Brazilian fintech company Treeal said that it is partnering with Tencent Cloud to launch the Chinese company’s PalmAI biometric payment solution in Brazil as an alternative method for payment processing.
As the name implies, PalmAI uses a palm scanner to authorise payments. The scanner identifies the unique vein patterns beneath the skin, as well as lines, contours, creases, and skin textures such as pigmentation and calluses, which are unique to each person’s palm.
PalmAI can be used without a card or a smartphone. Tencent Cloud claims palm scans are a more reliable biometric over fingerprint and facial recognition systems, which it says are limited by vulnerabilities to spoofing, reduced accuracy with certain demographics, environmental constraints, and hygiene concerns.
Treeal said its implementation of PalmAI enables user identification in less than 300ms, with a false acceptance rate of less than 0.0000001% and a false rejection rate of 0.01%.
“Biometric systems like this aren't just about security – they redefine the user experience by making it faster, simpler, and more intuitive,” said Treeal CEO João Santos in a statement. “We believe palm-based biometrics could become mainstream within the next five years.”
The PalmAI Service is already being used in several Asian markets for things like premises access (including Tencent’s own buildings), and is also being tested for use cases like high-traffic transit locations (such as subway stations and bus stops), retail self-checkout experiences, private events, and other real-life access and identity verification scenarios.
Tencent Cloud said the system supports more than 50 million active users globally, conducting over 2 billion transactions annually.
