What’s in your smart wallet? Challenges and roadblocks

Abstract

The concept of a digital wallet has been around for a few years. Sometimes the words “digital wallet” and “smart wallet” are used interchangeably. This is not the case in this thesis, however. The smart wallet is more than just an electronic payment card embedded into a smart phone; it truly performs all the functions of the traditional wallet but only in digital format. This thesis will discuss the main challenges and roadblocks that need to be addressed in order to build a successful smart wallet. It is noteworthy that the functionalities of the traditional wallet including the credit and debit cards, cash, driving license, and membership and identity cards can be found in the smart wallet. In addition, the smart wallet also acts as a depository for promotional coupons and receipts enabling the user to take advantage of instantaneous marketing campaigns of all sorts, and it also meets the needs to return unused or unnecessary goods if needed. Furthermore, the smart wallet enables the transfer of business cards to other digital wallets without hassle. The smart wallet is also secure due to the effective built-in security fea-tures. In conclusion, the smart wallet is a new immersive technology, but launching it will take a long period of time in spite of the fact that all key technological ingredients for the introduction of the smart wallet already exist.