Influencer Camila de Alcalá was at a supermarket in China when she saw something she didn’t expect.
Her Chinese friend reached the checkout, held her palm up to a scanner, and the purchase was paid for in seconds. No card, no phone, no cash. Camila recorded it and wrote: “I’m in China and discovered something new: you can pay with the palm of your hand, wtf, the future”.
The technology exists and is being developed by giants like Tencent, with its Weixin Palm Pay, and Alibaba, with Alipay. The reader doesn’t just register the lines on your skin: using infrared light, it identifies the pattern of veins running beneath it, which is unique to each person. And it detects that blood is flowing, so neither a 3D replica nor a high-resolution photo can fool it.
It also doesn’t matter if your battery has run out or you forgot your wallet. You don’t even have to touch the device: just hold your hand over it. People in China really do live in the future!
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