Pay securely with an Android smartphone, completely without Google services: This is the plan being developed by the newly founded industry consortium led by the German Volla Systeme GmbH. It is an open-source alternative to Google Play Integrity. This proprietary interface decides on Android smartphones with Google Play services whether banking, government, or wallet apps are allowed to run on a smartphone.
In a lot of counties banks are becoming mobile first. Want to login in the browser? Authenticate with your mobile app to approve. Don’t have a mobile phone with the requisites of the bank? Well, go to the branch, take a ticket, wait and then tell them what you want to do with your money. It’s not just about paying, banks are moving online authentication to be dependent on Google or Apple, whatever poison you pick.
This seems like same shit different flies. Still dependent on some centralised approval which doesn’t help openness and security. We need alternatives to the duopoly but this ain’t it, chief.