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Meet Coin (YC W13), a startup creating a universal credit card

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Re: Meet Coin (YC W13), a startup creating a universal credit card

#101

Post by g4m8i7 »

OvidNaso wrote: post #93
NickM wrote: post #72

Something not answered by the FAQ: when the battery starts to die, do you get some kind of a warning? If so, great. If not, I'd be worried that one day my battery would die without warning while I'm out of town and I'd be stuck without access to any of my cards. Of course I could mitigate this by carrying my cards with me, but that kind of defeats the point, right? I suppose I could also replace it after two years li…

It also appears to rely on your phone. It's certainly needs to be carried with an emergency card, but two cards as opposed to eight doesn't still preserves it's utility.

It isn't that it relies on it, per se. You can set it to require authentication with your phone so it can disable itself if it's lost or stolen, but it works just fine without constant connection.

Re: Meet Coin (YC W13), a startup creating a universal credit card

#103

Post by praxeologist »

CoffeeDregs wrote: post #52
altoz wrote: post #23

This seems a great way to steal other people's credit cards. You can literally duplicate someone's card on your "coin". Now there's a super easy way for someone working in a restaurant to get your credit card information and sell it.

Two notes: 1) This can already be done using a simple stripe reader. 2) Coin can identify, investigate and proactively block anyone who has more than the average number of cards, so Coin actually seems well positioned to reduce fraud. Also, Coin could identify that multiple Coin cards have the same credit/whatever cards on them and, the next day , prompt you to swipe your card again to confirm. [Provided that Coin up…

You have to take pictures of the cards. I assume it would work similarly to how I can take photos of checks to deposit them where, within some tolerance, you have the check/card inside of a "frame" allowing the check to be read. Maybe they can also sort of OCR the card name and make sure it matches your own.

Re: Meet Coin (YC W13), a startup creating a universal credit card

#105

Post by vlokshin »

Coin is taking something that's outdated -- and unnecessarily physical, and offering a layer of digital on it to create many cards into one.

Yes, this is "doable" with existing technology, but not for the common man.

Security is going to be an issue, sure. If Kanishk can get the security tech concerns AND human worries calmed down - he's on to something that can fundamentally change how we use credit cards.

Until we realize there's really no need for a device this physical... or something beyond what we're currently carrying. But this'll require losing the magnetic strip need, and that'll take time.

Re: Meet Coin (YC W13), a startup creating a universal credit card

#106

Post by JohnTHaller »

andrewfong wrote: post #41
walshemj wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes I really want to have a reprogrammable CC that I hand to a waiter NOT - Why not just have the fed mandate Chip and Pin after a certain date like Europe did.

Because it's not worth the cost. On the consumer side, chargebacks are easy. Credit card companies bear the brunt of the cost of fraud. They all have the incentive in the world to start rolling out chip and pin technology. The fact that they haven't probably demonstrates that the math doesn't work out.

Merchants bear the brunt of the cost of fraud. Credit card companies and consumers bear none. And as the credit card company oligopoly currently* has no viable replacement, merchants are stuck bearing the cost of fraud.

* the replacement will be when folks like Square, PayPal, etc grow large enough that merchants can replace credit card systems with them for a decent % of customers

Re: Meet Coin (YC W13), a startup creating a universal credit card

#107

Post by JohnTHaller »

snitko wrote: post #42
walshemj wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes I really want to have a reprogrammable CC that I hand to a waiter NOT - Why not just have the fed mandate Chip and Pin after a certain date like Europe did.

Why not just pay with Bitcoin? Really, after Bitcoin, using credit cards seems like an invitation to be robbed.

Because Bitcoin as a replacement for credit cards is currently just a pipe dream since less than 0.01% of people even know what it is, let alone have it. That plus its insane volatility is why it's only accepted by a handful of online merchants, mostly only for virtual goods and mostly just for show.

Re: Meet Coin (YC W13), a startup creating a universal credit card

#108

Post by pit »

dougk16 wrote: post #88
pit wrote: post #78

Why do people have so many credit cards? I use one (1) debit card to pay for things, or cash.

I always use a credit card, just for the fraud protection...no idea how, but my CC has been used fraudulently 3 times over the years, and each time, with a quick phone call, the charge is gone, basically no questions asked (they assume fraud and go from there)...contrast that with a debit card where the money is actually being taken out of your account. My wife recently used her debit card at a restaurant and they ac…

Thanks for the explanation. Thankfully, I've never been a victim of financial fraud. I also do my banking with a local bank, so I have a great relationship with them. If something bad happened, I feel confident that they would take care of it quickly.

Re: Meet Coin (YC W13), a startup creating a universal credit card

#110

Post by tomkin »

g4m8i7 wrote: post #99
tomkin wrote: post #86

> "...a problem most of us have." Is this a real problem? I'm going to go out on a limb and say that you can't determine a problem by telling me this is a problem we all have . I'm not buying the angle, sorry. Not like I'm against this idea, but the sell is a little ridiculous. How would this work with chip-based cards? In Canada, some of the banks have ditched the magstripe, so not sure how scalable this is - since…

It doesn't. The FAQ says so. But it also says that it's made for the USA market, which is sufficiently large to generate some serious profit. Not everything has to have global reach or impact.

Sure, but in the spirit of longevity, you're talking about a stop-gap solution at the most. There's also this: they aren't solving a real problem. My wallet going from 1 inch to 1/2 inch isn't a selling point.
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