Poynt Co, founded by Osama Bedier who is the former head of Google Wallet and previously a PayPal senior exec, have released details of their smart payment terminal due to launch in 2015.

Marketed as future proof, the device will support mag stripe, chip cards, NFC, QR codes, beacon and meets EMV requirements. EMV, which stands for Europay, Mastercard and Visa, is a global standard being rolled out to authenticate credit and debit card transactions in an attempt to reduce fraud.

In some countries, EMV is already a requirement for devices such as ATMs although uptake in the United States has been much slower. As of October 2015, the Payment Network Liability Shift will take place in the US and will require banks to comply with the EMV standard or face eating the cost of chargebacks instead of the merchant. Poynt Co clearly envision a demand for their product from merchants.

The Poynt Smart Terminal runs PoyntOS, an Android fork for which Poynt have provided developers an SDK and are accepting signups now. The SDK FAQ is available here. As the Poynt terminal can accept bitcoin payments, it might present an opportunity for developers to create bitcoin based payment apps that can be used by customers, merchants and companies.

The device is available for pre-order at US $299 with plans to begin shipping in early 2015. Developer kits will ship later this for US $499.

Source – http://blog.getpoynt.com/2014/10/29/introducing-poynt/