{"id":41085,"date":"2013-08-16T20:04:27","date_gmt":"2013-08-17T00:04:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/countingpips.com\/forex-news\/?p=41085"},"modified":"2013-08-16T20:04:27","modified_gmt":"2013-08-17T00:04:27","slug":"technology-and-the-future-of-money-and-banking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex-news\/2013\/08\/16\/technology-and-the-future-of-money-and-banking\/","title":{"rendered":"Technology and The Future of Money and Banking"},"content":{"rendered":"

By MoneyMorning.com.au<\/u><\/a> <\/p>\n

Today’s Money Weekend <\/em>will continue our exploration into the future. We got a peek at what that might look like this week. PayPal founder and serial entrepreneur Elon Musk revealed plans for what he called the ‘Hyperloop’. <\/p>\n

In case you missed it, Musk created a blueprint for a new transportation system.  He calls it a ‘cross between a Concorde, a railgun and an air hockey table.<\/em>’ We’re talking estimated speeds around 1,200km\/h. Musk puts the travel time between Los Angeles and San Francisco at 35 minutes. <\/p>\n

It’s giddy stuff. Transportation <\/a>looks like it will be a big trend in the 21st century as the world population grows and urbanises. But any change on the scale of the Hyperloop<\/strong> looks a touch far away from here. <\/p>\n

Investors need something closer to fruition to get excited. But a smaller technology story caught our eye this week, and might just be what they’re looking for… <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

What the Next Smartphone Generation Tells You <\/h2>\n

\n<\/p>\n

Take this from Bloomberg this week:<\/p>\n

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‘As the technology world buzzes with speculation that the next iPhone will have a fingerprint reader, makers of biometric security devices are bracing for a race among smartphone makers to adopt the technology…<\/em><\/p>\n

‘Mobile-device makers are turning to biometrics to make smartphones more secure and quicker for making payments and accessing files, music and video through so-called cloud services. An Apple embrace of fingerprint sensors could give the technology a lift, much like the boost touch screens got after the iPhone’s introduction in 2007.’<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The Bloomberg article says biometric stocks have been on the run ever since Apple [NASDAQ: AAPL] bought a company called AuthenTec last year.  AuthenTec is a security company developing fingerprint-sensor technology. Apple paid over $350 million for AuthenTec, which is relative chicken feed considering Apple’s $100 billion cash hoard. <\/p>\n

But the fingerprint technology<\/strong> could prove important. Apple wants to gain some lost ground when it comes to leading the technology charge in the market. Carl Icahn must think so. The billionaire investor gave Apple shares a $17 billion jump in trading this week when he Tweeted that he had taken a ‘large’ position in Apple and that he thought the company was ‘undervalued’. <\/p>\n

But more importantly for investors, fingerprint and biometric technology should beef up the security level when it comes to smartphones. That should help a trend we’ve been tracking in Money Weekend <\/em>keep going: the shift to mobile payments. <\/p>\n

You might remember back in June we wrote about the McKinsey Global report, which put mobile technology as the number one trend until 2025. Mobile payments were a big part of that projection. <\/p>\n

Research company Gartner, as cited by Bloomberg, suggests total transactions will rise from $235 billion this year to $721 billion by 2017. <\/p>\n

It’s a big trend and even brings into question the future of money<\/strong> and the idea of a cashless society…<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Big Changes in This Massive Market  <\/h2>\n

\n<\/p>\n

But first might come a ‘plastic-less’ society — at least when it comes to your money. PayPal global product vice president Hill Ferguson told The Australian <\/em>last month he thinks digital credit cards will be the norm within five years in Australia due to the high market share of smartphones here. <\/p>\n

Visa has already introduced its online platform V.me. It’s a digital wallet that means you don’t need a physical card. <\/p>\n

But even with Paypal and V.me your spending, in our case, Aussie dollars. The implications get very intriguing when you start toying with the idea of non-State digital currencies, like Bitcoin<\/a>, or company ones, like Amazon Coins. It’s also part of the trend that is blurring the lines between technology companies and financial services. Technology companies are becoming a threat to the established banking system.<\/p>\n

They won’t go down without a fight. Over at Revolutionary Tech Investor<\/em><\/a>, <\/em>assistant editor Sam Volkering is heading to Dubai shortly to attend the premier financial services conference in the world, called Sibos. The theme this year? Technology and the future of money. <\/p>\n

The way Sam and Kris Sayce at Revolutionary Tech Investor<\/em> see it, the rise of digital currencies is an unstoppable trend. In their latest issue<\/a>, they point out that companies like Amazon, Facebook and Google have more users than some major economies have people. The potential market is enormous. Sam and Kris are positioning their readers in a company they think will capitalise on this shifting payment and transaction market. It’ll pay to watch this space<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Until next week! <\/strong><\/p>\n

Callum Newman+<\/a><\/strong>
\n Editor, Money Weekend<\/em> <\/strong><\/p>\n

\nJoin Money Morning on Google+ <\/u><\/a><\/strong>\n<\/p>\n

From the Port Phillip Publishing Library<\/em><\/strong> <\/p>\n

Special Report: Make the Chinese Pay For Your Retirement<\/a> <\/p>\n

Daily Reckoning:<\/em> <\/strong>Silver, The Devil’s Metal<\/a> <\/strong><\/p>\n

Money Morning<\/em>: Two Points to Consider from the Commonwealth Bank…<\/a> <\/strong><\/p>\n

Pursuit of Happiness:<\/em> <\/strong>The Next Big Leap for Transportation Technology<\/a> <\/strong><\/p>\n

\n<\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By MoneyMorning.com.au Today’s Money Weekend will continue our exploration into the future. We got a peek at what that might look like this week. PayPal founder and serial entrepreneur Elon Musk revealed plans for what he called the ‘Hyperloop’. In case you missed it, Musk created a blueprint for a new transportation system.  He calls … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Technology and The Future of Money and Banking”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41085","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41085","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41085"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41085\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}