Answer 1. Till the year 1950, only paper based cards were used and Diners Club introduced the plastic cards for the first time for payment applications. With the passage of time, development of machine readable cards took place which helped in the data storage in a format which was easily readable by the machines through the introduction of magnetic stripe card but was not secure for sensitive data. Later, Optical cards provided higher amount of data storage by reading and writing optically (Rankl & Effing, 2010). The next evolution was of the cards grounded on the microelectronic circuits’ application and was known as chipcards and marked its establishment by Innovatron in 1974. Chipcards were in the form of memory cards and generic cards which process the instructions within the operating system of the card. Nowadays, more computation power and memory are possessed by the chipcards with multitasking ad multiuser smart card operating system and these are programmable smart cards (CardWerk, 2017).

Smart card technology has been utilized successfully by various industries. Out of the total number of smart cards utilized during every year, more than half are used in the telecommunication industry in the form of Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) with a unique identifier embedded thereby enabling the proper management of rights and privileges of different subscribers utilizing different network services.In healthcare, smart card technology has been utilized for the purpose of maintaining the data relating to healthcare and privacy safeguards and has increased the accuracy and quality of functions. The patient information was enabled to be circulated from emergency data to benefit position and stored portably by the use of smart cards. Moreover, smart cards provide quick identification of patients and have helped in the minimization of theft with the help of verification of insurance and patients visits. Moreover, the smart cards help in the assisting and regulation of various expenditures by the way of creating computerized limits and reports (Smart Card Alliance, 2017).

Answer 2. The concept of stored value can be explained as the monetary value on the card i.e. the data or money that is actually stored on the card. Stored value cards contains the data can be read with the help of card number present on the magnetic stripe programmed in the card which is contrary to the prepaid cards, in which data is stored in the computers associated with the issuer of card. The realization of float is based on the outstanding or unspent balance. These cards may be disposed when the entire amount is utilized or it can be topped up which will increase the card value. Stored value cards suffer from a limitation of its inability of being used for online, mail order, telephone and other card not present transactions (Vantiv, 2017).

This feature can be utilized in obtaining health care services by the patients who may use the smart cards for the purpose of settling up of the hospital bills as it is more suitable and provides security in comparison with the hard cash. Smart cards also enables the centralized locating of data which in turn increases its use for the follow up treatment programs such that incentives and support can be provided to the patients through proper tracking (I See You Care, 2017).

Answer 3. Payment can be easily commenced with the help of personalized information such as telephone numbers, account numbers and addresses which on the other hand increase the risk of payment frauds as this information can be acquired by a person through illegal means thereby pretending to be the real owner. The system of smart cards help in reducing theft and fraudulent practices and streamlining administrative procedures as they provide adequate security to the owners. This is due to the proper configuration and encryption of information with the help of a computer chip that requires approval. A variety of security options are provides by the smart cards with the strongest upgrades in the system by the issuers to protect the security of information of the users. It is made sure that the fraudulent transaction is instantly detected by the approval system and therefore theft and frauds are identified on time (Edsys, 2014).

Payment authorization codes are contained by the smart cards which are embedded for the purpose of ensuring that an authentic payment tool linked with the payment account is used by the person making the purchase or payment. Smart cards are widely used, accepted and appreciated as it ensures the person making payment that the payment tool can only be used by an authorized individual. In case of smart cards, the approval of transactions takes place only on the verification of the client’s identity, threat parameters specified by the card issuer and trade, payment tool and other authenticated hardware.

Answer 4. Future projections and opportunities for the use of smart card players lie in the usage of high – end SIMs in unity with the NFC enabled services and LTE providers. It is also projected that in the next 5 to 10 years the smart card services will find its place in the low- end applications, transportation transactions and government transactions. The future of smart cards is closely connected with the mobile phones which has already provided a strong boost in its improvement and is still a developing area as there can be new possibility generation with the combination of network connections of mobile phones and smart cards with user interface. In future, the smart cards are supposed to be equipped with cryptographic hardware (Smart Card Basics, 2017).

Therefore, the requirement will arise on part of the smart card players to promptly adopt various software and services in relation with the smart cards into their fundamental business plans for the purpose of maintaining and improving the revenue generation. These factors will significantly help the smart cards market around the globe and therefore progress is expected at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of around 7.4% between the years 2016 and 2023 in terms of revenue and the market is projected to reach US$ 14.1bn in value by the end of 2023 (Transparency Market Research, 2016).

References

CardWerk. (2017). History of Smart Cards. Retrieved December 31, 2017 from https://cardwerk.com/smart-card-history/

Edsys. (2014). 8 Areas that would be transformed by smart cards in future. Retrieved December 31, 2017 from https://www.edsys.in/8-areas-transformed-smart-cards-in-future/

I See You Care. (2017). Benefits of Smart Cards in Healthcare. Retrieved December 31, 2017 from https://icucare.com/benefits-of-smart-cards-in-healthcare/

Rankl, W. & Effing, W. (2010). Smart Card Handbook. John Wiley & Sons.

Smart Card Alliance. (2017). Healthcare Applications.  Retrieved December 31, 2017 from https://www.smartcardalliance.org/smart-cards-applications-healthcare/

Smart Card Basics. (2017). Smart Card Basics. Retrieved December 31, 2017 from https://www.smartcardbasics.com/smart-card-overview.html

Transparency Market Research. (2016). Smart Cards Market – Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast, 2016 – 2023. Retrieved December 31, 2017 from https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/smart-card.html

Vantiv. (2017). All there is to know about stored value cards. Retrieved December 31, 2017 from https://www.vantiv.com/vantage-point/smarter-payments/stored-value-cards