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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

#121
post #57

I haven't seen a merchant where you swipe in ages. This seems really ancient and insecure.

Hopefully you don't mean to imply that just because something has been around for more than 20 years (much more in this case) that it is inherently insecure.

Conversely, you hopefully don't mean to imply that technology that is newer is much more likely to be secure.

I am not making a judgment call one way or the other as to your intentions. I just think it is important to the discussion.

It seems easy to me, in modern cultures, to think that newer always equals better/faster/bigger/smarter and in all other ways superior. I think this is exacerbated by the fact that modern technology has made so many things possible that most people 200 years ago would never have dreamed of. From automobiles to computers to smartphones, the technology of today is very impressive. Because all of those things are "modern" it is easy to develop the mindset that anything over a certain age is likely to be inferior. However, we need to remember that all of those technologies were built upon things learned by people in the past. Also, often newer technologies make things cheaper, but manufacturers often chose to make those with poorer materials, and thus they don't last as long. In some cases, newer isn't better. Right now I'm wearing a sweatshirt that is over 20 years old. It was a high-quality product to begin with (and I recognized that when I bought it), and it has been worn very frequently. The silk-screened logo on it is still intact, and looks very good. The material has a few small tears here and there from abuse, but overall the shirt has held together very well. A lot of the clothing I've purchased recently (in the same cost-adjusted price range) has turned out to be junk that doesn't last. There are probably better examples of newer != better, so do what you will with that one.

There is also an inverse mindset which is equally as bad. That is the idea that anything older is bound to be better. Not surprisingly, the first mindset is often held by younger people, and the second by older people. As people get older, they often fall into thinking the "old school" way is always better. The important thing to realize is that, yeah, sometimes the old way is better (and probably more often than many young people realize). However, it is equally bad to assume that just because an item or an idea is older that it is better. I certainly don't want to get out of my car and turn the engine over by hand to get it started, and I'm glad I don't have to hitch up the horses to go into town (though, admittedly a lot of things about having horses would be cool).

The long and the short of it is this, we should evaluate thing on the basis of their own merit, not on their age. There are new treasures and old treasures, new junk and old junk. I realize that this is probably just common sense, but even so I still think it is worth talking about.

... I'd like to again point out that I'm not saying that Kiro was implying a direct newer=better/older=worse relationship -- I just wondered if he might be.

Oh, and yes, if you "haven't seen a merchant where you swipe in ages", then it is very unlikely that you live in the U. S. (at least, not in any part of it that I've been to recently).

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

#122

How does this work with the typical credit card setup, ie chip and pin? Do they duplicate the pin of each credit card? In Canada I haven't' seen a place that doesn't use chip and pin for about 3 years now. Can someone shed some light on how they get around this?

They get around it by being in the US, where there's virtually no chip-and-pin cards or readers.

> They get around it by being in the US, where there's virtually no chip-and-pin cards or readers

Really? I'm very surprised. Canada has moved over many years ago. I thought we'd be following the US here.

Is chip and pin in the works? ie is this a stop gap for the next year or two until its rolled out or is the US just not bothering with it?

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

#123
post #110
post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

[deleted]

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

#124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Its a bit hard to read the mag stripe by eye - unless your a mutant in which case call in Phil Coulson's team stat

The majority of credit cards still have actual numbers on them.

Except that the CVV from the magstripe is missing - wich means ypu can only use the printed CNP CVV, ie. only use the card data for internet transactions.

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

#125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They get around it by being in the US, where there's virtually no chip-and-pin cards or readers.

> They get around it by being in the US, where there's virtually no chip-and-pin cards or readers Really? I'm very surprised. Canada has moved over many years ago. I thought we'd be following the US here. Is chip and pin in the works? ie is this a stop gap for the next year or two until its rolled out or is the US just not bothering with it?

[deleted]

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

#126
Hmm, pretty neat hack! I like the idea a lot.

I'm disappointed that they didn't mention that this is hooked to an online service until you get well into their FAQ:

    Maintaining the integrity of your Coin’s data is 
    critical to your peace of mind. That’s why our servers,
    mobile apps and the Coin itself use 128-bit or 256-bit 
    encryption for all storage and communication (http and 
    bluetooth). Additionally Coin can alert you in the 
    event that you leave it somewhere.
If this were purely a hardware device and software than ran on my phone, I might be interested. Adding in an online service appears to add more points of failure, and more opportunity for yet another third party to snoop on my behavior. It would be nice if they described in more detail why this online service was necessary, what data was stored there, and what privacy protections they provide.

Also disappointing that it doesn't support chip and pin. Whenever I travel to the UK, I find that people are increasingly surprised by cards that don't have a chip, and need to fumble around trying to remember how to use the card reader; it would be nice if this would be an opportunity for me to get a chip and pin compatible card out of my mag stripe card to avoid that problem (though on reflection, it's likely that a mag stripe doesn't contain sufficient information to make a valid chip and pin card).

$100 for something that lasts for two years and solves only a minor annoyance seems a bit steep. I'm sure that there will be plenty of people who will buy it, but I don't know if I would find it worth the cost beyond the novelty value.

I do appreciate their Bluetooth LE Arduino dev kit: http://blog.onlycoin.com/posts/2013/10/3/coin-arduino-ble-de...

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

#129
post #102

What's to prevent some (dishonest) merchant from cycling through all the cards in your Coin and charging each one?

The same thing that prevents the merchant from charging the same card multiple times, or charging more than was agreed upon. Nothing.
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