Mondex E-Cash, Beenz & E-Commerce Smart Card Coming

Mondex International, the e-cash subsidiary of MasterCard
International, says it has developed a smart card-based, e-cash card
that supports Beenz and other e-commerce promotional services.

Beenz is a promotional points system seen on
an increasing number of e-commerce Web sites that rewards users for
online purchases. The more online purchases a registered Beenz user
makes, the more points they amass for future cash for rewards.

Mondex, meanwhile, is a stored value smart card system that allows
card users to pay for small value purchases that would otherwise be
paid for in cash, either offline or, using a suitable reader, online.

Since being acquired by MasterCard, Mondex has been working steadily
toward the development of a multifunction transaction card that will
function as a MasterCard credit card for larger purchases, and use
stored value e-cash - tapped from a user's bank account - for small
value transactions.

The company has also been making significant strides in the
development of an online e-cash system that is compatible with its
stored value card-based system.

The biggest hurdle in promoting stored value cards is persuading card
users of the benefits of card-based e-cash over coins for small
transactions. Now, with the addition of the Beenz e-cash rewards
system to Mondex cards, the way is now
clear for a multi-function card for all offline and online purchases,
the card company says.

Such a card has been the Holy Grail of the card transaction world, and
something that both Visa and MasterCard have been moving steadily
toward for some time.

Many card users, however, have been cautious when it comes to online
transactions, mainly for security reasons. Now, with the prospect of a
Beenz registration being stored on a user's smart card for both online
and offline transactions, e-cash becomes a better deal for the
consumer than using real cash.

It's still very early days on the technology, however, and Mondex
expects a multifunction MasterCard/Mondex/Beenz card to be
used with future e-commerce systems, including PCs, wireless devices
and digital TVs, as well as current systems, such as regular store
purchases.

In addition to technical development, the companies will shortly begin
recruiting merchants and service providers to enable real/virtual
world use of the applications.

For example, Mondex says, a consumer with a Beenz account could earn
points in return for purchasing goods using Mondex e-cash and then
spend those Beenz at a shop.

Alternatively, Mondex card holders would be able to earn Beenz at
retail outlets by uploading them onto their cards and then spend them
online with a participating Web merchant.

Charles Cohen, Beenz.com's founder and chief technology officer, said
that the firm can now deliver cash and Beenz in potentially all
electronic environments, breaking down the manifestly false
distinction between online and offline commerce.

"These can scale from reverse-payments in Beenz where merchants pay
consumers to visit their sites, to cash purchases using Mondex, all of
which can be delivered at zero cost," he said.

The Mondex e-cash system is currently under development in 75
countries around the world. The system, which was recently upgraded to
support the Multos smart card platform, is now being developed to
support multifunction cards.

Reported by Newsbytes.com, http://www.newsbytes.com .