I agree with you, jurandr. The point here is that this is an authenticator on a personal, private level, rather than a corporate level.

"And America is a technological backwater when it comes to consumer deployment of this technology. Don't assume that because American banks don't worry about losing other peoples money that other countries don't have these systems in place."

As an American, I'm actually pretty well aware of that fact. I know there's several times more red tape for individuals and groups to get through before something "new" can be introduced on a widespread scale to the American public. Pharmaceuticals, medical practices, food standards, safety standards, technological changes, etc all get picked up elsewhere in the world long before they become acceptable on American soil.

What would you have preferred the author have done? Start the article with, "This is for Americans only, everyone else can go stroke their spiffy gadgets somewhere else." It's a nifty bit of information worth sharing with the idiots living in the barbaric conditions of the US. /eyeroll