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Coin: A step in the wrong direction

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Re: Coin: A step in the wrong direction

#91

Post by zenonu »

[deleted] wrote: post #81

[deleted]

Take a look at your wallet now. There are three cards in there you don't need. That guy's business card you put in your wallet as a nice gesture, but never called. A store loyalty card you can't remember the last time you visited. The buy 9 get 1 sandwich free card you forget to pull out everytime you get a ruben. They're still in your wallet because you simply don't care enough to even filter your wallet on a regular basis. Why would anybody care so much now with Coin?

The future is no wallet at all. This in-between technology is both more expensive and complex.

Re: Coin: A step in the wrong direction

#92

Post by bronson »

bradgessler wrote: post #88
dakrisht wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Without a doubt. Coin actually increases the complexity of an already complex and archaic system. The product manages to create more headaches for the consumer and the merchant by consolidating various credit cards in a digital device with a nice "cool" factor but lacking any real solution to the many problems associated with the complex back-ends in the payments space. Conceptually, it's not a bad product, and it su…

The product manages to create more headaches for the consumer I have 4 credit cards in my wallet. If this consolidates down to 1 then I don't care what else it does.

What if it consolidates four reliable cards down to one mostly-reliable one?

Re: Coin: A step in the wrong direction

#93

Post by danudey »

bradgessler wrote: post #88
dakrisht wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Without a doubt. Coin actually increases the complexity of an already complex and archaic system. The product manages to create more headaches for the consumer and the merchant by consolidating various credit cards in a digital device with a nice "cool" factor but lacking any real solution to the many problems associated with the complex back-ends in the payments space. Conceptually, it's not a bad product, and it su…

The product manages to create more headaches for the consumer I have 4 credit cards in my wallet. If this consolidates down to 1 then I don't care what else it does.

I'm curious what you need four credit cards for though. I can see maybe a personal one and a business one, but what are the others for?

Re: Coin: A step in the wrong direction

#94

Post by snom380 »

stormbrew wrote: post #90
dsl wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The whole point of chips is they can't be cloned. This whole product works by cloning.

It's probably too strong to say that they can't be cloned, but I don't think the banks would be very happy at all with someone selling chip skimmers to end users. I'm not sure if users should be happy with that either.

I think you're going to have a very hard time cloning them. Security researchers have worked on this for years, while the card manufacturers have learnt from their mistakes and adapted.

Re: Coin: A step in the wrong direction

#95

Post by danudey »

Nursie wrote: post #78
ams6110 wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

cashiers have never so much as glanced at my cards. In fact my impression is that in the vast majority of stores now you swipe your own card. The cashier never touches it.

Strictly speaking that's been one of the card rules for a long time - you were supposed to swipe your own card in stores and absolutely never let a waiter wander off with it. Reality was always a bit different to that.

Locally (in some stores around here), cashiers were required to swipe cards for Visa (because they also have to check your signature, etc.).

Nowadays in Canada though, no one uses swipe cards anymore, it's all chip-and-PIN. The only time anyone swipes my card is when I go down to Seattle, and it's really unnerving when they do so.

Re: Coin: A step in the wrong direction

#96

Post by devindotcom »

dakrisht wrote: post #68
bradgessler wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Coin is like "Google Voice for Credit Card". Its a layer that sits on top of an old, crusty infrastructure that hopefully crumbles with time, but until then, we have to deal with it somehow.

Without a doubt. Coin actually increases the complexity of an already complex and archaic system. The product manages to create more headaches for the consumer and the merchant by consolidating various credit cards in a digital device with a nice "cool" factor but lacking any real solution to the many problems associated with the complex back-ends in the payments space. Conceptually, it's not a bad product, and it su…

The increase in complexity isn't on the user's side, though. Look at Square - in a way, it adds complexity, since it sits on top of the "crusty" infrastructure, and it requires a smartphone/tablet and dongle, a touchscreen app, etc. That's definitely an increase in complexity, but also an increase in usability.

Re: Coin: A step in the wrong direction

#97

Post by gergles »

martin-adams wrote: post #15

>> Visa requires that merchants ship a product prior to charging any Visa debit card This is very new to me. This source here: http://usa.visa.com/download/merchants/card-acceptance-guide... States: >> You should not bill the customer until merchandise has been shipped That is a best practice, not a requirement.

Look on page 13:

>> Transactions cannot be deposited until goods or services have been shipped.

Re: Coin: A step in the wrong direction

#98

Post by devindotcom »

brettgoldstein3 wrote: post #50
bradgessler wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Coin is like "Google Voice for Credit Card". Its a layer that sits on top of an old, crusty infrastructure that hopefully crumbles with time, but until then, we have to deal with it somehow.

Isn't the "old crusty infrastructure" in this case the credit card itself? It seems ridiculous to try to kill the credit card with... a credit card. I wouldn't be surprised if Clinkle, LoopPay, Square, or any of the many startups in this space kills the credit card (and thus Coin) before Coin makes its first delivery in Summer 2014.

Square, which is a point-of-sale system? Two other things, which the billions of people who use credit cards every day have never heard of?

What would constitute "killing" the credit card, anyway? Less than 5% of the population using it? I don't see that happening for a good 15 or 20 years at a bare minimum.

Re: Coin: A step in the wrong direction

#99

Post by danudey »

jahewson wrote: post #64
ams6110 wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For me, it's like the classic Spolsky critique of the "Cue Cat". It's solving a problem that I don't have. I carry a wallet anyway to contain my ID, my cash, and other cards that are not credit cards. Carrying a couple of credit cards along with all that is not a problem. I personally don't have any hate for Coin or what they are trying to do; I hope they are successful. But it's not something I would buy.

Exactly. Currently in my wallet: a California driver's license, a Green Card, a medical insurance card, and a gym card which works via barcode. There's also a credit and a debit card. Thats's just 2/6 which I could replace with Coin.

Debit card, credit card, starbucks card, transit pass, home depot gift card, health card, two private health insurance cards, costco card, driver's license, and a rewards card from a local restaurant.

Both my debit card and credit card are chip-and-PIN cards, so I can't replace this with card, and none of the rest have magnetic stripes that anyone actually uses (the few cards that do have stripes, like my Costco card and driver's license, also have my picture on them and I can't replace them with a generic card).

This will be super useful for some people, but not for most people.

Re: Coin: A step in the wrong direction

#100

Post by swamplander »

While you may think this is a step in the wrong direction, that's just an opinion. While NFC / Bluetooth LE would be preferred so I can pay with my phone, that would mean every merchant would need to have a reader that supported that technology. Today only some merchants support paying with QR codes. At the very least, COIN is a killer stop-gap solution, a convenient & technical solution that would work with every merchant out there.

I personally had no issue giving them $55, the same concept behind kickstarter, for the money to produce my goods. Consider me an investor of 1 unit.

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