I want to back this right now. I'm the creator of a mobile payments startup much in the same vein as Venmo. The "killer" app, IMO, is the ability to simply tap two devices together, enter an amount & pin, and ... profit! The problem is I just can't see the adoption beyond closed, corporate applications. What Square has going for it is only the payment-accepting party needs to acquire the dongle. This is a captive audience and very incentivized to adopt. No sweat. But with FloJack you're asking the general public to acquire your dongle with little incentive. Tough. I can't think of anything, but is there a possibility of only one side needing the dongle to participate (the service provider - in my case - someone receiving payment) in a transaction? Convince me otherwise and I'll be happy to back. I'm also happy to discuss details off HN.
1. Reader centric - where everything revolves around the reader, as in using this reader for NFC payments. You can use passive tags, like stickers, key chains, wristbands etc to scan. Associate data with these tags via the cloud.
2. Tag centric - where everything revolves around the tag & it is a dynamic thing, which also seems possible with this flojack device. I'm less of a fan of this because of the problems you noted above - it's just a hassle to get people activated in this model.
I think the first model satisfies your requirement of only one side needing the dongle to participate.
FloJack was conceived as a way of instrumenting spaces. Think point of sale, digital interactive signage, checkin touch-points, etc. So the general public would carry native NFC phones or NFC cards/wristbands that would interact with an iPad -or an old iPhone- to trigger a secure transaction. If that's not convincing enough, hit us up at info@flomio.com.
Comments
I want to back this right now. I'm the creator of a mobile payments startup much in the same vein as Venmo. The "killer" app, IMO, is the ability to simply tap two devices together, enter an amount & pin, and ... profit! The problem is I just can't see the adoption beyond closed, corporate applications. What Square has going for it is only the payment-accepting party needs to acquire the dongle. This is a captive audience and very incentivized to adopt. No sweat. But with FloJack you're asking the general public to acquire your dongle with little incentive. Tough. I can't think of anything, but is there a possibility of only one side needing the dongle to participate (the service provider - in my case - someone receiving payment) in a transaction? Convince me otherwise and I'll be happy to back. I'm also happy to discuss details off HN.
The way I think of NFC is in two models:
1. Reader centric - where everything revolves around the reader, as in using this reader for NFC payments. You can use passive tags, like stickers, key chains, wristbands etc to scan. Associate data with these tags via the cloud.
2. Tag centric - where everything revolves around the tag & it is a dynamic thing, which also seems possible with this flojack device. I'm less of a fan of this because of the problems you noted above - it's just a hassle to get people activated in this model.
I think the first model satisfies your requirement of only one side needing the dongle to participate.
FloJack was conceived as a way of instrumenting spaces. Think point of sale, digital interactive signage, checkin touch-points, etc. So the general public would carry native NFC phones or NFC cards/wristbands that would interact with an iPad -or an old iPhone- to trigger a secure transaction. If that's not convincing enough, hit us up at info@flomio.com.