Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Hands on with Apple Pay Competitor CurrentC

johnszumski.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 49 posts

Re: Hands on with Apple Pay Competitor CurrentC

#21

Post by pbreit »

Veratyr wrote: post #18

In Australia retailers have supported NFC in the form of Visa's payWave and Mastercard's PayPass for years now and I've got to say, it's fantastic compared to the experience in the US. Walk into a supermarket/retailer/cinema/restaurant in Melbourne and payment is as simple as waving your card at the terminal. If the purchase is less than ~$100 you don't need to enter a PIN and don't need to sign anything (we outlawed…

My sense is the superiority of the mag-stripe is a reason why commerce in the USA exceeds the rest of the world. But I would agree that the move to EMV is a step backwards.

Re: Hands on with Apple Pay Competitor CurrentC

#22

Post by jimkri »

ISL wrote: post #17
jimkri wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yea I realized that when I was thinking about it. Which is a financial smart reason, but in the end it limits them. If I only have my phone which I have android pay on and I need to get something from a drug store, I would go to CVS but they don't accept NFC. So I will have to go to Walgreen's instead which is usually near a CVS. So I don't get why they don't offer NFC, because keeping 98% of the transaction amount i…

If your margin is only a few percent, 2% is a big deal. What matters to a retailer isn't the revenue, it's the difference between costs and revenue.

Good point, with Walmart they will generate revenue no matter what, but to cut cost it makes sense to use it.

Re: Hands on with Apple Pay Competitor CurrentC

#23

Post by jszumski »

prplhaz4 wrote: post #3

I believe CurrentC's (Paydiant's) QR code tokenization works the same as you've described Apple Pay tokenization - the merchant POS does not see any payment info other than a one-time-use token. This was another decent teardown of Paydiant's Subway app - but it looks like someone high up has had some of the code redacted :) http://randywestergren.com/reverse-engineering-the-subway-an... Functionally, it looks like Cu…

Even if the transaction itself is tokenized, CurrentC controls the metadata and can allow MCX retailers access to that database after the fact. Apple on the other hand doesn't offer that type of access to anyone outside the company (if they store it at all).

Re: Hands on with Apple Pay Competitor CurrentC

#24

Post by DaveWalk »

sarahprobono wrote: post #2

I have to say, just because of the privacy implications, I'm much more inclined to use Apple Pay than CurrentC.

I'm not an Apple Pay user -- is their privacy policy any good? Does it not collect metadata?

The article highlights CurrentC's brazen lack of privacy. From their policy:

> We share your information across our network of merchants and with our third party service providers. MCX may share...To third-party analytic providers and advertising partners to help us deliver, track and analyze the operations and effectiveness of our marketing campaigns, promotions or advertisements.

Re: Hands on with Apple Pay Competitor CurrentC

#25

Post by untog »

pbreit wrote: post #21
Veratyr wrote: post #18

In Australia retailers have supported NFC in the form of Visa's payWave and Mastercard's PayPass for years now and I've got to say, it's fantastic compared to the experience in the US. Walk into a supermarket/retailer/cinema/restaurant in Melbourne and payment is as simple as waving your card at the terminal. If the purchase is less than ~$100 you don't need to enter a PIN and don't need to sign anything (we outlawed…

My sense is the superiority of the mag-stripe is a reason why commerce in the USA exceeds the rest of the world. But I would agree that the move to EMV is a step backwards.

My sense is the superiority of the mag-stripe is a reason why commerce in the USA exceeds the rest of the world

I suspect it is more closely connected to population and GDP.

Re: Hands on with Apple Pay Competitor CurrentC

#26

Post by tass »

Veratyr wrote: post #18

In Australia retailers have supported NFC in the form of Visa's payWave and Mastercard's PayPass for years now and I've got to say, it's fantastic compared to the experience in the US. Walk into a supermarket/retailer/cinema/restaurant in Melbourne and payment is as simple as waving your card at the terminal. If the purchase is less than ~$100 you don't need to enter a PIN and don't need to sign anything (we outlawed…

Big companies like Walmart are fighting adopting new credit card technologies since this is their opportunity to pay less fees.

In Australia, fees are typically below 1%. e.g., Visa Australia charges .275% to supermarkets and 0% to charities. http://www.visa.com.au/aboutvisa/interchange/interchange.sht...

In the USA, it's typically over 1% (see page 7) https://usa.visa.com/dam/VCOM/download/merchants/Visa-USA-In...

On the other hand, this is why Australia hasn't yet adopted Apple Pay. Apple want the same cut of the total transaction, (I think it's 0.15%) which is more than half of the total fees charged in Australia in most cases.

Re: Hands on with Apple Pay Competitor CurrentC

#29

Post by chasing »

Just the name ("CurrentC") seems like it's going to lead to numerous Who's-On-First kinds of interactions...

A: "Do you take CurrentC?"

B: "Of course we take currency."

A: [Pulls out CurrentC app.]

B: "Oh, no. We don't do that."

Might do better if it sounded distinct when spoken. Like "Apple Pay."

A: "Do you take Apple Pay?"

B: "No, we only accept payments in currency, not in fruit."

A: [Pulls out CurrentC app.]

B: "We don't take that, either."

[Audience laughter, applause, and scene.]

Re: Hands on with Apple Pay Competitor CurrentC

#30

Post by mikeash »

Veratyr wrote: post #18

In Australia retailers have supported NFC in the form of Visa's payWave and Mastercard's PayPass for years now and I've got to say, it's fantastic compared to the experience in the US. Walk into a supermarket/retailer/cinema/restaurant in Melbourne and payment is as simple as waving your card at the terminal. If the purchase is less than ~$100 you don't need to enter a PIN and don't need to sign anything (we outlawed…

I don't understand why you praise NFC but condemn EMV on the basis of fraud. In both cases, the possession of some physical item is considered sufficient for authorization. Copying that physical item is sufficiently difficult that it's probably not an avenue for fraud, so you have to actually steal somebody's card.

If physical card theft is actually a big deal, then NFC would be just as bad. If it's not a problem and fraud comes from copying the information, then EMV is just as good. No?

Post reply on HN