On the 17th day of the A2Z Challenge 2019, I shall about the A2Z of QR code. QR stands for Quick Response. A QR code is a two-dimensional barcode. It consists of black squares arranged in a square grid on a white background. QR contains information about the item to which it is attached. QR codes were invented by Denso Wave, a Japanese company, in 1994, to track vehicles while manufacturing. A standard barcode can contain only 20 alphanumeric characters, but a QR code can hold upto 7,089 characters.

To fetch the data from a QR code, you need a QR code scanner. You can download it on your phone for free. After installing it, you just need to point your phone’s camera at the QR code to scan it. The QR code scanner will scan it and fetch the data. Since they can carry data both vertically and horizontally, they can store a large amount of information including text and multimedia content. This is the reason why ticket booking websites send you a QR code instead of regular tickets. All the required information – seating, show timings and other relevant details are embedded in that QR code. To gain entry, you just need to get the QR code scanned.

A2Z of QR code: BharatQR

In this section of the post, I shall talk about the BharatQR code. Bharat QR is the world’s first interoperable payment acceptance solution. It is a P2M (Person to Merchant) Mobile payment system. This system has been developed jointly by the NPCI (National Payments Corporation of India), Visa, MasterCard and American Express. It works as a common interface for the MasterCard/Visa/Rupay platforms and also enables acceptance of AEPS (Aadhaar-Enabled Payment System) and UPI (Unified Payments Interface).

BharatQR enables you to pay without sharing your credentials to the merchant. It also eliminates the requirement of merchant’s details. You just need to scan the displayed QR code.