In a nutshell: Many people use their iPhones to pay for goods and services via Apple Pay, and we could see a another contactless payment method added to iOS 14. Instead of holding a device close to an NFC reader, customers would point their iPhone camera at a QR code or barcode to pay bills.
9to5Mac discovered mentions of the feature in code from the second development beta of iOS 14. It's part of the Wallet app and lets users make payments with QR codes via Apple Pay. While the publication did manage to access the feature, it still doesn't work.
In addition to scanning QR codes to pay bills, users can generate their own codes through the wallet app. These can be scanned and funds will be taken from the payer's payment card registered with Apple Pay. It will likely work with third-party apps, too.
While it sounds like using this method to pay bills may take slightly longer than the traditional contactless method, it could find better use when transferring money from one iPhone user to another.
Apple hasn't mentioned the feature before, and it wasn't in the first iOS 14 beta, indicating the company is still working on it. A public beta of the operating system is expected to arrive later this month, while the final release is likely to drop sometime in September. Hopefully, QR code payments will make the cut.