I worked for a startup in the mobile payments industry for a while. While I wanted to hope it would work out, deep down I never felt mobile payments at the register (vs. credit card) was enough of a value proposition to the consumer. I mean, I never felt like I would want to use this even though I was working on it.<p>I think the industry over-emphasizes the minimal hassle of having a physical card. Mobile payments are not that much easier. And unless you research how the platforms are protecting your information and identity, I also imagine the average consumer trusts a physical card more than a 3rd party vendor app on their phone.<p>Finally, the mobile payments vendors are just one more middleman in the payments game that needs to make a cut on transaction fees. Someone is paying that fee somewhere and if a mobile payment platform becomes sustainable over the long term that cost will likely trickle down to the consumer if the platform hasn&#x27;t already directly built in a consumer fee.