Wow, I thought the decentralized way was better, since it makes it very hard for malicious people to get to a significant amount of info, and keeps the data in your control. It's interesting how the notion of security is being flipped over completely.
Additionally if you keep everything on your phone you need to spend more effort making sure your phone is secure. If I keep my CC's on my phone I need to make sure my phone is as safe as my wallet, and anyone who sees my phone will know that they can take my phone and get my credit cards.
If the info is stored on the company's servers than they are responsible for keeping it secure. Given the value of the data they have security would (hopefully) be an integral part of the system. On top of that, if a breech does occur the company is responsible for anything that happens, and the odds of the criminal using my specific info is less than if someone took my phone.
Besides storing all your important information remotely, how about the fact it won't work in areas of no connectivity or when your battery dies.
My credit card and dollar bills do not suffer from the aforementioned dependencies.
Also, credit cards are very reliable. I've had mine fail (mag stripe wear, etc.) maybe 3 times in 20 years, but even then it's still usable the old-fashioned way. My iPhone fails (low battery, weak signal) at least weekly. Being occasionally unable to pay is a Really Bad Experience that users won't forgive.
Slower and less reliable. I predict it won't take off.
The trick for any service like this is mass adoption. The service needs to be available in enough places so you don't need to carry your credit card. That seems unlikely.
Not sure how they are getting away with charging merchants only 1% + 30 cents, but it's a great deal for merchants, for sure.
Surely they don't trust us to simply show them the confirmation page on our iPhones?
Why stop at eliminating the wallet? I expect someday -- perhaps quite soon -- some state will allow a mobile with the right app(s) to serve as a Driver's License.
And why not? It could contain digitally-signed info which includes the photo and everything else appearing on traditional cards. For better or worse, police could even check it at a distance.
