There's no technical breakthrough, but it might seem novel to people in countries like the USA where offline authorisation hasn't been widely allowed on credit

There's no technical breakthrough, but it might seem novel to people in countries like the USA where offline authorisation hasn't been widely allowed on credit and debit cards for some time. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_authorisation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_authorisation In many countries in Europe, offline authorisation is more common. Cards have had a chip as standard for over two decades in European countries, and a PIN is often used for cardholder verification. Combined, these make the risks of accepting a transaction for a small amount of money offline very low. The limit of what can be accepted offline is known as a "floor limit" in the UK.