Was the smart card invented after smoking a joint?

The chip card is now an integral part of our daily lives. From credit cards at public transport tickets, through to the SIM cards and identification, This small, integrated chip has revolutionized secure data storage and exchange. But behind this innovation lies not only the ingenuity of a French inventor, but also a curious anecdote: did Roland Moreno, its creator, really have this idea? after smoking a joint ?

The origins of an atypical inventor

Born in Cairo in 1945, Roland Moreno moved to France, where his atypical career quickly made a name for itself. He studied psychology before leaving university to take on a series of odd jobs, from leaflet distributor to journalist for a detective magazine. Eventually, he devoted himself to what he called «electronic gadgets that won't do any good». His original creations include the Matapof, a coin-tossing machine, and the Radoteur, a program that generates random words.

In 1973, he founded Innovatron, first as a non-profit association, then as a company dedicated to «selling ideas». The breakthrough came in 1974, when he filed the first patent describing a portable object with memory and safety mechanisms. A year later, he patented what was to become the chip card a microprocessor with a memory that communicates with a reader after entering a code. This was a technological leap forward that would later transform banking sectors, telecommunications and identification.

Between dreams and joints

The story of how Moreno came up with this idea has often aroused curiosity. In 1995, on Studio Gabriel on France 2, he declared: «I got the idea while smoking a joint. I can't lie!. Five years later, at a conference at the Conservatoire national des arts et métiers, he reaffirmed this statement, insisting on its veracity (from 42’28 in the video below).

But Moreno was also known for his eccentric humor and contradictory versions. In an interview with France Soir in 2006, he offered another explanation: «The idea came to me in my sleep... To be honest, I'm a slacker and my productivity is pretty low.» [editor's note: not necessarily contradictory with cannabis consumption].

These self-deprecating remarks depict an inventor who liked to cultivate an image halfway between genius and clown. As France Soir pointed out, he was a sort of «Professor Nimbus», absent-minded but visionary.

In any case, the history of the joint has been largely overlooked, certainly not in keeping with a certain French prohibition.

From skepticism to worldwide success

The patent did not immediately win over the banks or the industry. Moreno had to fight off skepticism and even legal action, notably from Michel Ugon and then Daniel Vesque, who disputed the paternity of the invention. However, the courts confirmed the authenticity of his patents.

In the 1980s, the smart card found its first large-scale application with the telephone cards. In 1988, France adopted it for the credit cards, making magnetic stripe fraud obsolete - and today, ironically, enabling direct payment of fines for public consumption of cannabis. From that point on, the applications multiplied: carte Vitale, student cards, transport cards and above all SIM cards for cell phones.

In 1992, Moreno was awarded the Legion of Honor and its invention has become part of everyday life. By the mid-1990s, hundreds of millions of smart cards were in circulation worldwide. When the patents fell into the public domain in 1994, the technology became even more widespread.

Roland Moreno passed away in 2012, leaving behind a technology that continues to evolve with the times. contactless payments and applications NFC. His legacy is both technological and cultural: that of an inventor who liked to play with his own myth.

So, was the smart card invented? after smoking a joint ? The answer lies somewhere between reality and legend. What is certain is that Moreno has deliberately blurred the lines, mixing truth, irony and provocation. Whether she was inspired by cannabis, Whether a dream or sheer perseverance, the invention of the smart card remains one of the most striking examples of French ingenuity - and one of the most unusual anecdotes in the history of technology.