Until Apple Pay and other smartphone-related payment methods became common, the USA credit card was technologically behind much of Europe, Canada, and other dev

Until Apple Pay and other smartphone-related payment methods became common, the USA credit card was technologically behind much of Europe, Canada, and other developed countries. Chip-and-PIN (EMV, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EMV https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EMV) is the standard in Europe and Canada for relaying credit card info & authentication. Many USA retailers were stuck using the credit card's magnetic stripe for entering card info. Evidently the USA still hasn't moved to Chip-and-PIN, with Chip and Signature being more common. Updating the point-of-sale terminals has been the chokepoint supposedly, https://lauraclery.com/chip-and-pin-united-states/ https://lauraclery.com/chip-and-pin-united-states/.