PayPal launched Beacon, a Hands-free Device Payment

PayPal has announced the launch of a new device used to simplify payments in store: Beacon. With this box, which plugs into a USB port, PayPal allows its customers to pay cash without leaving their smartphone or credit card, orally confirming payment.

PayPal wants peak of innovation in payment and currency exchanges and dematerialized today announced its new asset in this area: Beacon. This mobile payment solution will be officially launched in 2014 in some countries including the USA. It allows users to pay PayPal under the body stores equipped, without having to pull out their credit card or their mobile. A simple voice confirmation sufficient to validate the payment and the amount will be directly debited from the customer's account without doing anything more.

The system relies on the installation of Beacon, a device using Bluetooth Low Energy to communicate with the Paypal application on the customer's phone. PayPal via the application, the customer will choose the brands with which they want to use this service. When they enter into one of these stores, a vibration of the phone will indicate him that the service is running. The Manager will show the customer information (His name, photo and Paypal account) and when the time comes to cash, simply the customer verbally confirm that wants to pay through Paypal for his account is debited the corresponding amount.
 

PayPal Beacon

The idea is certainly dream, but also worried. PayPal ensures that the system will track not only users, who will still be able to check the decline in Beacon: In this case, neither the merchant nor PayPal will receive information about the customer.

The launch of Beacon is planned for early 2014 and will be available in the U.S., Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Japan and Britain. For now, the first copies of Beacon are distributed and developers to give them time to create their applications through the API Beacon. However places are expensive, only 100 copies will be distributed and PayPal Beacon reserves the right to choose the lucky winners on the basis proposed by developers interested in the site ideas. The necessary update the PayPal application will in turn launched in parallel with the official release of Beacon, early next year.