Proton was an
electronic purse application for
debit card
A debit card, also known as a check card or bank card is a payment card that can be used in place of cash to make purchases. The term '' plastic card'' includes the above and as an identity document. These are similar to a credit card, but u ...
s in
Belgium. The system was introduced in February 1995 with the goal to replace cash primarily for small transactions around € 15. For security, the card was limited to storing 125,00
EUR of available electronic cash (originally 5,000
BEF).
The card was used for small payments without a pin code or signature, and ran the same risk as with ordinary cash in that if the card was lost the cash value allocated to the card would also be lost.
The advantage to merchants was that they could accept payments without the necessity for a bank terminal to be connected to a centralised system for approving the transaction (the transaction was approved by the card itself), and the transaction was very quick.
In August 1998, Proton World International was founded, a joint venture between Banksys, Visa, American Express and EGR. The goal was to promote the Proton technology worldwide.
In 2001, the Australian company ERG bought the remaining shares of Proton World and became the sole shareholder, making a $50 million dollar loss two years later by selling it to
STMicroelectronics
STMicroelectronics N.V. commonly referred as ST or STMicro is a Dutch multinational corporation and technology company of French-Italian origin headquartered in Plan-les-Ouates near Geneva, Switzerland and listed on the French stock market. ST ...
.
Proton saw limited success in Belgium, despite being available on commonplace on
parking meter
A parking meter is a device used to collect money in exchange for the right to park a vehicle in a particular place for a limited amount of time. Parking meters can be used by municipalities as a tool for enforcing their integrated on-street par ...
s,
pay phones, and within
convenience store
A convenience store, convenience shop, corner store or corner shop is a small retail business that stocks a range of everyday items such as coffee, groceries, snack foods, confectionery, soft drinks, ice creams, tobacco products, lottery ticket ...
s; possibly due to a poor understanding of the system. Despite this, the system was also implemented in other countries such as
Chipknip in the
Netherlands, and has been considered for other markets such as
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
.
Security was based on the
message authentication code
In cryptography, a message authentication code (MAC), sometimes known as a ''tag'', is a short piece of information used for authenticating a message. In other words, to confirm that the message came from the stated sender (its authenticity) and ...
.
The system was retired on 31 December 2014. Customers are requested to offload the charged amount back onto their
bank account before the expiration date.
References
External links
Proton (Atos Worldline)!--- Categories --->
{{Credit cards
Stored-value payment card