It could be the beginning of the end for the wallet, as Starbucks announced this week that it would soon accept payments at nearly all of its locations through customers’ cell phones.

Now you can get your “Trenta,” the new 31-ounce iced beverage being sold by the coffee giant, without taking anything out besides a cell phone.

It presents a fascinating look into the future of our economy and how people will pay for the items they want in the future.

Users of the Starbucks application will be able to load their gift card with cash and then add it to the phone. Then, using the application that will display a code for the scanner at the checkout, they just wave it at the scanner and money is debited from the account.

It seems magical and far-fetched and it has a few issues to overcome. First, you still need a physical Starbucks card to reload it. Why can’t customers get a card number and add their own funds to it from the phone itself?

Is there any sort of protection (say, a PIN) to protect customers from having their phone stolen and used to pay for the overpriced coffee?

At the same time, it does present an optimistic future for payment technology. Imagine when credit card companies integrate this new technology, how much easier it could be to pay for things.

And the amount of fraud protection that could result.

There might even be a possibility that customers even need a physical credit card number, just an image that associates the individual with the bank account. More so, there’s no need for replacement cards (still may need replacement phones).

On the other hand, if these cards run on batteries, there’s a possibility that it runs out. If someone loses a charger and has a dead phone–that could present an interesting situation where a person doesn’t have physical cash to pay for it.

The chances of it happening are probably slim to none, but still, it’s always worth being mindful of where technology can go wrong.

The other applications that could work for this is the Hawk Card. Imagine managing and getting updates on meal plan balances, Hawk cash remaining–and adding to it from a mobile application.

Getting into dorms, now that would be convenient, too.

But the technology is far too cost-prohibitive to even consider putting in a business smaller than the beverage giant and chain grocery stores, but it’s always fun to speculate on how payments will evolve over the coming years.