I too would be extremely interested to know this. The sibling comment referring to NFC looks interesting, but I can't help but think there's an extra dimension or two.
I thought most bank cards used RFID per se as opposed to full NFC.
Plus (and much more significantly) there's the fact that the phone is doing the magic voodoo sekret handshake thing that has been the stomping ground of credit card terminals for only the past two decades or so.
My understanding was that Apple Pay stuck Apple in the middle as an intermediary to the payment, which was internally settled via backend servers. I *think*. I don't think the phones behave as credit cards in the strictest sense - my (pulled out of thin air) guesstimate is that it emulates a credit card to the extent that it make the payment terminal happy, but in such a way that the actual payment settlement is done out of band. Or... something.
Hmmmm, maybe something similar is going on here, where the phone talks the protocol but not strictly exactly the way a payment terminal would, such that Apple ultimately intermediates the final settlement of the transaction.
I feel super dumb here, mostly because this whole world is (sigh very understandably) clandestine. I would be very interested to learn about any high-level "oh okay!" type info on the subject that might be out there!
I thought most bank cards used RFID per se as opposed to full NFC.
Plus (and much more significantly) there's the fact that the phone is doing the magic voodoo sekret handshake thing that has been the stomping ground of credit card terminals for only the past two decades or so.
My understanding was that Apple Pay stuck Apple in the middle as an intermediary to the payment, which was internally settled via backend servers. I *think*. I don't think the phones behave as credit cards in the strictest sense - my (pulled out of thin air) guesstimate is that it emulates a credit card to the extent that it make the payment terminal happy, but in such a way that the actual payment settlement is done out of band. Or... something.
Hmmmm, maybe something similar is going on here, where the phone talks the protocol but not strictly exactly the way a payment terminal would, such that Apple ultimately intermediates the final settlement of the transaction.
I feel super dumb here, mostly because this whole world is (sigh very understandably) clandestine. I would be very interested to learn about any high-level "oh okay!" type info on the subject that might be out there!