Coin: A step in the wrong direction • Hacker News Board

Re: Coin: A step in the wrong direction

#151

Post by RandallBrown » Fri, Nov 15, 2013, 5:02 AM UTC

unreal37 wrote: post #150

RandallBrown wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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."

As far as I know, neither of those things are true.

Many merchants I swipe my own card and they never see it. A waitress may question it, but I have no reason to believe they won't accept it if it is validated by their card reader.

The website says the battery should last two years.

Re: Coin: A step in the wrong direction

#152

Post by sliverstorm » Fri, Nov 15, 2013, 5:03 AM UTC

unreal37 wrote: post #149

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 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.

Well, sort of. You could always carry this, and a Visa, so you're down from 4 cards to two.

Re: Coin: A step in the wrong direction

#153

Post by sliverstorm » Fri, Nov 15, 2013, 5:04 AM UTC

unreal37 wrote: post #150

RandallBrown wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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."

A vision just flashed before my eyes, of my coworkers all charging their credit cards on their desks, next to the cell phone that is also perennially charging.

Re: Coin: A step in the wrong direction

#154

Post by RandallBrown » Fri, Nov 15, 2013, 5:10 AM UTC

jrochkind1 wrote: post #85

I am reasonably confident that people pre-order items, and are charged for them before they ship, all the darn time. For the OP to combine two entirely separate things--1) I think it's a bad solution, and 2) and it's illegal to charge money that way--makes it just seem like he has an axe to grind. Those things have nothing to do with each other. The security issues are at least related to the technology, and he could…

I think the pre order issue is that most credit card companies require that a pre order is just an authorization on the amount, not an actual transaction. The money isn't supposed to change hands until the item is shipped.

Coin is completing the transactions and using the money to fund their venture.

It probably isn't black and white either. I am no expert on credit card transactions.

I'm not too worried. I ordered one.

Re: Coin: A step in the wrong direction

#155

Post by chacha102 » Fri, Nov 15, 2013, 5:11 AM UTC

jrochkind1 wrote: post #89

samuelkadolph wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually this is very much illegal. You cannot charge someone for a product and then not deliver it. Kickstarter doesn't charge you for a product, you pledge or donate to a project on Kickstarter and if it's successful, you get the item(s) for the level you pledged to for free.

Well, of course if you charge someone for a product and don't ship it, then you owe them their money back. I'm not sure there's anything illegal about it if you give them their money back -- I'm pretty sure I've tried to buy something from a seller on Amazon, been charged, it turned out they were unable to fulfill, they refunded. It happens. Now, if you run out of money and go out of business without giving everyone…

Most credit card processors will have problems with you if you don't ship a product within a certain time frame (3-4 days) within charging a credit card. I believe its part of the TOS.

And consumers are different than creditors. There are different laws that protect each.

Re: Coin: A step in the wrong direction

#156

Post by yeukhon » Fri, Nov 15, 2013, 5:41 AM UTC

nickstinemates wrote: post #144

> 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 ca…

No. octopus card is just another card but because people like using it so much places like 7-11 won't mind to have it. You load money into the octopus card (not sure if now banks allow account linking). At least when I was kid that was how things worked.

Re: Coin: A step in the wrong direction

#157

Post by yeukhon » Fri, Nov 15, 2013, 5:42 AM UTC

aaron695 wrote: post #133

Not sure why people on HN are up voting an article putting down a new YCombinator. Even if it's valid, which I don't think it is it's not really what HN should be about. It's not constructive criticism since it basically writes a company off. Even the legal issue is BS. So what if it's not 100% kosher if they get away with it, good on them. All companies when they start take risks.

Why can't they do that? Just because this is a new startup? Are you saying a hacker news reader have to buy in every startup concept funded by YC? I am sorry, we have freedom to choose to upvote or downvote.

What do you mean legal issue is BS? You can't even use this damn card in Macy because of legal issue.

Re: Coin: A step in the wrong direction

#158

Post by Aradalf » Fri, Nov 15, 2013, 6:12 AM UTC

This is a stupid article. Phone paying systems are clunky. I don't want to take out my phone, unlock it, open up an app, enter a PIN, choose a payment device, and then tap my phone to a payment system to pay, when I can just open up my wallet, take out this one card, and swipe it. Maybe you need to press the button a couple times to switch cards, but that's it.

Re: Coin: A step in the wrong direction

#159

Post by bradgessler » Fri, Nov 15, 2013, 7:07 AM UTC

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?

Stupid question. Win.

Re: Coin: A step in the wrong direction

#160

Post by kayoone » Fri, Nov 15, 2013, 8:09 AM UTC

It might be a step in the wrong direction, but why not let them try ?

In todays world evolution isn't linear, its parallel. Many people work on similar problems at the same time (innovators dilemma comes to mind) and some may prevail, some won't. But thats the process of moving forward to the perfect solution.