I remember getting my first debit card from my local bank in Germany as a teenager. It was in the early 90s, I believe. It had a chip with the ubiquitous brass

I remember getting my first debit card from my local bank in Germany as a teenager. It was in the early 90s, I believe. It had a chip with the ubiquitous brass contacts almost any card has today. My uncle had participated in the patent filings for some of the tech, years earlier, for his employer. He had explained to me, already in the 80s, how this would be the future of carrying money around. It never took off. My personal take is that it was simply an oversight in UX. There was no way to check the balance on the chip without going to an ATM. Furthermore only some ATMs of some banks carried the hardware/software to do so. I also don't recall if you could even check your balance if the ATM belonged to another bank. Also paying by card was far from common in Germany then so few shops carried the readers. It was mostly only big supermarkets and department stores. I.e. it was double inconvenient compared to cash. And Germany being a safe country, the added security in case of theft didn't help. It was also a minor factor since a thieve that would steel your purse would simply throw the card away. The money would be gone either way.