All western countries had faxes, magnetic strip cards, paper check payments, etc. And most of them have no traces of that.
I think there must be some other element to it as well, and it's probably not only "well US is big". I think one is the diversity of states and companies. Having tons of systems and businesses communicating over several state borders with varying regulations, it's very easy to just settle with the lowest common denominator which might be faxes, cash etc.
Second I think it's a big cultural difference. In the EU for example (Which is looked on with at least as much suspicion as "federal government" in the US) we see it as an important job of central government to put agressive timelines for introduction of modern tech. Because things like this (chip + pin) for example is a herd immunity thing where the cost to upgrade is only motivated if customers actually have the cards etc - so we are very happy to see legislation requiring non-chip credit cards to be phased out, for example. Technological advance like this, or environment rules etc., is NOT seen as overreach, where a lot of other laws would be.
Third it's the power of corporations in relation to government. If corporate lobbyists see that a regulation will affect their bottom line (such as all of retail having to buy chip+pin equipment within 3 years) they protest. In the EU, there is just no chance that a retail lobby would be able to resist EU legislation that was advertised as good for consumers.
I think there must be some other element to it as well, and it's probably not only "well US is big". I think one is the diversity of states and companies. Having tons of systems and businesses communicating over several state borders with varying regulations, it's very easy to just settle with the lowest common denominator which might be faxes, cash etc.
Second I think it's a big cultural difference. In the EU for example (Which is looked on with at least as much suspicion as "federal government" in the US) we see it as an important job of central government to put agressive timelines for introduction of modern tech. Because things like this (chip + pin) for example is a herd immunity thing where the cost to upgrade is only motivated if customers actually have the cards etc - so we are very happy to see legislation requiring non-chip credit cards to be phased out, for example. Technological advance like this, or environment rules etc., is NOT seen as overreach, where a lot of other laws would be.
Third it's the power of corporations in relation to government. If corporate lobbyists see that a regulation will affect their bottom line (such as all of retail having to buy chip+pin equipment within 3 years) they protest. In the EU, there is just no chance that a retail lobby would be able to resist EU legislation that was advertised as good for consumers.