The future is here: You can now pay bills with a selfie

Kim Kardashian lovers are in luck. MasterCard is working on a feature that allows the user to pay their bills with something as simple as a selfie. Using a facial recognition technology, mobile banking users will soon be able to make their purchases by simply blinking at their phones. Take a selfie, blink at your selfie, and the bills are paid.

Now, on the surface this definitely sounds suspect, but the blink is actually really important. It’s what stops potential thieves from just being able to hold up a picture of you to the phone. The blink shows you’re a human, and your phone will recognize you and only you. It’s kind of like the iPhone’s thumbprint technology — but for duckfaces.

The app can still read your fingerprint (can you believe that’s something that’s becoming old fashioned??) but they’re working on some even crazier features as well, like voice recognition and even heartbeat recognition.

For the selfie method, your picture gets turned into a code and sent to MasterCard, so it’s not like bankers are going to have to start spending their days scrolling through selfies. It’s actually pretty complex. MasterCard says that this method is secure, but as with all online transactions, it’s important to know that your data could still be vulnerable.

While it’s not clear when this feature will be available to the public, what is clear is that it’s the first step towards eliminating PIN codes and creating intensely personalized technology. Maybe one day we can just blink at the things we like in real life to buy them. I’d essentially walk around Sephora blinking like a crazy person, but leave a QUEEN.

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