Great idea, what about security of personal information? One password, multiple passwords?

The security can be done in many usual ways. Of course, if anyone steals or has your card, it can be disabled immediately and of course, it has everything that is you on it. If someone isn't you, then it's very easy to discover that, particularly through the use of retina scans. It is very very difficult to mess with retina scan data. There are also other tricks to security. Mostly, it is important to realize nothing is totally secure. It's better to design a security system that catches people really easily, which can be designed into this system.

Everything has it's own security anyway. For example, Visa, etc all have their own security. The smart card just has Visa on it. It's just an ordinary Visa card with bells and whistles. A smart card can actually have a lot more security than the charge cards we have now.

Passwords or PINs can sometimes be a drag if you have a lot of cards and each one has a different PIN. It's hard to remember them all so most people, even though they're told not to, use pretty well the same PIN for everything. But in this case, each "card" on the smart card can have a different PIN. However, you can use a thumb print or retina scan instead of a PIN.

its a great idea. The security would be no worse than losing your wallet.
But it'd be easier to disable this one universal smart card rather than trying to remember what was in your wallet. It'd have your id photo on it too so it'd be very easy to see if someone was fraudulently using your card.

Also it could be programmed to let you into your work building and other security access things.

The only issue i can see, is having multiple visa cards, store cards or charge cards on the one universal smart card. How would you choose at POS (points of sale) which one you want? Like amex or visa? or you might have multiple Visa accounts with different banks...
Maybe at POS instead of selecting cheque, savings or credit, you should press a digit from 0 to 9 to chose which 'card' you want to use. And it could show the name on the screen after you press it, to confirm.

I was thinking about this too. I think you have two options here, either integrate with the POS to choose which card to use just like when you choose chequing or savings on an Interac POS. However, I think this would make it much more difficult to make widespread if you had to convince store owners to buy a new interface.

I think the best way to select which card to use would be a mechanical design on the card itself. A set of simple bubble-buttons that you press down to change the magnetic strip to match the card you need. This might require a small battery.

Super cool idea it's something thats gonna take a pitch pro guru to get the major players to play nicely with each other while never faltering in their monopolization. when you say you have the software "figured out" as in actual programming lang. that you compile, edit, debug, etc Reason I ask is that I get some really good "idea-width"( like bandwidth but mental streams) The burnt part is my lack of training in ALL the areas it would take to actually think about where to start with out getting ripped Only problem is that I can only conceive the basis and components operations necessary, But I'd be clueless how the software prog would be accomplished. It'd be great if someone could implement some of whats bouncin around up there

Oh yea how bout this:
pop in or slide out sim-like card which would be the actual property of the money institutions. Depending on sizeneed each bank would share the avail bits within the sim part only banking institutions will posses the soft hardware necs to flash your info into there partitioned areas the banks have a general encryption with out the final scheme of the encryption could actually be constant thumb scan converted to a digital password while the flashing is being done to protect the user from the bank and there suspect activities. Don't think cause it's a bank that they cant be just as big a thieves as any one in prison. Believe that. People have been burnt on the civil rights lately and you would have to reassure them of the security from one institution from another.Could you imagine just pulling straight through the drive thru. Just roll down the BACK window so the yungins can grab there Happy Meals a digital receipt gets beamed via blutooth enabled auto for print out later or opt for the digitally sent e-ciept. Don't even have to miss a beat at the lengthy conversation you'd been having with potential investors..lol I wish you the best of luck and I plan on keeping up with your status

You can broadcast the transaction. China does it on bus passes. You don't have to swipe the card, just carry it with you onto the bus and it can get the info from the card even though it is still in your purse or wallet. I used to program taxi meters in assembler and burn eproms. The technology is "well established". In other words, it's old.

I like selling space on the cards to companies. That is an excellent idea. In other words, if Visa wants in on our card, they have to buy/rent space for their customers. We make the card and are the only ones who can program or reprogram it. Visa wants in, then their agents have the harware which we provide to them which the client swipes and places Visa's info in the section of memory we have alloted to them.

The merchants have different hardware that acknowledges transactions, they just can't reprogram the card. We just program the merchants' hardware. The end user can even have some hardware at home which can do transactions over the net, etc.

The key to security is being able to program the card. We do it in assembler and lock it in. Details to follow.

To get this off the ground we give it to gov't, libraries, hospitals and whoever for super cheap or even free for promo purposes. The technology is easy; it's the marketting that needs work.