Startup Touts All-in-One Digital Credit Card 222
First time accepted submitter NoImNotNineVolt writes "Coin, a Y Combinator-backed startup, has started accepting pre-orders for a device as slim as a standard piece of payment plastic that can hold eight credit, debit, and gift cards in its dynamic magnetic stripe. Paired with the Coin smartphone app via Bluetooth low energy, card details can easily be swapped in and out of the device. A minimalist user interface on the device itself allows the owner to toggle between the loaded cards and then swipe just as they would their ordinary card. All card details are encrypted (both on the device and in the smartphone app), and the device's on-board battery is expected to last for two years of typical usage. No support for chip&pin (EMV) yet, so this may have limited utility outside of the USA. They expect to start shipping in summer of 2014."
Great for CC scammers (Score:5, Insightful)
But, I don't see this catching on. Tapping to pay with your device is "new" so people don't think much of it. Paying with an "all in one" credit card isn't something most will be used to. Plus, I'd expect pushback from Visa/AMEX on this.
Cute; but why? (Score:5, Insightful)
I need another intermediary in my payment system like I need a hole in the head(and I certainly don't need any credit card details stashed in yet another OMGTOTALLY SECURE!!! server or app), and I'd need a hell of a lot of plastic infesting my wallet before a $100 piece of hardware, and BTLE-compatible smartphone become the lower-hassle alternative.
Along with a card reader, it'd probably be great fun as a tool for duplicating low security cards(eg. copier stored value cards, which commonly actually store their value in the stripe, rather than just encoding an ID that gets looked up by the payment processor), and generally fucking around with mag stripe readers; but for actual real-world financial transactions? How many credit cards do you carry on a daily basis?
To bad it's way less secure than chip and PIN (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Great for CC scammers (Score:5, Insightful)
Quick little dive in to the code with a debugger and watch those limitations vanish in front of your eyes......
Re:Great for CC scammers (Score:4, Insightful)
I don't think the issue is so much with having a skimmer. Right now if i show up with a card that doesn't look like an actual CC the person at the counter will think something is up. But if this gets going and has blessings of the CC makers, and looks official the teller will just say "hey he has that neat new card" and not care that you are no infact using a skimmer.
Re:Great for CC scammers (Score:4, Insightful)
Meh. It's his signature, and he can draw it any way he wants to.