Boleto bancário
Brazil's barcoded payment slip, payable at a bank, a lottery shop or in an app, and for years the main way to shop online without a credit card.
A boleto is a document with an amount, due date, payee and barcode, plus the same data as a 47-digit line for typing in by hand. The format was standardised in the 1990s and is used for everything from utility bills to online orders. The merchant waits for the payment to settle, typically one to three business days, and only then ships. That put e-commerce within reach of millions of Brazilians with no card.
The barcode also made a target. The Bolware malware, documented by RSA in 2014, swapped the code inside the browser so the money went to criminals, and touched boletos worth billions of dollars. Since 2020 the central bank's Pix has been taking over much of what the boleto did, in seconds rather than days.