Contactless payments was already adopted in Canada for several years by 2010 [1]. It’s not recent. Not sure why US is slow in this adoption though
[1] See first two sentences here:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/new-credit-cards-pose-securi...
[1] See first two sentences here:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/new-credit-cards-pose-securi...
And you still can't use your phone, a joke this system is