Coin • Hacker News Board

Re: Coin

#351

Post by Cthulhu_ » Thu, Nov 14, 2013, 9:10 PM UTC

rmc wrote: post #288

MiguelHudnandez wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think in your scenario, a good fit would be a cigarette case that you'd keep in your front pocket. I'd love to have one with a classy finish and that would block NFC signals from leaking. I ended up ditching all but essential cards and got down to five. One debit, credit, health insurance, license, and AAA.

I think in your scenario, a good fit would be a cigarette case that you'd keep in your front pocket. Eurpean here. I was shocked to learn many USAian men keep their wallet in the back pocket. How do you sit on that?

lmao, so do I. I got a slimmer wallet though, no coins and not much room for junk, six cards and a note container. Made out of plastic. Lasts forever. Kinda destroys the magnetic strips on credit cards though, oops, and cards in the back aren't very accessible.

Re: Coin

#352

Post by qqg3 » Thu, Nov 14, 2013, 9:13 PM UTC

rmc wrote: post #285

Nursie wrote: post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know why the US hasn't adopted EMV. It's not perfect, but it has cut down fraud massively here in Europe. They're very hard to clone (I won't say impossible, but attacks against EMV have not generally been of this nature) and the transaction records at both ends will tell you whether the actual, real card was there. The liability is more clear-cut as a result. If the customer claims the charge was unauthorise…

Americans going to Europe: Remember that your credit card might not work as often in Europe. Be prepared for hearing "We only take chip & pin cards here" in shops etc.

Actually, most places WILL take the old 'swipe' cards. But most cashiers and either never worked with or forgetting about swipe cards. You just have to be very verbal and upfront and let them know yours is a swipe/ swipe and sign job.

Re: Coin

#353

Post by willimholte » Thu, Nov 14, 2013, 9:14 PM UTC

dakrisht wrote: post #272

It's a neat concept, but I just don't think this gets anywhere. Dead in the water - as much as I would personally like to see them succeed. The biggest problems here are security. () Merchants will hate it since there is no physical imprint / swipe of the bank-issued card. This will lead to chargebacks in favor of the customer. So this alone kills this company/product. () Banks might change their terms forbidding cus…

>() The obvious issue of losing Coin and losing everything. People like backups. It's a mindset.

I fail to see how Coin is a lack of backups. If having two copies of a card isn't 'having a backup' what is?

Re: Coin

#354

Post by dakrisht » Thu, Nov 14, 2013, 9:16 PM UTC

typicalrunt wrote: post #347

It's a neat idea, but what I'd really like to see is a way to use randomly-generated numbers as my credit card for one-time payments instead of handing over my full credit card details to an online store. I hear this is done by a few credit card companies now but I have yet to see it in Canada. Coin could even take this idea one step further and allow you to store your credit card, but when you swipe their card it pr…

I like this randomized credit card numbers idea but I don't understand how it would work?

How would the terminal know it's debiting your account?

Where would the authentication take place?

Where would the randomization take place? And what would this be based on?

Credit cards are actually very simple in nature (and why there are billions of dollars of fraud occurring every year). It's simply an account number printed on a piece of plastic. But this account numbers is solely responsible for the transaction behind the scenes.

Who does this random number now? I've been studying payments for years and have never heard of this.

Re: Coin

#355

Post by ivanbrussik » Thu, Nov 14, 2013, 9:20 PM UTC

for me this would be worth it just to have as a bluetooth security device when i lose/forget my wallet.

Re: Coin

#356

Post by capex » Thu, Nov 14, 2013, 9:21 PM UTC

tyohn wrote: post #307

nlh wrote: post #167

SUPER clever idea -- kudos for that. In theory, this is awesome. As a consumer, I love it. As a merchant, however (which I am), there is no chance I would accept this. None. Unless the issuers (that is, Visa, MC, Amex) drastically change their policies, which I don't see happening anytime soon. Why? Because the issuers are very clear about a few things: When push comes to shove and it REALLY gets down to it, unless t…

I work for a merchant also... high volume low ticket. My thought is: Since most of our customer transactions (swipes) occur without any cashier involvement - how would V/MC know that the "real" card wasn't present?

Exactly. Most of the merchants/ shops out there have no idea what my card should look like.

Re: Coin

#357

Post by elmofromok » Thu, Nov 14, 2013, 9:21 PM UTC

wadetandy wrote: post #81

One of my biggest questions/objections is about the battery life issue. They claim that this will run out juice every 2 years or so and that the battery cannot be replaced, so I'll just need to buy a new one. $100 every two years for this device seems like a pretty big expense, as opposed to $100 one time.

I think this is the deal breaker for me. I cannot imagine paying 50 a year to manage a few cc cards.

Re: Coin

#358

Post by elf25 » Thu, Nov 14, 2013, 9:22 PM UTC

pbreit wrote: post #241

nmcfarl wrote: post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. So much so that I don't carry them, and it costs me money. The wallet is: photo ID, transit card, and 1 or 2 ccs, depending on if I need my biz cc that day. Wallets are a pain - though it must be said less so than, keys or phones. All of which dig into me an inopportune moments (usually going around corners on the bike) get dropped, or left on the counter... I'm probably just much to forgetful and clumsy for mod…

Have you considered a phone case that has a card holder?

I love mine and get comments all the time about how cool or smart it is.

I carry Discover, MC (as backup) a bank debit for Mom's care, business debit, DL, Work ID card, medical, dental, and a couple paper cards like voter registration. No vendor loyalty cards, I give 'em my phone number and if that's not good enough, they can't track my purchases. Business should recognize ME when I walk in. Not the other way around.

Re: Coin

#359

Post by dakrisht » Thu, Nov 14, 2013, 9:23 PM UTC

cik wrote: post #181

I think we're all missing a key point here. From reading the FAQ it appears that the application needs access to their servers. That blows my mind. Why should my mobile phone application, responsible for programming a local card via Bluetooth ever need access to the internet? Simply put - it shouldn't. To me, this sounds like a big data play, except in this case the company is getting the user to cover the cost of ac…

Absolutely.

Not only this but they're entire FAQ is vague and doesn't offer any concrete answers whatsoever. It's a half ass job.

Surprised (sort of) that this is a YC company with all the vetting, mentoring, perfecting and whatever else happens there. They have a lot of problems and a lot of holes.

Payments are HARD but this doesn't make them any easier. Quite the contrary.

Re: Coin

#360

Post by superuser2 » Thu, Nov 14, 2013, 9:23 PM UTC

joezydeco wrote: post #333

superuser2 wrote: post #289

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A magstripe is literally just a flat strip of magnetic tape, like an audio cassette. Devices like Square Reader just encode the magstripe as audio into an iPhone's mic input. You could save that to a Voice Memo, stick the playhead from a RadioShack 3.5mm/cassette adapter in a reader, and press play. Can't find it, but I've seen a demonstration on YouTube of someone doing this to enter their apartment building. The TV…

But what this device is proposing to do is dynamically change the magnetic orientation of the ferrite on the strip . I don't see the Coin demo guy running his card through an encoder before presenting it at the cash register. Best I can find so far is this website which kind of describes what is going on: http://www.cardlab.com/Dynamic-Magnetic-Stripe.html