Originally Posted by
grkvlt
for all BAEC members?
Rough calculation (from an IT guy) - I reckon you can store an EC number and an avios balance up to 4 billion (way more than anyone would actually have) easily in 8 bytes of data.
128 GB of RAM is a bit over 134 billion bytes so you could store 17 billion accounts along with their avios balance.
So yes, it's likely that the device stores everyone's cards and balances.
Chip and pin cards do not need to be connected in order to authorise them. There is a code embedded in the chip which is completely useless unless the correct pin is entered. Of course, this only validates that the holder of the card knows the correct pin for the card, not that there are sufficient funds or that they are in fact the rightful owner. Contactless doesn't do this, obviously, which is why transactions are limited to £30.