iOS 12 is iPhones OV chip card and payment method
Sources within Apple have told The Information that the company from Cupertino with iOS 12 will finally make the NFC chip accessible to certain third parties. That NFC chip in the iPhone is basically not much different than all other contactless chips that are in all kinds of cards and devices. That means that in the long term as an iPhone owner you can finally enjoy all the advantages that Android owners have. iOS 12 is coming out at the end of this year.
Initially, Apple did not want to release that chip and you could only use it for Apple Pay, but soon your iPhone will be your hotel key, an OV chip card or even a bank card contactless payment. That would be very nice, because that way your phone just has to be near a terminal and you can do everything. So you do not have to activate your iPhone (that happens automatically) and authentication is not there, as it turns out.
Good news, but many questions
Especially the latter we are not used by Apple, because they are the most careful of all smartphone-makers when it comes to abuse. If the rumors are correct, you would therefore run the risk of someone running off your phone and at least could make some small transactions.
Exactly how it all comes, we probably hear at WWDC, the developers’ congress of Apple that starts on June 4th. There, Apple will explain what exactly the changes to the CoreNFC framework, as it is officially called, imply. It is a software update, so basically every phone with the NFC chip (iPhone 6 and later) has to support that.