While biometric authentication is now a common part of the payment process, confirming transactions with a palm screen is still a novelty. Though this experimental payment tech has been around for several years now, most people know little about it, not to mention using it in real life. So, what are those mysterious palm payments and are they really as promising as described?
UAE Tests Palm Payments for Mortgage and Property Deals
In early 2026, the Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates (CBUAE) launched a proof-of-concept for biometric payments that lets customers pay without cards or phones, using the combination of facial recognition and palm scans at the Dubai Land Department, oversees everything related to property ownership and real-estate services in the emirate, as part of its sandbox innovation program. The goal is to explore secure, seamless, device-free transactions, aligning with the UAE’s broader digital economy ambitions.
The system is being developed in cooperation with Network International, a large payments and fintech company in the Middle East and Africa, while the actual biometric processing technology is powered by PopID, a company specializing in biometric authentication.
This initiative may be first of its kind in the Middle East, however it’s far from the breakthrough globally, as similar projects have been working for years in other parts of the world.
When Palm Payments Don’t Catch On: Amazon One Case
Palm-based payments have been tried before on different scales. The most notable case in the Western part of the world is (or better say, was) Amazon One, the palm-scanning payment and identity service introduced by Amazon in 2020. This technology allowed users to scan their palm to pay, access locations, or check in at venues after linking payment cards.
However, in January 2026, Amazon announced it would discontinue Amazon One for retail, citing limited customer adoption and the closure of its Amazon Go and Amazon Fresh stores, where the payment technology was primarily deployed. The service is being gradually phased out by June 3, 2026, and all biometric data stored for palm authentication will be securely deleted. It will still remain available for healthcare check-ins for the time being, though.
This unviable project revealed a few solid shortcomings of the palm-based payment future. Firstly, most shoppers remain either unfamiliar or uncomfortable with using biometric palm scans, especially when card or app payments are already reliable, simple, fast and ubiquitous. Second isuue is that people have privacy and security concerns around biometric payments, especially when they are supposed to trust to a big prvate corporation with their sensitive data.
WeChat Palm Pay in China Illustrates More Successful Adoption
In contrast, China has experienced moderate success with palm payments, especially through Wechat/Weixin Pay. Launched in 2023, its palm-scan payments are striving, being used in real commercial environments such as metro lines, university campuses, convenience stores, and even in tourism-oriented areas.
To begin with, WeChat Pay has already served hundreds of millions of users, so adding palm scanning as another authentication option helped extend functionality rather than replace the core experience.
Furthermore, Chinese tech provider has been working on expanding its functionality. At the 2025 China International Financial Expo, WeChat Pay showcased the palm payment tech alongside other innovations, highlighting:
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New elder-friendly payment options (like pre-binding a person’s identity to a palm so older people without smartphones can use it);
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Prototypes for future biometric authentication interfaces beyond payments;
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Plans to link palm tech with bank cards in Singapore and beyond.
Some media reports noted that Tencent was considering bringing palm biometric payments to other markets like Thailand, though the plans were still not finalized.
New Innovators Are Entering the Space
Beyond big tech and national systems, startup-level innovation is also emerging, aiming to make palm payments more accessible and flexible. One notable recent example is Handwave, a Latvian biometric startup that raised €3.6 million (about $4.2M) in seed funding in 2025 to build a palm-based payment and identity platform for Europe and the US.
Handwave’s approach combines surface palm imaging with subdermal vein scanning to create encrypted biometric identifiers that can power payments, age verification, and loyalty program activation. Its strategic partnership with Visa suggests potential integration into broader financial networks without forcing unique hardware per retailer, especially considering the startup’s initial device-agnostic deployment.
Pros & Cons of Palm Payments
Palm-based payments offer clear advantages but also structural limits, as shown by recent pilots and rollouts.
On the plus side, they enable fully contactless, device-free transactions, factually eliminating the queues in areas with bustling human traffic, e.g. public transport, reduce friction in identity-heavy processes, and can enhance security when palm-vein and palm-print biometrics are combined, making spoofing harder than with PINs or cards. These strengths make palm payments better suited to regulated, high-trust environments such as government services (as seen with the UAE’s Dubai Land Department pilot), public transport, campuses, and closed ecosystems where identity is already verified, as well as markets with high acceptance of digital ID and super-app payments like China.
On the downside, palm payments like other biometric payments require specialized hardware, raise long-term privacy and data-protection concerns around immutable biometric data, and often struggle to deliver a compelling advantage in open retail markets where cards and mobile wallets already work seamlessly — an issue highlighted by Amazon One’s low adoption and eventual shutdown.
Bottom Line
Considering all the potential and shortcomings, palm payments are unlikely to replace mainstream card or mobile payments globally in the near term, but they can be effective as a complementary method in specific sectors and regions where infrastructure, regulation, and consumer expectations align.
The UAE’s pilot program shows how regulated innovation hubs can explore this tech responsibly. Meanwhile, Amazon One’s discontinuation shows that convenience alone isn’t enough. Mass adoption of any technology depends on user trust, real value, and ecosystem fit. In contrast, WeChat’s palm payment successes in China demonstrate how integration into existing widely-used systems and genuine utility can make biometric innovations more acceptable.
