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Coin Card Teardown

bitsofcents.com

101–110 of 121 posts

Re: Coin Card Teardown

#101
post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mag stripe readers are everywhere, but the banks have already started migrating over to chip and pin cards (with mag-stripe for backwards compatibility) for new issues. There are still older cards out there that won't expire for probably ~5 years or so, so I expect to see mag stripe readers around for at least that long. But it's fair to call it deprecated, even in the US. However, the transition is coming to the US…

If my bank (credit union) has transitioned to chip-and-pin, they have done so without telling me. The cards they issue are pressed at the main branch; I had to wait while they printed my latest card. The process they use to print doesn't emboss the card - the little numbers don't stick up - and as such they have nearly rubbed off from the card. I got that most recent card in September of 2012, and it's already wearin…

Some small banks will take longer than others to get ready, but many have already started sending out cards with chips when it's time for you to get a new one.

The silly thing is that the US is mostly standardizing on chip and signature, which means that if your card is stolen, it's still easy for criminals to use it until you're able to block it.

Re: Coin Card Teardown

#102
post #40
post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not quite deprecated in the USA, yet. Just nearly everywhere else...

Except when you're the top country by economic standards the "everywhere else" has zero weight. Thus why it's still the standard.

Except it's not still the standard, at all. In many places now you won't get very far with a mag stripe.

The USA is an anachronism here, the rest of the world has moved on and has other standards.

Re: Coin Card Teardown

#103
post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Except when you're the top country by economic standards the "everywhere else" has zero weight. That's really ignorant. Bank card security sucks enough without mag stripes (I'm looking at you, online payment). Really, magstripes need to die.

Well for them it is money lost due to fraud vs money spent on tech upgrade. Until money lost to fraud is tolerable banks are not going to upgrade, it also seems that a lot of big banks are very short sighted, like it was with 2008 housing bubble.

It's not just the banks, the major US retailers are very resistant as well, or so I am told by people in the industry who deal with the US market.

Re: Coin Card Teardown

#104
post #81
post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Except when you're the top country by economic standards the "everywhere else" has zero weight. That's really ignorant. Bank card security sucks enough without mag stripes (I'm looking at you, online payment). Really, magstripes need to die.

> That's really ignorant. Not at all, sounds like you to need a little review yourself [1]. At no point in my comment did I support mag stripe, just simply explain why it's still in widespread use. If you ever have worked in the finance industry you would understand that. Nobody is arguing that it should stay, but it's important to understand WHY they are still around. Just because it's the major standard doesn't mak…

Right, except it's not in widespread use, it's only in use the USA.

The USA does have a huge economy. However in this matter it does not dictate the standard, and there are more people doing more card transactions outside the US, with non-stripe technologies, than there are in the US doing them with.

Re: Coin Card Teardown

#105
post #16

This is the first time I am reading about this product but why mag stripe over smart cards? isn't it less secure and deprecated technology? it seems very useful but relying on mag stripe isn't the best move, no? Perhaps they couldn't "switch cards" while using smart cards so mag stripe was the only solution?

> isn't it less secure and deprecated technology? Uhhhh...no? I've lived in the US my entire life, and while I've seen pin and chip readers, I've never had a pin and chip card, never known anyone who has ever had one, and never seen one used. Ever.

It's deprecated in most of the rest of the world now, we've moved on through chip-cards and now contactless cards. The USA is really behind in credit-card tech.

The Coin card was never going to sell outside the USA (not that that's a small market or anything! But even the US is going to move on eventually).

Re: Coin Card Teardown

#106
post #45
post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The security that a smart card provides would actually prevent a product like this from working because one of the primary purposes of the chip system in CCs is to prevent cloning, but this relies on simply being able to enter your CC number into it. I can't remember what it was called, but I remember reading about something that does use a chip card and allows you to switch payment providers using a phone app, but t…

Plastc, https://www.plastc.com , has solved the multiple chip and pin issue. Although in an interesting yak shaving way due to the emv restrictions. https://www.plastc.com/blog/talk-with-the-founders-update

"Shipping Summer 2015"

This is clearly vaporware, or worse yet, a scam. Have they demonstrated a working prototype yet? Everything on that page is renders. If they haven't, there's no way they're shipping it next month. And features like e-ink screen and Chip&Pin cloning make it even less realistic.

Re: Coin Card Teardown

#107
post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mag stripe readers are everywhere, but the banks have already started migrating over to chip and pin cards (with mag-stripe for backwards compatibility) for new issues. There are still older cards out there that won't expire for probably ~5 years or so, so I expect to see mag stripe readers around for at least that long. But it's fair to call it deprecated, even in the US. However, the transition is coming to the US…

At least when I researched about a year ago, it's uncommon to get a true chip-and-PIN in the US. Most of the chips are chip-and-signature.

How is chip-and-signature different from the current policy where the buyer (sometimes, decreasingly) has to sign for credit purchases?

Re: Coin Card Teardown

#108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I cancelled my preorder after I got the app and saw that silly tapping security code. I decided to try out Plastc after that. We'll see what that's like.

After being burnt by Coin at $50, I'm not jumping at the chance to waste $150 with Plastc.

I hear you, I got my $50 refund, got some credit for finding a share link for Plastc and felt $100 was worth it for my single attempt at using the tech.

Re: Coin Card Teardown

#109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> isn't it less secure and deprecated technology? Uhhhh...no? I've lived in the US my entire life, and while I've seen pin and chip readers, I've never had a pin and chip card, never known anyone who has ever had one, and never seen one used. Ever.

I've had a chip in my card for many years now, but that's probably because it's a "travel" card and it's there so that you can use it abroad. All new replacement cards I've received in the past year or so have had chips. I also see chip readers on terminals at most retailers but curiously they have them turned off for now.

I got a (brand new, of course) corporate card from my employer last year, and it only works via magnetic stripe.

Re: Coin Card Teardown

#110
post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> isn't it less secure and deprecated technology? Uhhhh...no? I've lived in the US my entire life, and while I've seen pin and chip readers, I've never had a pin and chip card, never known anyone who has ever had one, and never seen one used. Ever.

It's deprecated in most of the rest of the world now, we've moved on through chip-cards and now contactless cards. The USA is really behind in credit-card tech. The Coin card was never going to sell outside the USA (not that that's a small market or anything! But even the US is going to move on eventually).

> The USA is really behind in credit-card tech.

It's not so much the USA as it is the American financial sector. Finance moves at a glacial pace.

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