Forget Cash and Credit Cards: Take a Selfie to Pay for Things

The payments space is moving further and further away from cold hard cash. Major companies like MasterCard (MA) - Get Report have apps that allow users to pay for things by taking a selfie. 'Your phone has not only your payment credentials securely stored, but it also has a camera built in,' said Jason Oxman, CEO of the Electronic Transactions Association, based in Washington. 'Rather than authenticating yourself using something that's 50 or 60 years old like a PIN, you can take a picture of yourself.' As technology evolves, consumers have become increasingly concerned about the security of mobile payment transactions. 'As we move away from the plastic card with the magnetic stripe, which is a 40 year old technology - the same technology used in cassette tapes - we're moving towards mobile payments,' he said. TheStreet's Scott Gamm has details from Wall Street.