Online wallet

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An online wallet is a software or web service that allows users to store and control their online shopping information, such as logins, passwords, shipping address and credit card details. It also provides a method for consumers to purchase products from online retailers. [1]

Contents

These systems can be integrated with directly or can be combined with operator and credit card payments through a unified mobile web payment platform. Examples include Google Wallet, PayPal, Yandex.Money.

History

English entrepreneur Michael Aldrich invented online shopping in 1979. [2] [3] His system connected a modified domestic TV to a real-time transaction processing computer via a domestic telephone line. He believed that videotex, the modified domestic TV technology with a simple menu-driven human–computer interface, was a 'new, universally applicable, participative communication medium — the first since the invention of the telephone.' This enabled 'closed' corporate information systems to be opened to 'outside' correspondents not just for transaction processing but also for e-messaging and information retrieval and dissemination, later known as e-business. [4] His definition of the new mass communications medium as 'participative' [interactive, many-to-many] was fundamentally different from the traditional definitions of mass communication and mass media and a precursor to the social networking on the Internet 25 years later.

In March 1980 he went on to launch Redifon's Office Revolution, which allowed consumers, customers, agents, distributors, suppliers and service companies to be connected on-line to the corporate systems and allow business transactions to be completed electronically in real-time. [5]

During the 1980s [6] he designed, manufactured, sold, installed, maintained and supported many online shopping systems, using videotex technology. [7] These systems which also provided voice response and handprint processing pre-date the Internet and the World Wide Web, the IBM PC, and Microsoft MS-DOS, and were installed mainly in the UK by large corporations.

The first World Wide Web server and browser, created by Tim Berners-Lee in 1990, opened for commercial use in 1991. [8] Thereafter, subsequent technological innovations emerged in 1994: online banking, the opening of an online pizza shop by Pizza Hut, [8] Netscape's SSL v2 encryption standard for secure data transfer, and Intershop's first online shopping system. Immediately after, Amazon.com launched its online shopping site in 1995 and eBay was also introduced in 1995. [8]

Acceptance as a form of payment

Due to slow adoption and high competition, there is currently no one standard online wallet that is universally accepted. [9] The acceptance of the online wallet as a form of payment varies based on both individual store policy and the type of online wallet being used. For example, Google Wallet can be used at MasterCard Paypass locations within the United States. [10] Conversely, Bitcoin, while accepted internationally, is much less frequently accepted, due in part to its connection to illegal websites like Silk Road (marketplace). [11] Bitcoin can also be held in an online cryptocurrency wallet. It is predicted that in the near future, as the use of online wallets increases, consumer attraction to specific technologies will reduce the number of specific online wallets. [9]

See also

Related Research Articles

E-commerce is the activity of electronically buying or selling of products on online services or over the Internet. E-commerce draws on technologies such as mobile commerce, electronic funds transfer, supply chain management, Internet marketing, online transaction processing, electronic data interchange (EDI), inventory management systems, and automated data collection systems. E-commerce is in turn driven by the technological advances of the semiconductor industry, and is the largest sector of the electronics industry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Videotex</span> End-user information system

Videotex was one of the earliest implementations of an end-user information system. From the late 1970s to early 2010s, it was used to deliver information to a user in computer-like format, typically to be displayed on a television or a dumb terminal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mobile payment</span> Payment services via a mobile device

A mobile payment, also referred to as mobile money, mobile money transfer and mobile wallet, is any of various payment processing services operated under financial regulations and performed from or via a mobile device, as the cardinal class of digital wallet. Instead of paying with cash, cheque, or credit cards, a consumer can use a payment app on a mobile device to pay for a wide range of services and digital or hard goods. Although the concept of using non-coin-based currency systems has a long history, it is only in the 21st century that the technology to support such systems has become widely available.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mastercard</span> American multinational financial services corporation

Mastercard Inc. is the second-largest payment-processing corporation worldwide. It offers a range of financial services. Its headquarters are in Purchase, New York. Throughout the world, its principal business is to process payments between the banks of merchants and the card-issuing banks or credit unions of the purchasers who use the Mastercard-brand debit, credit and prepaid cards to make purchases. Mastercard has been publicly traded since 2006.

Online banking, also known as internet banking, web banking or home banking, is a system that enables customers of a bank or other financial institution to conduct a range of financial transactions through the financial institution's website or mobile app. Since the early 2000s this has become the most common way that customers access their bank accounts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Laser (debit card)</span> Irish debit card scheme, 1996–2014

Laser was a debit card scheme in Ireland between 1996 and 2014.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Online shopping</span> Form of electronic commerce

Online shopping is a form of electronic commerce which allows consumers to directly buy goods or services from a seller over the Internet using a web browser or a mobile app. Consumers find a product of interest by visiting the website of the retailer directly or by searching among alternative vendors using a shopping search engine, which displays the same product's availability and pricing at different e-retailers. As of 2020, customers can shop online using a range of different computers and devices, including desktop computers, laptops, tablet computers and smartphones.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Digital currency</span> Currency stored on electronic systems

Digital currency is any currency, money, or money-like asset that is primarily managed, stored or exchanged on digital computer systems, especially over the internet. Types of digital currencies include cryptocurrency, virtual currency and central bank digital currency. Digital currency may be recorded on a distributed database on the internet, a centralized electronic computer database owned by a company or bank, within digital files or even on a stored-value card.

The term mobile commerce was originally coined in 1997 by Kevin Duffey at the launch of the Global Mobile Commerce Forum, to mean "the delivery of electronic commerce capabilities directly into the consumer’s hand, anywhere, via wireless technology." Many choose to think of Mobile Commerce as meaning "a retail outlet in your customer’s pocket."

Shopping cart software is a piece of e-commerce software on a web server that allows visitors to have an Internet site to select items for eventual purchase.

A digital wallet, also known as an e-wallet, is an electronic device, online service, or software program that allows one party to make electronic transactions with another party bartering digital currency units for goods and services. This can include purchasing items either online or at the point of sale in a brick and mortar store, using either mobile payment or using a laptop or other personal computer. Money can be deposited in the digital wallet prior to any transactions or, in other cases, an individual's bank account can be linked to the digital wallet. Users might also have their driver's license, health card, loyalty card(s) and other ID documents stored within the wallet. The credentials can be passed to a merchant's terminal wirelessly via near field communication (NFC).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shetab Banking System</span>

Shetab, officially the Interbank Information Transfer Network, is an electronic banking clearance and automated payments system used in Iran. The system was introduced in 2002 with the intention of creating a uniform backbone for the Iranian banking system to handle ATM, EFTPOS and other card-based transactions.

Virtual currency, or virtual money, is a digital currency that is largely unregulated, issued and usually controlled by its developers, and used and accepted electronically among the members of a specific virtual community. In 2014, the European Banking Authority defined virtual currency as "a digital representation of value that is neither issued by a central bank or a public authority, nor necessarily attached to a fiat currency but is accepted by natural or legal persons as a means of payment and can be transferred, stored or traded electronically." A digital currency issued by a central bank is referred to as a central bank digital currency.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Aldrich</span>

Michael Aldrich was an English inventor, innovator and entrepreneur. In 1979 he invented online shopping to enable online transaction processing between consumers and businesses, or between one business and another, a technique known later as e-commerce. In 1980 he invented the Teleputer, a multi-purpose home infotainment centre that was a fusion of PC, TV and Telecom networking technologies. In 1981 he developed the concept of interactive broadband local loop cable TV for mass market consumer telecommunications.

CASHU is a digital wallet that allows consumers to pay and transfer money online, and issue prepaid virtual and plastic Mastercard. The company was established by Maktoob in July 2002, and it is headquartered in the British Virgin Islands (BVI).

YooMoney branded as ЮMoney, formerly known as Yandex.Money, is Russia's second largest electronic payment service after "Sberbank Online" according to a 2020 research by Mediascope. It is an online payment service that works with two types of clients — individual users and merchants.

United States virtual currency law is financial regulation as applied to transactions in virtual currency in the U.S. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has regulated and may continue to regulate virtual currencies as commodities. The Securities and Exchange Commission also requires registration of any virtual currency traded in the U.S. if it is classified as a security and of any trading platform that meets its definition of an exchange.

A cryptocurrency wallet is a device, physical medium, program or a service which stores the public and/or private keys for cryptocurrency transactions. In addition to this basic function of storing the keys, a cryptocurrency wallet more often offers the functionality of encrypting and/or signing information. Signing can for example result in executing a smart contract, a cryptocurrency transaction, identification or legally signing a 'document'.

QR code payment is a contactless payment method where payment is performed by scanning a QR code from a mobile app. This is an alternative to doing electronic funds transfer at point of sale using a payment terminal. This avoids a lot of the infrastructure traditionally associated with electronic payments such as payment cards, payment networks, payment terminal and merchant accounts.

Square is a financial services platform developed by Block, Inc. It is aimed at small-and medium-size businesses, allowing them to accept credit card payments and use phones or tablets as payment registers for a point-of-sale system.

References

  1. "FDIC: Safe Internet Banking". Archived from the original on 10 November 2019. Retrieved 29 June 2016.
  2. Internet : technical development and applications. Ewaryst Tkacz, Adrian Kapczynski. Berlin: Springer. 2009. ISBN   978-3-642-05019-0. OCLC   495479285.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  3. "The Michael Aldrich Archive - E-Commerce, E-Business and Online Shopping". aldricharchive.co.uk. Retrieved 2021-03-13.
  4. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-11-27. Retrieved 2022-02-15.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  5. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-03-01. Retrieved 2014-03-21.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  6. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2017-11-18. Retrieved 2014-03-21.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  7. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-03-03. Retrieved 2014-03-21.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  8. 1 2 3 "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-09-28. Retrieved 2014-03-21.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  9. 1 2 "Mobile Wallet Stalls in 2013: A Look into 2014'S Potential Lucrative Future - Business Wire" (Press release). 25 September 2013. Retrieved 29 June 2016.
  10. "Google Pay - Learn What the Google Pay App is & How to Use It".
  11. Ball, James (22 March 2013). "Silk Road: the online drug marketplace that officials seem powerless to stop". TheGuardian.com . Retrieved 29 June 2016.