[hyperman1]

You've described Bancontact, the standard Belgian payment system since the 1980's or so. I suspect most EU countries have similar stories.

Paypal etc basically exist to deal with the backward underinvested USA payment systems.

[erichocean]

But @oldprogrammer2 claimed it was just "innovation" and not create-a-problem, rent-capture-the-solution.

Now I'm confused. There's a better way, and other 1st world countries have already adopted it?