The allure of the billion-dollar-Internet of Things industry continues to prove irresistible to firms big and small, and Visa’s no exception. At Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, the credit company announced an plan-to supply-manufacturers of “wearables, automobiles, appliances, public transportation services, clothing, and almost any other connected device” — every IoT category under the sun, practically — with an integrated, secure payments solution. Related:- Visa brings NFC to all payment terminals at Levi’s stadium ahead of Superbowl 50 The program’s an expansion of the company’s Visa Ready Program, Visa’s eponymous digital transactions-platform.-Think of-it as a-mentorship program for Internet-powered point-of-sale: Visa collaborates with partners to get payment processing up and running on their respective products and provides continuous guidance on best practices. In addition, it supplies members with-tools such as Visa’s Token Service, a token technology that, like Apple Pay, Android Pay, and MasterCard’s MDES,-substitutes the personal information found on credit cards with-a unique identifier Coin, Fit Pay, and Samsung are among the first IoT firms to join the program. Visa says it will coordinate with its existing hardware partners, including-Chronos and Pebble, to start supporting secure payments on devices-that it has certified. Related: You can now use Visa Checkout for online purchases at Walmart and Starbucks “More and more, consumers are relying on smart appliances and connected devices to make their lives easier,”-said Jim McCarthy, executive vice president of innovation and strategic partnerships at Visa, in a statement. “By adding payments to these devices, we are turning virtually any Internet connection into a commerce experience.” Visa’s been progressive in the mobile payments arena lately. In early January, it added Starbucks, Walgreens, the NFL Shop, the Home Shopping Network, and Match to Visa Checkout, a-cloud-based offering that-saves your-credit and debit card information for one-tap payments. And ahead of this-year’s Super Bowl, it upgraded the point-of-sales systems-in Santa Clara’s Levi’s Stadium with smartphone- and smartwatch-compatible NFC-terminals. Also watch: InVisage QuantumFilm: News, Demo, Features, Phones Please enable Javascript to watch this video



More...