The war on mobile payments is starting to heat up, with the consortium of more than 50 retailers backing MCX's CurrentC facing criticism on all sides for supporting an outdated system that has not even arrived yet.

CurrentC works by scanning a QR code to pay for goods. The app takes a chunk of information about users and what they buy, in order to offer real-time loyalty points for cheaper deals the next time they shop.

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It also has no charge for using the service, unlike credit cards and NFC payment services. This is one of the major reasons CurrentC is supported by Best Buy, Walmart, Target and other large retailers, due to the zero charge they would normally face with credit cards.

Even Walmart's CEO Lee Scott isn't sure if it will succeed, saying at a conference "I don't know that it will, and I don't care. As long as Visa suffers."

The problem for Walmart (and many others) is CurrentC will not succeed - at least not in its current form. Testers claim the service is slow and QR codes are unreliable, compared to other mobile payment services that use NFC or WiFi to connect the consumer to the cashier.

This basically puts all of the retailers supporting CurrentC back in the same position, accepting credit cards, but not accepting NFC payments. This could hurt them in the long run, especially if retailers who do accept NFC payments promote this feature in and out of stores.

Apple Pay already has 1 million registered credit cards, all it needs is for major retailers to accept the NFC payment. By the time CurrentC roles out, analysts forecast up to 8 million U.S. consumers will actively use Apple Pay where possible.

The perfect example of why CurrentC will fail can be seen on carrier payment system, called SoftCard, previously named ISIS. This payment service has been backed by T-Mobile, AT&T, Verizon Wireless, and it still has no market penetration, even after the carriers removed Google Wallet's functionality.

No matter how much the retailers and big companies push their own service, if it is unreliable, it will not work, especially when Apple Pay is the competitor.

TagsCurrentC, NFC, MCX, Walmart, QR codes, mobile payments