[sschueller]

"popular" is a stretch, it's what a few banks are trying to get people to use because they couldn't get NFC working on apple devices with their apps. Until recently they have been giving money away like crazy to get people to use it.

It requires extra hardware at the cash register (if using bluetooth) or modification to the vendors terminal to be able to display a qr code.

Sadly the app is extremely slow and cumbersome to use at a cash register compared to other options such as NFC payments on android or just straight tap and pay credit cards.

It would be a great system for payments online as scanning a code is very easy compared to entering all your CC information but becauses the fees are so high (compare to credit cards) the largest online electronics retailer (digitec) in Switzerland dropped them after the intro rates expired.

[netsharc]

It's probably an attempt to implement what WeChat/Alipay has. In China the majority of POS terminals has this device https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/Specialized-Alipay-an... , which is a fancy housing for a camera that scans the wallet barcode on your phone (optimized for the perfect angle and to prevent glare, I'm guessing). It seems preferable and faster than Bluetooth...