Visa today announced Visa Cloud Payment Solutions, a tool that device makers can use to add mobile payments capabilities to their hardware. Visa claims the Cloud Payment Solution will reduce fraud because it replaces the standard 16-digit credit card number with a digital token. The token can be built securely into smartphones, tablets, wearables, and appliances so consumers can make wave-, scan, and click-to-buy payments virtually anywhere. The tokens negate the need to share personal credit card data; can be restricted to specific merchants, devices, or types of purchases; can be easily replaced without changing account numbers; and can be processed easily by merchants and retailers. Visa has been forging ahead aggressively to enable mobile payments via mobile devices. Portions of the Visa Cloud Payment Solutions toolset are available beginning today, though the full set won't be available until January 2015. Visa plans to launch an extended Developer Center in early 2015 with all the related SDKs, APIs, specifications, and guidelines.


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