There's no technical breakthrough, but it might seem novel to people in countries like the USA where offline authorisation hasn't been widely allowed on credit and debit cards for some time.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_authorisation

In many countries in Europe, offline authorisation is more common. Cards have had a chip as standard for over two decades in European countries, and a PIN is often used for cardholder verification.

Combined, these make the risks of accepting a transaction for a small amount of money offline very low.

The limit of what can be accepted offline is known as a "floor limit" in the UK.