Another use for Near-Field Communication (NFC) has been developed. It is another type of mobile payment system and uses an implementation of peer-to-peer technology. PayPal announced the new features today at the MobileBeat conference, according to Ars Technica.
Unfortunately, so far the only phone that can use PayPal's system is the Samsung Nexus S, at least in the United States. PayPal is only supporting Android at this time and does believes the method is an important step in keeping up with competitors like Square and Google.
In the new PayPal technology (which still is not named) a person with an NFC-capable phone can request a certain amount of money from a friend. If the two touch their NFC phones together, both phones vibrate, and the money transfers from one PayPal account to the other. This is totally different than Google Wallet, which transmits payments between an NFC phone and a electronic payment processor.
The technology is still just being shown off, so don't expect your favorite retailer to rush out and start supporting the technology so that they can perform payments with their Nexus S carrying customers. A peer-to-peer technology would definitely make it harder for friends to wiggle out of money they owe you. Check out the video demonstrating the technology below.
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