Will Wallets Become the New Passe?

 As our world continues to thrive on the web, one may ask if wallets and business cards are destined to go the way of the credit card? With the implementation of smartphones containing new technologies like NFC (near field communication) projected to dispense with physical cards. Users are offered a far more refined and dynamic way of conducting every day transactions.

So as we move forward, will dark web wallet generations, move away from items that have been a necessity to function in today's world?

Business cards have their origins in the 15th century China. Wallets, as they are known today, were invented in the late 1600's. Almost immediately after paper currency was introduced in Massachusetts.

By the 17th century, visiting cards or visite biletes were in use in Europe amongst the aristocratic and royal households. It was during this period that one could be hung for pickpocketing a wallet, or at the very least, condemned to several years on the wretched prison ships moored around England and France. The use of trade cards had by then also become common practice in England, serving as a form of promotion for businesses as well as giving directions, due to the insufficient street signage.

As the centuries passed, the business card and wallet evolved. By the 18th and 19th century, the middle class along side the upper class, used cards to display social connections. Rules and customs dictated how a card was presented, received and displayed.

The industrial revolution saw a moderation of social convention, with businessmen both in the United States and Europe beginning to use cards to display contact information. It was during this time that a distinction came about between a visiting card and a business card. To present a business card to a household was to suggest a bill required payment. This period is considered that in which, the business card became the preferred means for conducting business introductions.

To return to the original question, will wallets become the new passé?

Melbourne duo Simon Dunn-Vaughan and Darren Inglis of iLID iPhone Case, designers and manufacturers of the innovative iLIDmk-1 iPhone wallets believe not. "The iLIDmk-1 is the world's thinnest iPhone wallet, designed specifically with NFC technology in mind. Our brief was to try and create a "wallet" that was in line with the direction that phones were heading" Inglis said.