However, smartphone manufacturers will be hoping that enhanced credit cards will be quickly replaced by NFC - near-field communication - alleviating the need for physical payment cards altogether.

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The international trading partners of U.S. demanded payment in physical gold instead of dollars.

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That is just a silly statement because cryptocurrency donations are far more efficient than dealing with payment processors and physical in-kind donations.

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These are essentially presale of the physical commodity for an upfront cash payment and a guarantee to deliver the oil or gas at future dates.

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Extending that concept even further are people, process, physical evidence, packaging, partners and payment.

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Now they are increasing their focus on technology consumers can use to make purchases by simply entering a password or other easy-to-remember information on an e-commerce website, or by tapping a smartphone against a merchant payment terminal instead of swiping a physical card.

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Not only will the service help you spend smarter, but could be a god-send for anyone who loses their physical wallet or purse as the App will aggregate all of your credit card and payment services in one place.

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The open nature of the wallet allows a variety of payment instruments to be loaded, this truly is an online replacement for the physical wallet.

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"With the signing of 50 merchant acquirers to date, we are well on our way toward helping PayPal reach its goals of acceptance at millions of physical locations in the U.S., " said Diane Offereins, president of payment services at Discover.

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