Ray Van Eng (10/17/96) As we have described in a number of articles in the past, smart cards are being tested or used in various parts of the world including the U.S., Canada, Hong Kong, the U.K., Japan and many other places. Even China is using smart cards (from a company in Canada) to alleviate their chronic traffic problems brought on by the great march to modernization and commercialism. (Editor note: stay tuned for an upcoming article about this story). But let's keep in mind that the first product based on the technology was first engineered by Motorola and Bull way back in 1977 for a French banking customer. Almost twenty years later, Europe remains to be the place where smart card usage is becoming ever more prevalent as compared to the rest of the world. Smart cards are smart not only because the built-in computer chips can hold monetary values (in different currencies if they have to) , they can also be used to memorize personal data for identification and health-care applications. Some of the current state of the art smart cards can hold four full page (8.5"x11") of tightly typed text of information and the memory capability keeps expanding. The Spanish and French governments plans to have smart cards that contain health and social security information available for its citizens in 1997 in an effort to provide more secure and efficient social services. The Netherlands, a small country (area-wise) in Europe with 15 million people is leading the world with the implementation of smart card technologies. A number of Dutch banks are planning to introduce smart cards this month on a nationwide scale and hopes to eventually convince much of its populace to the benefits of electronic commerce without the use of cash in their daily lives. To achieve the goal of a cashless society, some of you may recall that DigiCash, a Dutch company is one of the very first company in the world that initiated an electronic coin or token system long before CyberCash in the U.S. introduced the recently minted CyberCoin Internet micropayment system. In fact, Germany is gearing up to test their 'Ecash' concept in electronic shopping using a system developed by Digicash. In a limited market pilot program starting in January 1997, customers of the Deutsche Bank will be able to download money from their accounts onto their PC hard disk for storage as Ecash. By simply clicking on an electronic purse icon at their PC, they could purchase items over the Internet and the right amount will be transferred to the merchant via world wide web link. The Dutch smart cards are available in two varieties issued by two different banks. One of them is known as the 'Chipknip' which claims to provide better security for transactions. The other one is named 'Chipper' which its maker refer to as a 'service' card because it can be used to "to book cinema tickets and then go the theatre where your card is checked at the entrance for identification." Actually, the Dutch card is very similar to the Visa Cash card being used in Manhattan in New York except that the Netherlands is rolling out the service on a nationwide basis. Dutch consumers can load cash into their smart cards via public "cash dispensers" for now, but an inexpensive "home-loader" is on the way to allow cash download to be done in the comfort of one's home. Related articles: Kingston Gets Smart With EXACT Card Visa Cash To be Used In Vancouver's AIDS Conference Mondex Turns Guelph, ON Into Smart Card City Indonesia To Install 10,000+ Smart Card Payphones Mondex Gives Visa Cash A Run For Their Money 'Visa Cash' Micropayment Cards To Be Used In Hong Kong US Banks To Test 'Smart Cards' In NYC


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