Abstract
Organizations have been experimenting with smart cards for almost thirty
years, yet they are not yet pervasively used particularly in the North
American market. Smart cards offer exciting possibilities for convenience,
accuracy, customization, data security and cost reduction for individuals
and organizations.
There have, however, been many barriers to the broad diffusion of smart
cards such as
deposit insurance liability, data accuracy, transaction anonymity, fraud
risk, the small number of application developers and the difficulties associated
with changing people's habits and expectations.
Today, Sun Microsystems Java software platform removes or reduces many
of the problems faced by earlier smart card implementations. The largest
players in the smart card industry are working toward standardizing on
Java because of the advantages inherent in its design such as security,
network awareness and scalability. In addition, any Java programmer can
potentially become a smart card application developer.
As a result, we believe that Java will be a significant factor in fueling
the smart card industry.