once more, with feeling.

[Nicolas Williams]

On Mon, Sep 22, 2008 at 08:59:25PM -1000, James A. Donald wrote:
> The major obstacle is that the government would want a strong binding 
> between sim cards and true names, which is no more practical than a 
> strong binding between physical keys and true names.

I've a hard time believing that this is the major obstacle.  We all use
credit cards all the time -- apparently that's as good a "strong binding
between [credit] cards and true names" and as the government needs.  (If
not then throw in cameras at many intersections and along freeways, add
in license plate OCR, and you can tie things together easily enough.
Wasn't that a worry in another recent thread here?)

More likely there are other problems.

First, there's a business model problem.  Every one wants in: the cell
phone manufacturer, the software developer, the network operators, and
the banks.  With everyone wanting a cut of every transaction done
through cell phones the result would likely be too expensive to compete
with credit cards, even after accounting for the cost of credit card
fraud.  Credit card fraud and online security, in any case, are pretty
low on the list of banking troubles these past few weeks, and not
without reason!

Second, there's going to be standard issues.

Third the nfc technology has to be commoditized.

Fourth there's cost of doing an initial rollout of the POS nfc
terminals and building momentum for the product.  Once momentum is there
you're done.  And there's risk too -- if you fail you lose your
investment.

...

> Trouble is, what happens if the user's email account is stolen?

Touble is: what happens if the user's cell phone is stolen?

Nico
-- 

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