Before the U.S. Olympic athletes leave for Brazil, Visa rolled out some new technology that it announced at a promotional event in Manhattan last Tuesday. They wanted their sponsored Olympians to board the plane to Rio with some new gear in hand.
U.S. Olympic fencer Ibitihaj Muhammad showcased what 45 Olympic hopefuls will be given before the start of their trip to Rio—a connected payment ring. The ring works much the same as Apple Pay, Samsung Pay or Android Pay, but is in ring form instead of a smartphone.
Using an installed microchip developed by digital security company Gemalto, the wearer can merely place the ring in the vicinity of a payment reader and the expense will be processed.
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The ring is a sleek, black in design, and looks very simple. It will not be available to the general public for the time being, and only these select 45 Olympians, along with Visa employees, will be able to use the ring.
This new ring begs a couple of questions that seemed to be answered by Visa. First, will people actually use it or is this just a gimmick?
Visa is strategically marketing this ring to athletes for this primary reason—they are the perfect example of the type of person that would benefit from the ring. It is incredibly durable and is waterproof for up to 50 meters. So, athletes who are always on the go could leave wallets at home for a workout, and then be able to buy a snack afterwards without needing to tote around a wallet for the entire time.
Secondly, aren’t rings easier to lose than wallets?
Yes, rings are surely smaller and easier to misplace than wallets, but the rings can be quickly disabled with a smartphone app, and it also comes with tokenization to make stealing one of these rings less appealing. As long as Visa does not make these rings too expensive, then this shouldn’t be the biggest issue.
This ring actually sounds like a decently good idea on the part of Visa, and could have a decent following with athletes.