Mobile payments offered some great benefits in terms of convenience, and the more we’ve seen of it, the more clear it is that convenience is the big draw. Whether it’s just replacing cash, or allowing preorders, or even connecting to a rewards plan, convenience is the order of the day. Security, however, has been the big concern, and that’s led to frantic development to shore up the security and make mobile payments as safe as they are convenient.

One of the biggest developments on this front is tokenization, which allows mobile payment apps to store little of value, making breaches all but meaningless. Under tokenization, the app stores a randomly generated token, sent to the point of sale terminal that later becomes a primary account number, making the data safe in transit yet still useful. That’s a huge improvement over most payment cards, where the main account number is stamped right on the card itself.

That’s not the only big development, of course; cryptography for individual devices and two-factor authentication have stepped in at the device level, and encryption at the server level is sometimes considered to provide a complete, holistic approach to device safety. Improving device safety helps generate interest, and with that interest comes improved opportunities for data collection, for big data project use, and the ability to reduce fraud as well, which helps lower costs to the consumer.

All of this together is good news. We know from previous studies that mobile banking is doing quite well, but mobile payments in general are lagging the market. While a good chunk of that is a matter of relevance—it’s convenient, yes, but not as convenient as cash or a payment card—security is still one of the biggest weights on potential users’ minds. As that improves, and the relevance also improves, mobile payments systems will likely only gain ground.

There are clear benefits to mobile payment systems, but also clear concerns for users. The more that can be done to resolve those issues, the end result is more users stepping into mobile payments, and more value being generated for payment processors.