Mozilla is attempting to make mobile and web payments easier and more open with a new JavaScript API (based on the Google Wallet API), which will debut on the company’s upcoming Firefox OS. The API is called navigator.mozPay() and will allow users to pay using credit cards or by adding purchases to their monthly cellphone bill. While some carriers already support carrier billing for apps, Mozilla’s approach will enable any web purchase to be added to a user’s carrier bill.
The impetus behind creating a new web payments system comes from the fact that current web payment systems are fundamentally insecure. Firefox OS engineer, Kumar McMillan, had this to say about credit card payments on the web:
This is like giving someone the keys to your expensive car, letting them drive it around the block in a potentially dangerous neighborhood (the web) and saying please don’t get carjacked!…Mozilla wants to introduce a common web API to make payments easy and secure on web devices yet still as flexible as the checkout button for merchants.
The new payment system will be beneficial on Mozilla’s Firefox OS if the company can make paying for apps seamless and simple. One interesting thing that will be possible with navigator.mozPay() is paying directly for content on a website. McMillan states in his blog post that “the web should support businesses of all kinds and payments should be a first class feature of the web.” This model will allow for sites to go ad-free if they get enough money from users directly.
In order for Mozilla’s web payment system to be successful, it will have to work closely with other web payments companies to create a standard across the web. Mozilla will be watching PaySwarm, a web payment protocol that decentralizes assets, and other models for inspiration on how to evolve their web payments API.
Source: Mozilla
