You have the power to pay for good and services with a phone in your hand, but what if you could transfer that power to your fingers by themselves?
As our world becomes more and more cashless, you probably know all too well that your phone is gradually becoming your wallet. It has already taken over much of your life, with digital licenses available in some Australian states and vaccination certificates rolling to your device, helped in part from how easily many phones can be used to pay using debit and credit cards, replacing your wallet in the process.
But if you don’t want to get that phone out, you might turn to another device.
You might opt for a smartwatch or smartband with payment tech built-in so you can pay without reaching for your phone, but they may not be alone.
In Japan, we’re seeing another development pop up that could gradually makes its way down the Pacific, as a mobile payment idea pops up on fingers, or more specifically, around them.
It’s coming in something called the “Evering”, a ceramic ring featuring Near-Field Communication (NFC) for contactless payments, effectively allowing you to pay for goods and services by touching your ring finger to a payment terminal.
Evering’s smartring isn’t the first phone-connected ring we’ve heard about — Oura has had one for years — but this one is focused on payment as opposed to health tracking, which is predominantly where the tech has been focused on in the past.
Waterproof and battery-less, the concept basically means mobile payments can be made from a ring finger without pulling out a phone. Supported by Visa and set up from an app, it’s essentially a payment device that will add you to your phone, but doesn’t look like anything else.
Evering is different from the usual requirement of wearing a smartwatch to pay with your wrist, rather than whip out that phone we all have. In fact, it’s a little like something Optus launched years ago, with a little tag that could be used to pay for things and was even found at the bottom of a Frank Green takeaway coffee cup.
For the moment, Evering is something found in Japan and only Japan right now, and may not be launched in other places just yet. However it could be something on the horizon, or at least near the tips of your fingers in he future.
