A new security solution for online and point of sale purchases aims to take advantage of biometrics for authentication.
It’s called the Gardevant Card – a smart card featuring an embedded thumbprint sensor that enables biometrically authenticated payment transactions anywhere you can use a credit card. According to a short demonstration video, the Gardevant Card can be set up by a user at home using a dongle that connects it to a PC for the thumbprint enrollment process. That same dongle can be used subsequently to make online purchases using the Gardevant Card. For physical point of sale transactions, the Gardevant Card works very much like a non-biometric chip card, with one major exception: after inserting the card into a chip-reading payment terminal, a user simply scans their biometric to authenticate, rather than entering a PIN.
The solution was announced at this week’s Money20/20 expo in Las Vegas, where it should get some considerable attention. Biometric technology was a major topic at last year’s Money20/20, and is once again proving to be a huge draw as numerous companies including financial services heavyweights like Mastercard and Visa expound on their explorations of the technology’s applications in the sector. Gardevant’s eponymous card seems to be right in the sweet spot in terms of using biometrics for financial services applications, and could prove appealing to many Money20/20 attendees.
Follow Us