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Overall, 80% of Americans say they support development of "futuristic" payments technologies and currencies, according to research from online B-to-B payments provider Viewpost.
Half of adult consumers in the U.S. predict that fingerprint biometrics will be the authentication vehicle to make and receive payments over the next decade, while 35% say facial recognition will become the preferred authenticator in that time frame.
Orlando, Fla.-based Viewpost commissioned Propeller Insights to survey 1,000 American adults last month to gauge their views on future payment technology.
More than half of respondents indicated an increasing comfort level with paperless payments, saying they were paid via direct deposit. One-third of respondents predict that paper checks will "die" within five years, while 83% give checks 20 years before the format dies off.
“People are willing to embrace a more convenient, frictionless payments future,” Viewpost CEO Max Eliscu stated in a press release. “Paper invoicing and checks are well on their way out in the consumer setting, and more businesses across the spectrum are beginning to follow suit with transactions among their trading partners."
On the business side, only 11% of respondents think that companies will bill their customers by paper in the future, while 54% feel the common method will be billing through automatic payment vehicles from bank accounts or credit cards.
More than half, at 52%, embrace a mobile app-based future, saying they believe that technology will be in the forefront of payments between companies and their customers.
Advanced biometrics are also on consumers' minds, with 31% citing retinal scanning as a viable technology for authenticating payments, and 18% seeing themselves using voice control to make payments in the next decade, the report said.
Even bitcoin, which has on occasion suffered a bad reputation in the payments industry, is getting a fair shake from consumer perception, as 21% view it as a viable currency within the next 10 years.
Viewpost, which provides an open business network for real-time cash management through electronic invoicing and payments, addressed future technologies through the survey for the first time.
