Isis is addressing the problem of merchant adoption. Last week, it that leading suppliers of payment terminals had agreed to begin enabling the NFC (near field communications) that power mobile payments in all the machines they provide. Merchants who haven't moved to the new terminals by 2015 will assume increased liability for fraudulent credit card purchases at their stores.

As part of the Isis launch, major manufacturers of Android devices including Nokia, Sony and LG, will begin to include NFC in their phones. According to Hughes, 100 million NFC-enabled phones could be in use within "just a couple of upgrade cycles."

The panelists admitted there is another barrier to widespread adoption: People don't fully trust the technology.

But mobile payments using the Isis model are actually safer than credit card transactions, according to the panelists. The data on a card's magnetic strip can be "skimmed," allowing criminals to create a pirated card. But the security code attached to mobile payments using the Isis system will change. That data "is not static, so stealing it doesn't do you any good," Merschen said.

Also, a lost or stolen wallet app, unlike a lost or stolen "leather wallet," can be de-activated with one call to the mobile provider, said Gordon Beatty of Gemalto, a digital security vendor.