Resumen
The article focuses on the evolution of smart cards. Just about anything found in a person's wallet has the potential to be stored on a smart card, including a driver's license, insurance information, credit cards and bank accounts. Some predict that one day all plastic cards will meld into one universal, multifunctional smart card. More research on privacy and security is needed before such a card comes into being, since the more personal and varied the information stored on an individual's smart card, the greater the potential for privacy loss when that card is accessed. But even in their current incarnation, smart cards support an impressive variety of applications and are expected to support more as they become smaller, cheaper and more powerful. Smart cards and their related technologies are an emerging component of electronic commerce worldwide. Smart cards appeared on the horizon when two German inventors, Jürgen Dethloff and Helmut Grötrupp, patented the idea of having plastic cards hold microchips in 1968. Japanese patented another version of the smart card in 1970.