I am all for the future development of cashless payments.  This is certainly one in the aforementioned class of transactions.  Using one’s fingerprint in order to authenticate one of your transactions, is certainly taking identity to another level of authenticity. I am all for this sort of development. The only valid criticism that I feel needs to be discussed is one of hygiene.  I am assuming that one has to touch a fingerprint reader in order to execute a transaction.  If that is the case, developing a reader that does not rely on physical touch should be urgently looked at.  If nothing is developed along these lines, the fingerprint reader can certainly be construed as an entity which is as dirty as the cash the entire world is trying to extricate itself from.      

I've always been a fan of making a contactless transaction without having to take out the payment instrument - aka contactless card - from my wallet / pocket / bag.  Most recently, I'd commented here that this is so cool that it would have made it into the latest Bond film. Happy to see this technology from Discover. But, I hope that it does not meet the same fate as Pay By Touch, which pioneered payment by fingerprint but flamed out within a year or two of launching but not before guzzling $$$M of VC funds.

Was'nt there a startup that folded that did the same thing called "Pay by Touch"?