Universal Ticketing Agent

Open Loop: Beyond the Bank Card Tap

Preface

It is time for open-loop ticketing to shift from using contactless bank cards (in any form factor) as the means of rider identification and card-present payments for transportation. It is time to embrace smartphones and wearables with authentication methods that are completely free of PCI DSS scope and the card-present transaction regulations imposed by payment schemes.

This evolution is driven by two undeniable realities: global smartphone ubiquity and the dominance of social platforms like Telegram.

UniTiAg is currently the only open-loop model that fully aligns with this paradigm. We invite ticketing vendors, their customers—transit operators—and online marketplaces to brainstorm this approach with us and start piloting. Let’s make Open Loop affordable for even small cities and convenient for their people.

Want to see the future of ticketing in action? Use our @RideOntonBot to get a gist of how this works, and read this post.

Three UniTiAg Metamorphoses

Since its foundation, UniTiAg, an Open-Loop ticketing service, model, and approach, has gone through three major metamorphoses.

First Metamorphose: Beyond Card-Present Transactions

We shifted from Card-Present cEMV transactions at transit validators to Card-Not-Present (CNP) transactions at online Two-Sided Marketplaces (TSMP). The TSMPs charge transit riders for refilling their OTRBs and reconcile Transit Agencies (TAs) for the rides they have provided (not for sold tickets).

Second Metamorphose: Beyond the cEMV PAN

We introduced the Contactless Rider Device Token (CRD Token) as an anonymous alternative to the cEMV card number (PAN), linked to the OTRB.

In our previous post “Redefining Open Loop in Transit Ticketing with UWB and Wallets” we used Ultra-wide Band (UWB) as an example and opportunity to build Open-Loop ticketing free of Payment Card Industry (PCI) regulatory burden.

However, we still considered payment cards—in any form factor—an important component of the UniTiAg open-loop model due to the apparent lack of an alternative, ubiquitous physical carrier for identification tokens.

Third Metamorphose: Beyond the Traveler’s Plastic

Telegram *), a global social platform and communication network, introduced so-called Mini Apps in April 2022. This allows Telegram users to buy or sell services without ever leaving the main Telegram App.

Considering that Telegram now boasts over 950 million monthly active users worldwide (as of 2024)—with 500 million specifically using Mini Apps—this ecosystem becomes a critical factor for transit agencies. This aligns perfectly with the reality of Open Loop: the overwhelming majority of occasional riders and tourists, who benefit most from friction-free ticketing, are already equipped with smartphones for connectivity and navigation. It is time to consider reshaping the open-loop approach to totally and forever remove the PCI compliance scope related to card readers, validators, and ticketing system services.

No doubt, other social platforms will follow suit. The shift toward the ‘Super App’ model—where messaging meets marketplace—is an unstoppable global tide. While Telegram is currently the pioneer in our target markets, the other tech giants will inevitably catch up. UniTiAg is built to be ready for them. We are positioned to extend our open-loop model to these new platforms as they emerge, ensuring that transit agencies aren’t locked into a single ecosystem, but are future-proofed for the next generation of digital interaction.

Try our Telegram Mini App @RideOntonBot and read the rest of this post.

As of Dec 2025, UniTiAg Embraces Telegram ® WebApp Platform

*) We are not implying any form of official engagement with Telegram as a legal entity. Universal Ticketing Agent (UniTiAg) solely uses the Telegram Mini App platform (technically known as Telegram Web Apps), which is an open platform available to developers worldwide.

Main Components of UniTiAg Open-Loop Ticketing Model

UniTiAg

Universal Ticketing Agent (UniTiAg) is a cloud-based service that makes Open-Loop ticketing affordable. Remarkably, the transit riders do not know anything about its existence, and we are not talking about it here anymore. Business Development and IT personnel of Transit Agencies (TAs), ticketing system vendors, and Two-Sided Marketplaces (TSMPs) can refer to https://unitiag.com/ for detailed information and API documentation.

TSMPs

The TSMPs are virtual spaces where:

  • Buyers are transit riders who refill their money value Open-To-Ride Balances (OTRBs).
  • Sellers are Transit Agencies which get paid for the services they provide. The TAs are not selling tickets; they strictly provide services, and the TSMP reconciles them after the fact.

The TSMP can be any marketplace that sells OTRB refills, charging via any possible payment method—cards, crypto wallets, fiat wallets, etc.—through their payment gateways. There may be many participating marketplaces, including Telegram itself, as Telegram supports native payments.

CRD and CRD Token

The Contactless Rider Device (CRD) is a smartphone or a wearable that presents a so-called CRD Token to transit validators. The CRD Token can be presented via any communication channel supported by the validators (e.g., NFC, UWB, BT, Wireless, Optical/QR).

The CRD Token is totally free of any payment or personal information. Consequently, TAs and their ticketing system vendors implementing Open Loop do not need to spend capital and operational resources achieving PCI DSS or GDPR compliance regarding the tap itself.

The transit operators deal with CRD Tokens, whereas the TSMPs deal with Open-To-Ride Balances linked to those tokens via the UniTiAg cloud. The TSMPs handle payment methods and gateways when they refill or refund OTRBs. This is where CNP transactions are utilized, along with wallets and crypto, and where sensitive personal and payment information must be protected.

Telegram Mini App

For a better understanding of the narration below, just try our Telegram Mini App @RideOntonBot.

Telegram provides Mini Apps with payment capability via multiple payment gateways, not limited to credit/debit cards or fiat currency.

Cryptocurrencies and stablecoins are integrated payment methods that Telegram users can utilize. Telegram features its “native” TON cryptocurrency, which many users may find attractive for transit payments (TAs, of course, are reconciled in their native fiat currencies).
@RideOntonBot currently works for demonstration purposes. It communicates with our demo TSMP, AmuzeBuy The latter has an option for user login via Telegram.

@RideOntonBot can be integrated with any TSMP that wants to support the OTRB and implement UniTiAg’s TSMP API.

Android App “Bye-Bye Cards”

Our Android app “Bye-Bye Cards” ( you can get it from Google Play Store here ) works in tandem with @RideOntonBot. Because the Telegram platform does not allow its Mini Apps to access certain smartphone hardware resources (like the NFC controller) directly, this app works on the rider’s device as a bridge between @RideOntonBot and the transit validators. The app presents the CRD Token linked to the rider’s OTRB to the validator and proves that the CRD Token is genuine.

We created this app-bridge—currently—only for Android. Feel free to download it and try it with @RideOntonBot. It works in a demo version as we discuss integration options with TAs and their ticketing system vendors.

Please note that the app does not store the OTRB’s currency or balance. The actual OTRB value is managed via the UniTiAg cloud. This ensures business interoperability necessary for Open Loop. Giving access to a particular balance segment in the CRD memory to all TAs would require creating and supporting a “trusted environment” on the technological and financial levels across all validators, all TSMPs, and all wallets (Apple, Google, etc.). This would necessitate complex legal relationships and an asymmetric (public) key hierarchy across all participants, slowing down authentication and increasing costs, let along, creating a global settlement system between all TAs.

There are the following integration options to avoid complex development on the validator side:

  • cEMV-like NFC: The CRD Token replaces the cEMV card PAN. The CRD is authenticated offline. More about Bye-Bye Cards and its cEMV session trace is here.
  • Timestamped QR Code: An offline CRD Token authentication supported by UniTiAg, where the UniTiAg OTRB object comprises the CRD Token PKI Certificate issued by the TSMP. The app rotates the QR code with a signed timestamp to prevent replay attacks.
  • Calypso-like NFC: Utilizing the Calypso Prime PKI specification. This supports asymmetric cryptography for offline CRD Token authentication without requiring SAMs in every reader.
  • Google Wallet Deep Link: A generic “Transit” pass in Google Wallet containing appLinkData. When tapped, this deep link instantly launches the “Bye-Bye Cards” app and enables reader mode, allowing the HCE transaction to proceed.
  • UWB: As discussed in our previous post, the UWB option can be implemented for hands-free access.
  • Wearables. As the CRD Token does not comprise any secret data, the interface between the smartwatch and the smartphone can be simplified, and neither device needs to be PCI compliant (specifically avoiding the burden of PCI DSS and PCI PTS standards). The private key associated with the CRD Token for authentication can be stored in the watch’s secure element or the smartphone’s secure element. In the latter case, the smartphone periodically loads short-living signed CRD Token timestamps to the watch (via Bluetooth), allowing the smartwatch to remain functionally simple.

Unbanked and Underbanked Riders

While travelers will enjoy Open-Loop using their phones and watches, the unbanked (cash only)and underbanked riders will continue using your closed-loop ticketing component. However, you can outsource the payment processing for their account refills to a TSMP. This allows you to maintain the closed-loop service they rely on, while still getting rid of your PCI DSS compliance scope for any Card-Not-Present transactions used to top them up.

 User Experience

  1. Rider opens @RideOntonBot inside Telegram.
  2. Chooses amount → pays with any method the marketplace (TSMP) supports (crypto, bank transfer, card, cash — doesn’t matter).
  3. Creates an OTRB.
  4. Taps “Open in Bye-Bye Cards” → Android app opens.
  5. One confirmation → 15-byte CRD Token is written to the CRD.
  6. From that moment the phone/watch is a real transit pass — completely offline.

Try it yourself — it already works today. Everything is running in public demo mode right now.

Supporting Materials

Eclipse Keyple

Since April 2024, Keyple supports sessions secured by public key cryptography on Calypso Prime PKI cards. This enables strong authentication of both the card and the data read from it, without necessarily requiring a Secure Access Module.

Telegram

Telegram Usage Statistics. July 2024. “More than 500 million out of Telegram’s 950 million users interact with mini apps every month.”

Other Platforms:

  • X (former Twitter): “Superapp X to be a better WeChat outside China: Elon Musk”.  The Economic Times (citing Musk’s direct statements from a podcast), December 1, 2025. “I also like the idea of having a unified app or website… where you can do anything you want there. You know, China has this with WeChat… So, it’s kind of WeChat++, I’d say, is the idea for X.”
  • Meta (WhatsApp). “Meta Positioning WhatsApp To Be a Super App” – TechNewsWorld, July 2025.

Copyrights

© 2025 Lifecycle Integrity Inc. & Eugene Lishak

#ByeByeCards #UniTiAg #OpenLoop #TelegramMiniApp #RideOnTon

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