Mastodawn

The central bank of Denmark, Nationalbanken, today announced its new offline payment system which means Danes will be able to pay digitally at the store — even when the internet is down.

This means both credit card payments and cellphone payments go through at the counter up to 7 days into an internet breakdown, because of a new technological solution which is being rolled out at grocery stores first.

Pharmacies will be added to the system later this year.

https://via.ritzau.dk/pressemeddelelse/14873884?lang=da&amp%3BpublisherId=13561853

7-dages offline-kortbetalingsberedskab på plads i dagligvarekæder... og snart også på apotekerne | Danmarks Nationalbank

Alle voksne danskere, der har et dansk udstedt betalingskort fra Dankort, Mastercard eller Visa kan nu betale med deres fysiske kort eller wallets på mobilen i de fleste landsdækkende dagligvarekæder i mindst en uge, selvom der sker et nedbrud i kortbetalingsinfrastrukturen, eller internettet ikke virker.

Tizian 「ティツィアーン」2d ago

@randahl Nice, well done Denmark!

ablobcatheartsqueeze

txtx 🇪🇺2d ago

@randahl This is good news. A hotel employee in Denmark was a little bit concerned when my card didn't work there; he said Denmark had just suffered a nationwide payment outage. Quite a problem as we transition more and more towards digital payments...

@randahl Amazing what's possible if people want to make something happen, well done.

Frans Veldman ⁱ ᵃᵐ ᵃⁿᵗⁱᶠᵃ🚩2d ago

Next step, cash money is no longer accepted, because the new system has so many “advantages”. Which means that banks and government gain total insight and control of everyone’s expenditures.

@FransVeldman
I am not informed about the implementation, but something like #Taler is anonymous like real cash.
@randahl

Jan Antoš 2d ago

@randahl this needs to spread cross whole EU, we will be waiting for digital Euro forever

Harry Sintonen 2d ago

@randahl Airplane inflight card payments have been doing this for ages. So nothing new technically as far as I can tell.

Randahl Fink 2d ago

@harrysintonen in a world where Russian hackers are constantly trying to shut down essential digital infrastructure in Europe, I this is indeed both new at our stores and very, very important.

Jurkis 🇱🇹2d ago

@harrysintonen @randahl We had such type of bank cards (issued by bank Snoras) in Lithuania at about 1993-2010. Then Snoras bankrupted.

Harry Sintonen 2d ago

@Jurkis Note that this is on the payment system side, rather than specific card. So any card will work.

Michael Westergaard 2d ago

Not any card. Danish cards. Probably mostly a regulatory thing: Danish banks consent to the risk of 7 days of outstanding payments on debit cards, but foreign banks do not.

Harry Sintonen 2d ago

@michael @Jurkis Sure. Similar limitations likely apply in each country individually to limit fraud. What I meant with there was that you don't need some kind of a special card for it to work. The change applies to existing cards, that is.

Michael Westergaard 2d ago

Also for debit cards? (The OP is incorrect; this is for debit cards, not credit cards.)

There's a huge difference – credit cards can work off-line as they do not need to check the account balance, but debit cards needed an internet connection to check the amount to be deducted is available.

They very likely handle debit cards the same way: by just allowing people to spend for a week without checking the balance. It used to be possible using Danish debit cards as well but was removed for security reasons (financial security, not security security).

Harry Sintonen 2d ago

Sure. The same thing is coming to other nordic countries and Estonia, too. This was announced in May 2025 already. See https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/nordics-estonia-plan-offline-card-payment-back-up-if-internet-cut-2025-05-07/

Sweden rolls out their system by July 2026. https://www.riksbank.se/en-gb/press-and-published/notices-and-press-releases/press-releases/2025/offline-card-payments-should-be-possible-no-later-than-1-july-2026/

Riksbank also has a some explanation how it works: https://www.riksbank.se/en-gb/payments--cash/payment-preparedness/offline-payments/

It should be noted that this is more of a regulatory change. Technical aspects of offline payments have been in the systems since for a very long time.

Captain Button 2d ago

@michael @harrysintonen @randahl

Does this mean the system has a copy of everyone's balance, or at least balance range? Or are they just taking the risk that someone with a very low debit balance could spend money they don't have for a week?

Harry Sintonen 2d ago

@cptbutton AFAIK it's a risk based system. There likely is a cap to the amount you can pay, too. Note that you only use it when the network is down, which reduces the risk of abuse significantly.

Michael Westergaard 2d ago

I don't know how it works exactly, but it's almost certainly a (slightly) modernized version of this terminal which was taken out of service in 2007: dr.dk/nyheder/penge/fluesmaekkeren-sendes-paa-pension

That terminal allowed shops to accept payment from debit cards while off-line, with banks guaranteeing the transaction up to an amount (that was lower than an online cleared transaction which was only limited to your account balance – people literally buy cars with the card).

The entire thing that is happening now is that the guarantee that was decommissioned in 2007 is back.

Fluesmækkeren sendes på pension

Efter næsten 30 år på markedet går den velkendte fluesmækker nu på pension. Det sker for at styrke sikkerheden for både forretninger og forbrugere.

DR

@randahl
Fine. One question though: still Mastercard or Visa or Danish banking system?

Henrik Pauli 2d ago

@petpet @randahl the two are different layers of banking. MC/visa aren't banks, the Danish banks aren't bank card issuers.

It would be nice if Europe had realised decades ago that we need our own plastic (that could have competed with the two kings and wouldn't necessarily have been limited to EC/EU or Europe as such) - but sadly it didn't.

@randahl This must be the proper digitalization they're talking about all the time here in Germany... Well done, my favorite emigration countrx, #Denmark! ❤️

@randahl That's just a parallel network that can save 7 days of activity, after seventh day if you make a transaction you'll get an error message. Pretty sure they used an already in place infrastructure. And it's not hard to do this in such a small country full of bigoted fascists.

derekheld 2d ago

@randahl Are they running the infrastructure independent of the US? Or is it like the EU creating a payment system that still runs on AWS?

Michael Westergaard 2d ago

Credit card payments are not (newly) able to do this. Debit cards are now newly able to do this ("betalingskort" = "debit card"). Credit cards could (in most cases) already do this as you buy on credit. Debit cards always check the bank balance and therefore needed an internet connection.

@randahl The next step is getting rid of non-european data transfer of card payments.

Robin Barton 2d ago

@randahl Great idea

Kierkethumbs up convincingly 2d ago

@randahl i’m troubled by the wider implications

@randahl We used to have that functionality when I worked in retail in the 90s - it was known onomatopoeically as the "cha ching machine".

notsoloud 2d ago

@sinjut
The "flyswatter" in classic Danish slang
@randahl

Claus Hillker 2d ago

@randahl I don't beleive it. If The orange clown tells VISA or Mastercard to shut down DK, they will. The only Dankort is left, and way too few actually have such in the clean form.

I remember in the Netherlands we had an offline system back in the day, something called 'briefgeld' (cashmoney)? Worked back then without the internet or USA.

#gulden #paycash

Osma A 🇫🇮🇺🇦2d ago

Not credit cards, but debit cards. The difference might look minor, but it isn't: credit cards offer buyer protection (and retailer risk) via 30-day chargeback guarantee whereas debit cards rarely if ever allow buyer to claw back the transaction.
@randahl