Write | Xiong Paige
Encyclopedia of production and payment
A few days ago, Alipay disclosed the patent information of a "payment card". In the context of the increasing popularity of digital RMB, Alipay began to re-examine the reform of payment methods. This patent may be aimed at the development prospect of digital RMB.
After investigation by enterprises, Alipay (Hangzhou) Information Technology Co., Ltd. disclosed a patent application information of "Method, device, equipment and system for processing data without recharging payment card". According to public information, the patent application was submitted in 65438+February last year, and the current status is still under review.
-"Payment Card" patent application information-
According to the patent specification, the main function of the patent is to "associate the payment card that needs to be recharged in normal use with the payment account in the payment platform, and use the payment account of the payment platform as the withholding account of the payment card."
It is not difficult to see that Alipay's patent is aimed at recharging physical cards. If the physical card is directly deducted from the payment account, it means that the user will no longer need to recharge the card. The convenience of using physical cards will be improved and the payment process will be simplified.
In the long run, Alipay's actions will improve the infrastructure for the development of digital RMB.
On April 18, at the digital currency Forum of Boao Forum for Asia, Li Bo, the current deputy governor of the central bank, said that the promotion of digital RMB will be divided into three steps: ① expanding the pilot scope; ② Building the infrastructure and ecosystem of digital RMB; ③ Establish corresponding legal and regulatory framework.
Regarding the first step, the digital RMB pilot is steadily expanding. Since last year, the digital RMB pilot has been launched in many places across the country. According to the previous announcement of the Institute of Mathematics and Physics of the Central Bank, the first batch of digital RMB pilot areas are "four places and one scene", including cities such as Xiong' an, Suzhou, Shenzhen and Chengdu and future Winter Olympics scenes; There are six pilot cities in the second batch of digital RMB, including Changsha, Shanghai, Hainan, Qingdao, Dalian and Xi 'an.
Compared with most third-party payment accounts, the digital RMB APP wallet is different, and its "double offline payment" using SIM card and NFC technology is still strictly completed by hardware technology.
Since the beginning of the year, the hardware wallet has become a conspicuous protagonist in the pilot activities of digital RMB, and its forms are becoming more and more diversified: in the traditional card forms, it includes the postal savings bank visual card, fingerprint card and ICBC visual card; Non-traditional forms include the "copper coin" wallet of Xiong 'an Sub-branch of Agricultural Bank of China, ski gloves, smart watches and other wearable devices introduced by China Bank, charging treasure and crutches for the elderly introduced by Industrial and Commercial Bank of China.
-Wearable smart hardware wallet-
Although there are various forms, in the final analysis, the hardware wallet is still a "payment card".
The development of traditional financial cards began with bank cards. In the process of financial technology transformation, major banks have launched smart card products such as visual cards and Bluetooth cards. According to media reports, the cost of a graphics card at that time was as high as several hundred yuan, but its associated account was only "electronic cash" recharged by a single bank. The disadvantages such as high cost and limited practicability eventually prompted the development of smart cards to stagnate, and began to transform into online digitalization and evolved into digital bank cards.
Insiders pointed out that the popularity of digital RMB will once again set off the development trend of hardware wallets such as smart cards. Different from the "dual offline" APP wallet of mobile phone that needs to support NFC function, the digital RMB hardware wallet is closer to the usage scene of banknotes and has greater promotion advantages.
Back to Alipay's patent, the solution of "free recharge of payment card" will help solve the problem of smart card recharge. On the other hand, after the payment account is linked, the loss of hardware wallet can be solved by software unbinding. And concerns such as "Don't dare to recharge too much, the card is easy to lose" will gradually decrease.
At the end of last year 10, Yu Chengdong, CEO of Huawei's consumer business, announced the launch of Huawei Mate40, calling it the world's first mobile phone supporting digital RMB hardware wallet, and said that Huawei would be an important participant in digital RMB. Compared with Huawei, which has long been in the field of digital RMB, Alipay appears to be slow to move, and the related news flows out very little.
It is worth noting that if "hardware wallet related payment account" becomes the mainstream of digital RMB application, Huawei's advantage of relying on mobile phone research and development to support digital RMB will be threatened. The first step to expand the pilot scope of digital RMB is continuing. Alipay launched this patent, which is more like aiming at the trend, hoping to "copy the bottom" in the next step.
The trend of Alipay in the field of digital RMB remains to be seen. Even if patents can come in handy, the cost of smart cards is still a problem. In other words, if the hardware wallet using this technology is still expensive, then the significance of this patent to Alipay's layout of digital RMB will be impossible to talk about.