The Silicon Valley startup Clinkle has gotten a tremendous amount of buzz recently, despite not having an app on the market or even really saying how it works. That might be because founder Lucas Duplan recently landed $25 million in funding. With that kind of funding, from the likes of Accel Partners, Andreessen Horowitz, Peter Thiel, and Intuit, he’s got to be doing something right. Clinkle began in 2011, and expects to begin rollout of an app in the fall. readwrite indicates the app will use high-frequency sounds that smartphones and tablets can pick up to transmit data over short distances. Clinkle accounts will be tied to existing bank accounts or credit cards. Merchants and buyers would need to have the same app installed on their devices, and the payment could then take place within a closed loop. Merchant adoption has been the stumbling block in the cashless mobile payments utopia so far. To address this, Clinkle will reportedly work with no changes to existing infrastructure. Points of sale systems can be large investments, and if the new payment device isn’t going to bring tangible advantages, there is little incentive to lay out the cash. This is what has bedeviled NFC, [...]
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