both Over the coming year, financial institutions, merchants and consumers will have the opportunity to decide what their ideal digital wallet looks like. Should it be issued and have customer data managed by a financial institution?  Should it have both online and point-of-sale capabilities? Should it offer a "tokenisation" facility with payments?Australia now has three digital wallet projects in different stages of development, and each is a little different from the others. PayPal's digital wallet has been operating in selected cafes since last year. MasterCard's MasterPass system is operating via a couple of pilot projects. And Visa's V.me is scheduled to be in operation by the end of the year.They all share one very important feature: they are "open" wallets. This means that consumers will be able to enable any payment card, including pre-paid cards, for use in the wallet.And the wallet developers see scope for the addition of foreign currency cards, loyalty cards and more. PayPal allows consumers to add a new payment card to their wallet simply by taking a photograph of it with their smartphone camera.However, there are several important differences that may have a bearing on how readily financial institutions, merchants and consumers take up these offerings.First out of the blocks is PayPal, which has taken the approach of working with third parties developing point-of-sale software. Last year it linked up with a developer called Beat the Q, whose software allows a consumer to order and pay for coffee before they get to the cafe counter. PayPal users have access to this service at about 160 cafes in Australia.Earlier this month, PayPal added a similar service provided by a company called Catch Group, whose ordering site, EatNow, is in use in 2000 restaurants.Consumers go into their PayPal application on their electronic device to get a list of places where they can use their digital wallet. The wallet then allows them to order, pay and get a receipt.On the other side of the transaction, the cafe or restaurant has a record of the customer's transaction and can add additional services, such as a coffee club. The staff even know the name of the customer and can personalise the service with a friendly greeting.PayPal Australia's head of communications, Adrian Christie, said: "In e-commerce personalisation is very important."Visa launched its digital wallet, called V.me, earlier this month, with the service to be in operation by the end of the year. The wallet holds details of a consumer's Visa cards and other payment cards, as well as delivery addresses for goods purchased online.V.me will be accessed via a personal computer, a tablet or a smartphone. The consumer pays no fees.Visa announced that it is working with 40 financial institutions, including ANZ, National Australia Bank, Westpac, Suncorp, Citigroup and ING Direct. An important part of the scheme, from Visa's point of view, is that it will be endorsed and promoted by financial institutions. Enrolment of V.me users will be done by the financial institutions.Participating retailers include JB Hi-Fi, Cotton On, City