EMV: The Global Standard That Makes OpenPasskey Work at Any Terminal

11 billion cards. 100+ million terminals. One standard.

EMV (Europay, Mastercard, Visa) is the global standard for chip card payments. It's why your Australian Visa card works at a terminal in Tokyo. And it's why our card works at the same terminal Visa does.

What EMV Actually Standardizes

EMV defines:

• Physical card dimensions and chip placement
• Communication protocol between card and terminal (contact and contactless)
• Cryptographic authentication (card proves it's genuine)
• Transaction flow (authorization, clearing, settlement)
• Application selection (how the terminal picks which card app to use)

The key insight: EMV doesn't require Visa or Mastercard. It's an open standard. Any card issuer with an IIN from ISO can build a card that speaks EMV.

How Terminal Routing Works

When you tap a card, the terminal:

1. Reads the card's AID (Application Identifier)
2. Matches it against the terminal's supported applications
3. Routes the transaction to the appropriate network

Visa's AID starts with A0000000031010. Mastercard's starts with A0000000041010.

OpenPasskey has its own AID. When we're in an acquirer's routing table, their terminals recognize our card just like they recognize Visa.

The Contactless (NFC) Part

Modern EMV contactless uses ISO 14443 for NFC communication. When you tap:

1. Terminal emits RF field (13.56 MHz)
2. Card's antenna harvests power from the field
3. Card and terminal exchange APDUs (Application Protocol Data Units)
4. Card signs transaction data
5. Terminal receives signature and payment details

This happens in under 500ms.

Our Java Card applet implements this exact protocol. A terminal can't tell the difference between tapping our card and tapping a Visa.

Why This Is Our Moat

EMV compatibility means:

• No new terminals needed (merchants change nothing)
• Familiar UX (tap like you always do)
• Global potential (EMV is used in 100+ countries)
• Any acquirer can add us in approximately one day

The payment industry has spent decades building EMV infrastructure. We're using that infrastructure with different rails underneath.

The Three Rails

All three of our payment methods speak EMV-compatible protocols:

1. Physical card (Java Card NFC applet)
2. Mobile phone (Host Card Emulation, same protocol)
3. QR scan (ERC-681 URI, for wallets without NFC)

All three settle through the same on-chain pipeline.

The Numbers

• 3,200+ users, 20+ Sydney cafes
• 45,509 transactions, AU$66K volume
• 3 people, 10 months, zero external funding
• Blackbird Giants Cohort 11

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OpenPasskey | @OpenPasskey