Near field communication could play a role in reducing the effectiveness of falsified visas and passports.

A new partnership may soon mean that a combination of hologram and NFC technology could fight counterfeit government documents. The companies involved are Thinfilm, a printed electronics firm, and Holoptica, an authentication solutions provider.

The end product could potentially be a holographic NFC tagged chip used as an anti-counterfeiting solution.

This use of NFC technology in combination with holograms could create a government document that can’t be forged. Moreover, it could also be possible to invalidate a legitimate document in the case of theft.

The SpeedTap tag is produced by Thinfilm. It includes an NFC chip that would make it possible for consumers and government officials to connect to the certified digital replica of a document. This way, a single tap of an NFC-enabled smartphone could be all that is required to verify a document’s authenticity.

If this use of holograms and NFC technology works, it could save over $10 billion (US) each year.

The black market costs an estimated US$10 billion in forged and counterfeit passports, work permits and visas every year. Near field communication chips worked into these documents could mean that fraud would be much closer to being eliminated.

According to the Holoptica CEO, George Perkous, “Combining Thinfilm’s SpeedTap tags with Holoptica’s high-security SmartMark hologram creates a highly effective yet economical solution in the fight against counterfeiters.” He went on to say that the company is looking forward to seeing the outcome of the role played by the NFC tags in boosting document security on a global scale.

Thinfilm CEO Davor Sutija explained that “Document fraud costs governments and businesses billions of dollars each year and directly contributes to the growth of global terrorist activity.” He expressed that his company is glad to be working on the NFC technology and hologram solution as a part of a meaningful anti-counterfeiting strategy.

Sutija feels that this effort will contribute to making the world a safer place for everyone. It will help to minimize the risk of counterfeiting among important government documents in countries worldwide.

The Chinese mega-giant company has worked hard to broaden its global reach this year.

Singles Day mobile commerce predictions continue to roll in as the big day approaches on November 11. Alibaba has made tremendous efforts to help to bolster its own successes on this unique Chinese day. At the same time, it is hoping to encourage a growing number of consumers to participate.

That said, most analytics firms have agreed that the participation in Singles Day 2016 should break records.

Millions of people have already been making Singles Day mobile commerce purchases. Alibaba’s CEO, Jack Ma, is hoping to be able to use this m-commerce trend to achieve greater results outside of China, as well. Though Singles Day was invented in China and is celebrated primarily there, Alibaba is looking to use it as a jumping off point.

November 11 is Veterans day in the United States. This makes it unlikely to be a great date to try to carry Singles Day over to this part of the world. That said, the company is hoping to keep the shopping momentum going in the US as the holiday season follows closely on its heels.

Singles Day mobile commerce is a more recent phenomenon that started over desktop in 1993.

The day was created by a group of male Nanjing University students. They decided that 11/11 was the perfect numerical date to represent a celebration of being single. Though it had a slow start and was limited to a small local movement over e-commerce, Alibaba made it big. The company decided to take hold of the movement, which saw growing popularity, and monetize it.

By 2009, the company’s massive e-commerce platforms, Taobao and Tmall, were raking in cash through online purchases. The first Singles Day observance brought an estimated $7 million in sales. Even in a market the size of China, that figure is impressive, though not at all tremendous. By 2010, far more retaielers were on board, including one of the main rivals of Alibaba in China, JD.com.

The next year, Alibaba alone generated $820 million in sales. By last year, that figure had risen to $9.3 billion, credited greatly to Singles Day mobile commerce trends. Since 2012 the sales have been greater than those seen on Cyber Monday in the United States and it is expected that they will be even higher this year.