A piece on Finance 2.0 in Tech Crunch talks about new methods and technologies that will have a positive impact for the consumer and the merchant over the next few years. I say bring them on…

I’ve got my fingers crossed for the success of a new mobile payment application from Vancouver-based Modio that seems to just make sense for smartphone owners and merchants. All you need to do is download the Mobio app from the Apple App Store (I’m not sure about Blackberry support), load your payment details and start scanning.

What could be more convenient or secure than simply scanning a 2D bar-code like the following:

This one allows you to directly contribute to Habitat for Humanity’s Haitian Relief Fund but MobioID is involved with other charity work as well.

Expect to see these 2D bar codes everywhere from restaurant bills, to SkyTrain ads to websites. It’s a bit ironic that I’ve spent the last decade enabling and fussing over web payment functionality that effectively could be made obsolete by this simple technology. I think that counts as a breakthrough.

With TRU transacting about $30 million in credit card payments each year, this type of technology will be a boon to both students and the University.