You're spot on in my opinion. My take on things is that the "mark" as talked about in the bible already happened, around the time of the siege of Jerusalem.

But, "they" know that many people are wary of a mark and "they" probably like the idea of what a mark could do for them, so "they" intend to just do this on their own and run it as described in the bible.

So, whether or not it is the real mark of the beast, it is very likely that "they" intend to use it as such regardless.