Have there been other barcoded bill payment systems?
Yes. A number of systems have been designed, developed, and used through the years. They fall into several categories: • Good ideas that didn’t quite make it. A number of not-quite-workable barcode payment prototypes and patents date back to the 1990s and perhaps earlier. These explored the basic concepts, but were abandoned because they didn’t surmount the core technical problems. • Single-biller solutions. A number of large utilities and similar billers have used barcoded invoices to expedite payment at their own payment locations. These did their intended job, but couldn’t scale up for use by many billers at many retail locations. • Nationwide solutions. Outside the U.S., several countries have set up successful barcoded payment infrastructures. These rely on a uniform approach to billing – all barcoded invoices look essentially the same, and since they can’t easily be mistaken for anything else, retailers can confidently accept them for payment. This wouldn’t work in the U.S., or i
