CurrentC Is the Big Retailers’ Clunky Attempt to Kill Apple Pay and Credit Card Fees
One way or another your phone and some form of electronic wallet will replace plastic scanned credit cards over the next decade.
Rather than NFC, CurrentC uses QR codes displayed on a cashier’s screen and scanned by the consumer’s phone or vice versa to initiate and verify the transaction. The system is also designed to automatically apply discounts, use loyalty programs, and charge purchases to a variety of payment methods without passing sensitive financial data to the merchant.
Retailers including CVS and Rite-Aid were planned partners for CurrentC. Now those businesses have pulled unofficial support for Apple Pay through their existing NFC readers, according to a report from MacRumors and a memo obtained by SlashGear. This implies they’ve established exclusive deals with MCX to use CurrentC as their mobile payment option.
Thanks to research shared with TechCrunch by Stanford student and developer sleuth Andrew Aude, we have more details on MCX’s plan and a closer look at the CurrentC app.
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