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Coin: A step in the wrong direction

techendo.co

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Re: Coin: A step in the wrong direction

#141

Post by colinbartlett »

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 can't wait until version 2.0 comes out and they send you a padded envelope in which you're supposed to ship to them all your chip and pin cards so they can clone them into your device.

Re: Coin: A step in the wrong direction

#143

Post by colinbartlett »

mortehu wrote: post #137
SomeCallMeTim wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>cashiers have never so much as glanced at my cards Depends on where you shop. Some stores (particularly big box stores -- Best Buy comes to mind) always ask to see the card and ID. If they do, it's a showstopper for it to not be real. There's NO WAY a store with that policy would let you buy something with an anonymous black "card". Not only does this scream "FRAUD!", it almost certainly WILL be used for fraud, almo…

> Some stores (particularly big box stores -- Best Buy comes to mind) always ask to see the card and ID It seems odd that big stores would require this, since this is explicitly forbidden in the merchant agreements. Also, I've never experienced this myself in the US. 1. http://www.mastercard.us/support/problems-using-mastercard.h... "A merchant must not refuse to complete a transaction solely because a cardholder ref…

Wow, I had no idea this rule existed. I've been to plenty of stores that require ID for every purchase, especially here in NYC. I've even seen signs, "All credit card purchases require ID, no exceptions."

Re: Coin: A step in the wrong direction

#144

Post by nickstinemates »

> Coin is trying to replace your credit cards (no other cards, like ID, Buss Pass, etc) with a single electronic card.

After living in Hong Kong for 12 days, I can safely say they have a superior system for this premise alone.

The octopus card. Accepted virtually everywhere any other card is accepted. It's like any other e-wallet with load, but its ubiquity in service acceptance is amazing.

Everyone has an octopus card. Everyone important to the infrastructure of the country accepts octopus card.

Re: Coin: A step in the wrong direction

#146

Post by xtracto »

bitops wrote: post #23
socalnate1 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agree completely. How did this manage to bubble up to the top of HN?

Just to be clear: you are asking how a negative, critical, "this is stupid" article made it to the top of Hacker News?

I think this is a good sign for the Coin creators. IIRC Dropbox and AirBnB had similar negative buzz when they were announced. The YCombinator forum seems to like to bash implementation of ideas, specially by throwing other ideas which in theory are better (ideas are dime a dozen anyways).

Re: Coin: A step in the wrong direction

#147

Post by RandallBrown »

bronson wrote: post #92
bradgessler wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

What if my car breaks down?

That doesn't mean that cars were a bad idea, just that I have a crappy car.

Do you have any reason to believe that Coin will be any less reliable than a regular credit card?

Re: Coin: A step in the wrong direction

#149

Post by unreal37 »

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 only works 75% of the time? Let's say you eat a meal, and just when you go to pay, the restaurant looks at this crazy thing and says "no, you can't use that". You have to carry another card with you, or cash to cover any purchase you might make.

It's only good if it works as well as credit cards work - 99.9% of places accept them.

Re: Coin: A step in the wrong direction

#150

Post by unreal37 »

RandallBrown wrote: post #147
bronson wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

What if my car breaks down? That doesn't mean that cars were a bad idea, just that I have a crappy car. Do you have any reason to believe that Coin will be any less reliable than a regular credit card?

Yes, how about "many merchants won't accept it". Or "the battery runs out after 1 year."
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