Look in your wallet. If you are like most Americans, you have at least one thin plastic card that you use to pay for things at many merchants. Take out one of those cards. The card you picked is about 3 3/8″ long by 2 1/8″ wide, weighs about a fifth of an ounce, has a magnetic stripe on the back, and has your name and a 15 or 16 digit account number embossed on the front. It is called a payment card.
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"It was necessary to reconceive, in the most fundamental sense, the nature of bank, money, and credit card; even beyond that to the essential elements of each and how they might change in a microelectronics environment. Several conclusions emerged: First: Money had become nothing but guaranteed, alphanumeric data recorded in valueless paper and metal. It would eventually become guaranteed data in the form of arranged electronics and photons which would move around the world at the speed of light." - Dee Hock, Founder and former CEO of Visa