rfid isn't new, those chips usually allow btw 50 to 100 per transaction and are supposed to randomly ask for your pin number, th9ough i've never, ever been asked for pin. i've been using them for a long time and one of the things i used to do at my last job was code and set up the reqders for new patt machines installations. what's new is the US using them en masse. the US usually lags behind europe, canda, etc. in electronic banking because though the large banks come up with alot of these technologies and use them, the US also has a huge amount of small, local banks unlike europe or canada, australia, etc which make their own policies and don't want to spend money on these things, so you'll see visa or mastercard in the US having this, but not debit cards until the stuff is very mainstream. this is good, i guess since, by the time the stuff's implemented, the security issues are known very well.

i hope this was helpful, maybe you can talk about it on your blog or on your upcoming podcast series