When you head out for the day, what are the essentials that fill your pockets? For most of us, it includes keys (house or car), mobile phone and a wallet with cash or credit cards. Ask nearly anyone on the street if they have these items and there is a good chance that they will have all three of them on their person. However, what if they could all be combined into a single device? It is not as out there as it seems and the research is coming from unlikely sources.

A recent article from Wired features a lengthy interview with Leslie Berland, the head of digital partnership and development at American Express. The main topic of the conversation is her efforts to get rid of plastic cards. While this might seem strange for a credit card company to look into, the fact remains that consumers are embracing the digital revolution and consumers always have their smartphones on them.

"What we are hyper-focused on is how do we merge those two things," Berland told the news source. "Especially as one day the physical card will disappear."

The article goes on to mention the mobile commerce marketplace has become "one of Silicon Valley's white whales." While systems like the Google Wallet have been introduced and companies like Starbucks have been accepting mobile payments at the case register for some time, the solution has yet to fully catch on and be embraced by consumers at large.

With major credit card companies working on mobile contactless payments, it is only a matter of time before it becomes an industry standard and is something that all businesses will need to consider.