Visa’s Payment Ring Will Debut at the Rio Olympics

How we pay for things changes almost as quickly as the technology it uses, with us doing away with metal coins and paper notes for plastic notes and cards. These days you don’t even need to use your card directly, instead being able to tap your card against the payment terminal to pay for your lunch. Should this still be an inconvenience for you, it’s also possible to enable your phone to do exactly the same thing, meaning you never need to worry about forgetting your card again. Visa seems to think so as they bring a new level of this technology ready for its debut at the Olympics in Rio this year in the form of a ring.

Currently unnamed, the band looks plain in either black or white but contains a secure microchip and embedded antenna. With 20 sizes in the initial trial, Visa is keen to allow customers and the athletes at the Olympics to pay for their experience with something as simple as a Jedi hand wave. The rings draw their power from the payment terminals, using just enough to identify you without the need for all your personal information to be located on the phone.

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While the ring won’t be publicly available at the Olympics, if the test proves successful you could see a whole new line of banking clothing offering rings and wristbands, all of which you could use to pay for your weekly shop.