Seashells. Coins. Paper. Credit. Mobile. The world may be on the brink of a new monetary revolution. Major corporations are already drawing battle lines for who will rule the Next Big Thing of human economic interaction. But is the world ready for it?

The Basics

Roughly 100 million smartphones in the United States are capable of transmitting with something called Near-Field Communication (NFC). While normal mobile phone calls are broadcast as radio waves on variable frequencies, NFC communications are not. NFC communications work by generating a slight magnetic field around the phone. Devices within a few inches can interpret this field as data. However, any farther than a ruler stick and the magnetic field is undetectable. This allows information to be transferred securely without a cable connection.

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