Yes, you read the name of the article correctly. Not only Bitcoin itself may look like a currency of the future, it surely does try to utilize new technology on sight. Technology such as new toy from SmartMetric, Inc. – credit card analogy for cryptocurrency with a fancy fingerprint recognition technique.
Speaking of SmartMetric. The company was founded in 2002 and since that time, they were specializing in biometric protection of devices holding personal information. These complex gadgets range from all kinds of plastic cards to a MedicalKeyringtm that contains your complete medical history inside the neat white case. A groundbreaking fingertip nanoscanner protects all of the above-mentioned gizmos by disabling all function until the sensor recognizes the owner of the device. This tech is the reason why company holds a self-proclaimed title of creators of the “world’s smallest biometric fingerprint reader”.
SmartMetric’s newest invention is Biometric Bitcoin Card. From the first glance, it resembles the standard VISA, just without the magnetic stripe, but in the space of a millimeter or so “lives” an ARM 9 processor with its own OS to control the cards insides. Somewhere near the “brain” lies the memory – at least 8 GB of it (the website informs us that the limit is 128 GB), which is good news especially having in mind that the place occupied by the full info on Bitcoin chains is already something like 6 GB. This little rectangular piece of plastic also has system that manages the recharging of its inner battery. How cool is that?
The card also has standard EMV chip so it could be connected to ATMs. By the way it is also a method of recharging this portable wallet. The card is said to support some interesting features, among which is in-person bitcoin trading. I am taking a wild guess here, but it probably could be implemented through the NFC module that is also an optional addition to the wallets standard package. Good old card-to-card transaction option is something of must-have for such device so we won’t go any further with that.
The Biometric Bitcoin Card is scheduled for release in the next two months.