Visa To Preview Debit Ring With Rio Olympians

How about showing a ring (rather than a debit card) at the payment counter?

This could be the future as Visa Inc V will be testing a wearable debit ring at Rio Olympics via its 45 sponsored athletes.

The Visa payment ring is NFC-enabled, allowing athletes to make purchases by simply tapping their ring at any NFC-capable payment terminal. The rings will have prepaid money but they can be reloaded.

The ring features a secure microchip made by Gemalto, with an embedded NFC-enabled antenna, enabling contactless payment capabilities.

Unlike other payment wearables, the ring does not require use of a battery or recharging. It's also water resistant to a depth of 50 meters.

In Rio, Visa said it would implement approximately 4,000 NFC-enabled POS terminals capable of accepting mobile and wearable payments across key Olympic venues, the US Olympic Committee's USA House and Copacabana Megastore.

"As an Olympian, rings have a special meaning to me," said Missy Franklin, a four-time Olympic gold medalist and Team Visa athlete. "The Visa ring is a great innovation that I know all the athletes competing in Rio will enjoy as it will be great to go from a competition to purchase without having to carry a wallet or card."