Mozilla Web Payment API For Firefox OS Gets Unveiled

The Firefox OS is upon us, and now a web payment API has also begun to reveal itself. The team at Mozilla on Sunday announced the development of its web payment API. The Javascript API is titled navigator.mozPay() and allows for the purchase of digital products using a credit card or carrier phone billing.

Mozilla has modeled the new web payment API off a similar version from the Google Wallet platform. The platform essentially operates as an intermediary between web apps and the end user.

On the Mozilla blog, the company says the need for a web payment API was high. The company notes that customers handing out credit card numbers to every app developer they come across could have led to potentially bad consequences. Mozilla likened giving out credit card info to developers to a “potentially dangerous neighborhood.”

Mozilla has promised to help developers handle payment processing while also sticking close to PCI compliance duties.

The web payment API is still in development, and details from the API have not yet specified how merchants and customers will interact with the APIs payment platform.

According to reports, the Alcatel One Touch Fire and the ZTE Open will ship with a whitelist of payment providers that can be used with the web payment API. Eventually, the plan is to expand the program to include more partners.

Eventually, the team at Mozilla hopes to expand the use of the web payment API to its other platforms. According to a Mozilla engineer, the platform will operate through the W3C to “reach consensus on a common API that supports web payments in the best way possible.”

With the potential to expand the Mozilla web payment API to Android devices and the desktop, Mozilla could be positioning itself for an entirely new market.

Are you excited to see the Mozilla web payment API in action?