Digital wallet device for virtual wallet
A reconfigurable digital wallet device such as a smart card containing a secure element and acting as an instantiation of a subset of a virtual wallet stored in the cloud. The digital wallet device is managed and synchronized with the virtual wallet in the cloud using a mobile device such as a smartphone.
1. A digital wallet device comprising:
a wireless communications unit;
a secure element including a cryptographic core, electrically coupled to the wireless communications unit, the secure element configured to communicate with an external mobile device via the wireless communications unit and securely pair with the external mobile device such that the secure element is able to store and synchronize a subset of a virtual wallet stored in a cloud using the external mobile device that is configured to communicate with the cloud;
wherein the secure element is configured to communicate with a transaction terminal to perform a transaction.
2. The digital wallet device of claim 1 where the subset of the virtual wallet storable in the secure element is configurable using the mobile device.
3. The digital wallet of device of claim 1 where the secure element is electrically coupled to a second wireless communications unit, the secure element further configured to communicate with a transaction terminal via the second wireless communications unit.
4. The digital wallet of claim 3 where the second wireless communications unit is configured to communicate with the transaction terminal using NFC connectivity.
5. The digital wallet of claim 3 where the transaction terminal comprises an NFC reader.
6. The digital wallet device of claim 1 where the wireless communications unit comprises a control interface unit and a Near Field Communications (NFC) coil.
7. The digital wallet device of claim 1 where the secure element is configured to operate autonomously from the mobile device at a transaction terminal.
8. The digital wallet device of claim 7 where the device has both contact connectivity and NFC connectivity for connecting to the transaction terminal.
9. The digital wallet device of claim 1 where the wireless communications unit comprises a BLUETOOTH Low Energy (BLE) integrated circuit and a BLE antenna.
10. The digital wallet device of claim 9 where the secure element is powerable by a transaction terminal.
11. The digital wallet device of claim 10 where the transaction terminal comprises a contact reader.
12. The digital wallet device of claim 9 where the secure element is powerable by an external dongle attached to a port of the mobile device.
13. The digital wallet device of claim 12 where the port is selected from the group consisting of: an audio port, a USB port and an APPLE LIGHTENING port.
14. The digital wallet device of claim 9 where the device is configured to be powered by an internal battery.
15. The digital wallet device of claim 1 where the mobile device is a smartphone.
16. The digital wallet device of claim 1 where the device is a smart card.
17. The digital wallet device of claim 1 where the device comprises a display.
18. The digital wallet device of claim 17 where the display is an e-ink display.
19. The digital wallet device of claim 17 where the display is configured to show configuration information of the smart card.
20. A system comprising a digital wallet device comprising:
a wireless communications unit;
a secure element including a cryptographic core, electrically coupled to the wireless communications unit, the secure element configured to communicate with an external mobile device via the wireless communications unit and securely pair with the external mobile device such that the secure element is able to store and synchronize a subset of a virtual wallet stored in a cloud using the external mobile device that is configured to communicate with the cloud, wherein the secure element is configured to communicate with a transaction terminal to perform a transaction;
and a virtual card selected from the group consisting of a bankcard, a loyalty card and a transit card where the virtual card is part of the subset of the virtual wallet stored in the cloud and the virtual card is configured to be stored in the secure element of the digital wallet device.