Assuming the last digit is a checksum and the first six are taken by the routing information, that leaves them 9 digits or a billion possible numbers per credit card issuer. Japan has a population of about 125 million. Are Japanese people cycling their numbers so frequently? Or are they big on ephemeral card numbers? Is it not possible for an issuer to get a second prefix if they run out of digits? I also wonder if c…
Issuers won’t issue every number, because that would make it trivial to enumerate valid card numbers. I know that PANs are printed in plain view, but they’re considered sensitive.
> I also wonder if credit card numbers aren't living on borrowed time anyway. Instead of adding more digits it might make sense to remove the digits entirely and only allow token based transactions.
It’s already happening! The tokenisation tech that powers Apple/Google pay can now be used by merchants. Buts it’s currently got very low uptake.