Dear Subscriber,

This week, PaymentEye attended Vendorcom’s Connecting Payments conference which had interesting speakers discussing everything from Blockchain technology to avatars that allow the user to control who can access their payment data as well as where and when.

Elsewhere, a new study found that despite certain obstacles, contactless cards will continue to go from strength to strength whilst the world of ecommerce and mobile payments is getting interactive with Xbox opening up The Mall, a digital store that allows users to virtually try on clothes and pay for them using their mobiles, all without leaving their living room.

Big organisations spend a lot of time worrying about the security of off-premise payments solutions – but research has shown unexpected benefits to using them.

Contactless cards are in line to experience stratospheric growth over the next few years as Europe is expected to witness a nine-fold rise in contactless payment volume by 2020 compared to 2014, according to research from RBR.

This week, PaymentEye attended Vendorcom’s Connecting Payments conference in London. The event’s speakers provided interesting insights on everything from trends and shape of the payments industry, the virtues of Blockchain technology and potential of data in retail.

Xbox has made a big leap into the world of e-commerce, and within that the nascent world of virtual reality, by partnering with e-commerce outfit Von Bismark to create a virtual dressing room where you pay for items with your mobile using Powa Tag technology.

The blockchain payment platform GoCoin and mobile wallet, e-commerce loyalty and credit card processing company Ziftr completed their merger agreement, creating a new company that will offer merchants a unified checkout system that processes digital currency and credit card transactions.