
The rise of the QR code in China - kawera
http://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/2095576/rise-qr-code-and-how-it-has-forever-changed-chinas-social-habits
======
Markoff
Chinese users can't afford phones with NFC and more importantly shop owners
can't afford NFC POS terminals or for what's worth any terminal for your
contactless bank card (Visa paywave/MC Paypass).

Thus they resorted to QR codes, which are now promoted as something modern
etc. in these propaganda pieces similar to WeChat propaganda (which usually
fail to mention that pretty much all int competitors were blocked or would be
blocked if they would start gaining any traction + your wall posts and even
private messages are censored if they contain sensitive keywords, of course no
encryption, no SMS, etc).

Meanwhile in west I am pretty much forgetting my PIN because I can pay almost
everywhere with wireless debit card just by touching terminal without
preparing some application in mobile which must be charged, entering PIN code
to unlock app, scanning/providing QR code and confirming, soo convenient those
QR codes... And lets not forget if there are people in front of you who are
just preparing when they should be already paying, which makes everything
slower than cash (real life experience from China).

Was living in China for years, you can consider Wechat payments convenient
only if you are Chinese who never used contactless bank card like Visa
Paywave/MC Paypass available at majority of shops.

Plus on top of this these mobile payments are widespread because chinese
online banking is horrific and you can't use it on computer without installing
certificates, special USB dongle, etc. while in west it just works in browser
without anything.

~~~
narrator
Is the horrible usability of Chinese bank websites due to the awful security
situation on desktop Windows, or it's it for some other reason?

~~~
germainelol
I have no idea to be honest, I remember with all of my bank accounts I would
have to download software and use a USB dongle just to login as the OP said. I
think it's partly because of how awful the security on Chinese websites is,
but no idea really.

~~~
narrator
That's interesting. I was thinking that perhaps the usability of WeChat for
banking is partly due to the lack of pervasive keylogging and remote access
tool malware on Android that exists on Windows. All those security threats may
be the reason desktop banking requires all the dongles and such.

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_nalply
Switzerland plans to switch to payment slips with QR codes based on the ISO
20022 standard. I wonder whether the QR codes in china also use this standard?
Or is this something completely different?

~~~
Double_a_92
That standard is much more than just the QR code. It describes how transaction
data should be handled in europe.

The swiss QR code is a normal QR code, just the data in it has a special
format (and also the design of the QR). [https://www.iso-20022.ch/lexikon/qr-
rechnung/](https://www.iso-20022.ch/lexikon/qr-rechnung/)

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smaili
Slightly off topic but one thing I never understood was how they're able to
add additional art to their QR codes and still have phones successfully read
and decrypt the code. Are there parts of the code that don't actually provde
any value and can be replaced? Or do they use a modified protocol that enables
them to use custom QR codes?

~~~
jbarham
See [https://research.swtch.com/qart](https://research.swtch.com/qart) by Russ
Cox

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hdhzy
Very cool. Does anyone have more technical info on what exactly is embedded in
these payment QR codes?

~~~
lihan
Code relies on payment app, Alipay, Wechat. It embeds the minimal info that
shall be sent to those App to continue the payment process. It could be a
simple URL. I see that everywhere and feel sick of it. Like white pollution
everywhere on electric line poles and bus stops.

