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Comment by tzs | Hacker News Reader

> You'd need partnerships with banks to get a new secret the way Apple Pay does

If this is using the EMVCo tokenization stuff, which it is widely believed that Apple is using, I don't think they would have to partner with banks. They'd just have to register with a Token Service Provider.

Here's an interesting article on this: http://www.aviso.io/apple-pay-brings-new-problems-acquirers/

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One gap in my understanding is who exactly the Token Service Providers are. That article says the card networks are, but I guessed that the issuing banks were when I read the spec the first time. I'll read it again eventually, but if anyone actually knows, please share that knowledge.

It's both. Issuing banks can generate the payment tokens, but often, the networks can "stand-in" for the issuer, and generate the token for them on their behalf (the same way that networks can stand-in and do authorization of payments on behalf of the issuer).

I've been talking to Visa's tokenization team and several payments experts over the last few weeks about this exact topic. Currently, TSPs are only the card networks. In the future, the big banks and the payment processors will also take on TSP responsibility. It is unlikely that other actors will take on this role, given the requirements and players involved. The role that's more likely to allow for innovation is the Token Requestor role - which virtual wallet providers and e-commerce merchant / merchant processors can play a part. Even this role will require a decent amount of scrutiny in terms of the ability to identify the validity of a transaction, which is ranked on a 0-99 scale. Very interesting future for payments.

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