was in Italy, his PayPal address was in California, and ebay went with that. WTF??? What if I was selling something that was illegal to sell outside the US? I could be tricked into it if someone buys via ebay.
They can't claim to be separate companies if they are sharing all their records willy-nilly! Or, as in this case, saying the OTHER company's data is more valid than your own.