The Royal Canadian Mint has selected SecureKey device-based multi-factor user authentication technology for its new MintChip cloud-based digital currency.
The Mint unveiled plans for MintChip in 2012, promising to bring the benefits of cash into the digital age, providing users with instant, private, secure, and fee-free access to their money.
The system will let Canadians use a 'chip' to load value onto a device such as a smartphone, PC, tablet, or store it in the cloud, and then buy physical goods in the real world or digital content online.
SecureKey's briidge.net Connect Mobile SDK will be embedded in the MintChip app, allowing the currency's system to positively identify the device connecting to the consumer cloud account through a unique ID.
Prior to a payment, the software will authenticate the user by their four-digit QuickCode PIN. This code is like a PIN, but instead of being limited for use with just one card, it can be extended across the user's devices - phone, tablet, PC, smartwatch.
Marc Brûlé, chief emerging payments officer, Royal Canadian Mint, says: "SecureKey offered us a robust multi-platform solution that delivers a very high level of device security while providing MintChip consumers with a convenient, familiar payment experience."