Having been exposed on a daily basis to this extraordinary marketing effort - some lines before the tsunami reaches us.

Many have debated the security issues coming with this new way of settling your bills. But maybe it might be also interesting to anticipate what this way of payment does to the felt value of the transaction itself.

When debit and credit cards were introduced, the perception of the actual value of the sums transferred changed significantly and continues to challenge those who use cards not to spend beyond their means. The main reason being to the day that payments by card are of a far more abstract nature than a payment in cash and people naturally struggle to visualise the transaction as such.

A swipe of a card with no signature or any other means of verification certainly does not stimulate the consciousness of having made a purchase. If this scheme really suceeds with what it was designed for, then so called micro payments will indeed become irreducible - in the users perception.

Combined with your debit or credit card this scheme becomes the perfect tracking device, since it covers the segment, which had been spared by the reach of plastic until now.

On the website of payWave the ‘tremendous’ amount of time the user of the scheme has saved, is the main hook to sell it to us - the consumers. Coming from an interaction design point of view, which in its core subscribes to the notion to increase the transparency of processes where possible and aims to empower the user - this leaves a bittersweet taste.