Proton was an
electronic purse
Digital currency (digital money, electronic money or electronic currency) is any currency, money, or money-like asset that is primarily managed, stored or exchanged on digital computer systems, especially over the internet. Types of digital cu ...
application for
debit cards in
Belgium
Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...
. 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
The euro ( symbol: €; code: EUR) is the official currency of 19 out of the member states of the European Union (EU). This group of states is known as the eurozone or, officially, the euro area, and includes about 340 million citizens ...
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.
Proton saw limited success in Belgium, despite being available on commonplace on
parking meters,
pay phones, and within
convenience stores; possibly due to a poor understanding of the system. Despite this, the system was also implemented in other countries such as
Chipknip
Chipknip (a portmanteau of ''chip card'' and ''knip'', Dutch for purse) was a stored-value payment card system used in the Netherlands. Based on the Belgian Proton system, it was started by Interpay on October 26, 1995, as a pilot project in ...
in the
Netherlands
)
, anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau")
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands
, established_title = Before independence
, established_date = Spanish Netherl ...
, and has been considered for other markets such as
Australia.
Security was based on the
message authentication code.
The system was retired on 31 December 2014. Customers are requested to offload the charged amount back onto their
bank account
A bank account is a financial account maintained by a bank or other financial institution in which the financial transactions between the bank and a customer are recorded. Each financial institution sets the terms and conditions for each type of ...
before the expiration date.
References
External links
Proton (Atos Worldline)!--- Categories --->
{{Credit cards
Stored-value payment card