Disruptors

GoPago Inc., a San Francisco-based mobile payment provider last week hired Steve Elefant as its chief strategy officer. Elefant, a senior strategic consultant at Google Inc. for the past year, served as Heartland Payment Systems’ chief information officer until 2011.

Chirpify, which lets people initiate payments over social media, has secured another $2 million in funding and now counts rappers Lil Wayne and Snoop Dogg as clients.

ZooZ, an Israel-based mobile payment company, has secured $2 million in a Series A financing round from supporters XSeed Capital, Lool Ventures and Rhodium. The company's funding now stands at $3.5 million.

Mobile point of sale systems could expand card acceptance by adding as much as 19 million merchants, resulting in a potential $1.1 trillion uptick in annual card payments, Javelin Strategy and Research says in a new report.

Braintree Inc., a small mobile payment vendor founded in 2007, has attracted employees and board members from some of the biggest technology companies. Its recruits say the young company promises a more dynamic environment than the industry giants can provide.

The economist Friedrich Hayek famously advocated competitive issuance of money. Dave Birch of Consult Hyperion says this may soon come to pass, with multiple currencies, public and private, serving as means of exchange and stores of value. Are you ready to pay for purchases in kilowatt hours?

Roam Data Inc. has updated its mobile app to allow merchants to operate a complete point of sale system from smartphones or tablets.

Eighteen states and the District of Columbia have legalized medical marijuana, and some dispensaries enjoy millions of dollars in annual sales. However, such establishments may not be ideal clients for ISOs unless they and their sale agents exercise caution, say those who work with the medical marijuana industry.

Processing payments is a costly activity for banks, one that nonbank businesses, such as telecommunications operators and retailers may be able to handle more nimbly and efficiently, says Dave Birch of Consult Hyperion. Rather than threats, banks should view these more lightly regulated outsiders as potential partners.

There's a lot payment companies can lean from downfall of the Pony Express, according to Brett King, founder of the financial services startup of Moven.

The recent public fascination with the digital currency Bitcoin taps into a latent frustration with the current inadequate banking and payments system, says Dave Birch of Consult Hyperion. While Bitcoin itself may not be the wave of the future, it shows how the next generation of payments technologies will work and bears watching by bankers.

With bitcoin in the media spotlight, everyone seems to have an opinion on the price. Few recognize the profound implications of decentralized money for the monetary system, society and government – not to mention the emerging business opportunities.

The C-1 electric car is an inventive vehicle, built by a company with an inventive marketing strategy and an inventive way of accepting payments.

Alternative digital payments for the on-the-go consumer go well beyond the standard fare of Near Field Communication chips and QR codes. Here’s a look at some of the most imaginative mobile payments options devised.

Possibly viewing Bitfloor, a popular Bitcoin exchange, as a risky money transmitting business, Capital One Financial Corp. has closed the exchange's bank account, prompting Bitfloor to halt operations. The incident may portend a growing wariness of businesses that handle virtual currencies.

Because consumers are using mobile devices to check product prices or seek cheaper prices online, merchants need plans in place to move consumers to fast checkout and payment inside stores, says Peter Lin, program manager for mobile commerce for Sears Holdings Corp.

The use of ultrasonic noise — silent to the human ear — in mobile payments and rewards hasn't garnered as much attention as Near Field Communication chips and QR codes, but there are a few successful implementations.

Without any clear drive to consolidate, the mobile-wallet market will remain chaotic for merchants in the near-term. But from the consumer's perspective, it won't be chaotic at all.

As Google started releasing its wearable computing product Google Glass to developers, it had a message for banks and other would-be commercial users: You will be prohibited from distracting users with ads.

The merchant-backed mobile wallet consortium, Merchant Customer Exchange (MCX), announced today its working with the technology company Gemalto.