What happens in the 2 seconds after you tap your card
Tokenization: what your phone sends instead of your card number
Your phone can pay with your card, yet your card number is not stored on the phone. The phone sends the shop something else. A thief who copies it gets a number that is almost useless.
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1
The thief's black box is still on the slot of Rono's terminal. Your friend Miva came along tonight, and she pays for her bowl with her phone. Her card is in the wallet app of the phone. The plastic card stays at home.
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2
Her phone never goes into the slot, so the black box gets nothing. And her tap does not even send the number on her card: when she added the card to her phone, the card network gave the phone a stand-in number, for that phone only. That number is a token.
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