How Safe Are Bitcoin Wireless Payments

The wireless payment network is growing like a weed and so many stores are now accepting these contactless payments. The wireless payments have their own share of benefits and not even the digital currencies like bitcoin could be kept devoid of their conjuring effect for long. Well, not all the digital currencies yet, but bitcoin has made its way to the NFC terminals for contactless payments.

There are quite a few Bitcoin Payment service providers available worldwide and dozens are yet to arrive. OneBit, Plutus and BitNFC are among the first few startups that said ‘yes’ to the wireless BTC payments. These are active in several countries and are expanding at a steady pace. While many other startups like Shake and CryptoNFC are slowly coming into picture. Furthermore, the Apple Pay which was initially being considered as a bitcoin killer, has now turned friendly toward bitcoin. This is yet another breakthrough for bitcoin wireless payments as the latter might consider bitcoin integration at some point in future.

Also read Plutus Mobile App For Bitcoin Payments.

How Wireless Payments Work?

NFC based wireless payments are creating quite a stir these days. With so many tech giants like Apple, Google and Samsung offering wireless payment services, the process is now more streamlined than ever before. Now let’s see how it works.

Needless to say, the entire concept of wireless or contactless payments is based on Near-Field Communication (NFC). Also, the wireless payments can only be made at the stores where NFC enabled terminals are installed. So the first step is to install NFC terminals at as many stores as possible. Also, your smartphone needs to have the NFC feature. Once you have all that, you must install a wallet app that lets you make these payments and you’re all set.

In order to make payment, you need to hold your smartphone over the payment module in a way that it points toward the point-of-sale terminal. In this way, what you’re actually doing is, “transmitting your card information to that payment terminal.” For that, you first need to transfer your card information to the wallet. But in case of bitcoin, there’s no need to do that as no card is involved. You just need to transfer your BTC amount to a wallet that supports NFC payments and you’re good to go!

What Are The Risks Involved?

While on one side, the contactless payment scheme is widely appreciated, it also gave birth to several potential threats. The greatest risk arises when the data is being transferred. Turns out that it is practically possible to swamp the channel between the two devices which carries the radio waves from one device to another. In this way, the signal can be blocked from reaching its destination device.

The data can also be intercepted on a third device but to make it happen, the other device must be within few centimeters of the NFC terminal owing to the short-distance-range of the NFC. These potential threats while usually being at the bay can’t be ignored.

Possible Remedies

First of all, it is always advisable to protect your phone with a strong password. Fingerprint protection is highly recommended if available. The wallet users must also have an antivirus installed in their smartphones. This is because of when two NFC devices come in close proximity for a bit too long, there are potent chances of malware attack. This happens specially in android devices.

Last and most significant, always use a VPN to protect your data from being tampered. VPN helps you encrypt the data of your device so that no one can decode it even if it gets intercepted on some third device. With these simple tweaks, you can add valuable protection to your device and secure make wireless payments without any risks.