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Plastc Card

plastc.com

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Re: Plastc Card

#271

Post by abritishguy »

natrius wrote: post #16

They say this supports chip-and-PIN, but I don't believe them until they explain how. If I have a chip-and-PIN card from my bank, the chip has an unreadable secret used to generate one-time cryptograms to verify the authenticity of the card. There's no way to get that secret onto my Plastc card. You'd need partnerships with banks to get a new secret the way Apple Pay does. Without those, this sounds like it'll be use…

From my careful reading of their released material this is how I think they are doing it:

They clone the magnetic stripe part of a chip and pin card and then have their own chip and pin layer that they put on top.

In the UK the only reason you can't use magnetic stripe is because no shops allow it (if they do then they are completely reliable for the authenticity of that transaction) - if you could add a chip and pin layer on top of mag strip data then this might work (would still require a lot of fiddling and as far as I can see transactions would have to go via platc like google wallet).

Re: Plastc Card

#272

Post by retroencabulato »

mrkickling wrote: post #185
JTon wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the tech specs they claim a 30-day charge. No other details. I wonder if that's the equivalent of a cellphone "standby" spec.

Well, E-ink uses very little battery. The e-reader I use has to be charged only every other month or every month if I read more often. But then again this little card couldn't have a very powerful battery in it.

And what about using Bluetooth to detect when the card is lost? That sounds awfully power hungry for this form factor.

Re: Plastc Card

#273

Post by porsupah »

alexhawdon wrote: post #257
lennel wrote: post #256

As someone who frequently travels all over Africa, I would want a secure password on this. If this card gets stolen without such a password it would mean the thieves can empty out several of my cc accounts.

If they don't mess up the implementation then it would appear to be more secure than traditional cards. Especially in places like Africa (I assume) and the US where Chip and Pin has yet to be rolled out. I appreciate the point you're making in that stealing this one card is equivalent to stealing a whole wallet-full. But isn't it usually the case that you lose the whole wallet in one go?

Actually, according to this worldwide map of card and terminal EMV deployment, Africa/ME had chip & pin tech, as of Q4 2013, in 38.9% of cards and 86.3% of terminals.

http://www.emvco.com/images/EMVCo_WorldMap-9-2014.png

The other regions are:

(Region/percentage of cards/percentage of terminals)

Americas (excluding USA): 54.2 84.7 Europe: 81.6 99.9 Australasia: 17.4 71.7 Russia: 24.4 91.2

Re: Plastc Card

#274

Post by leni536 »

I think something like this should replace credit cards used today (or at least having it as an option seeing the price). Authentication on the card could be extremely useful and secure. They should ditch the magnetic stripe tho, it's completely insecure, use only the chip.

Situations: 1) someone steals your pin code (there are overlay devices for ATMs, could happen), after that they steal your card (they can't clone it since it does not have a magnetic stripe). They can't use it since it has locked itself (default state being locked, unlock before transactions).

2) Buy something online, specify that you buy with plastc, it guides you to a challenge response authentication page. Type the challenge in the card, type back the response to the page. They hack the site, get every credit card info and your money on your bank account remains safe.

Re: Plastc Card

#277

Post by tfinniga »

abritishguy wrote: post #271
natrius wrote: post #16

They say this supports chip-and-PIN, but I don't believe them until they explain how. If I have a chip-and-PIN card from my bank, the chip has an unreadable secret used to generate one-time cryptograms to verify the authenticity of the card. There's no way to get that secret onto my Plastc card. You'd need partnerships with banks to get a new secret the way Apple Pay does. Without those, this sounds like it'll be use…

From my careful reading of their released material this is how I think they are doing it: They clone the magnetic stripe part of a chip and pin card and then have their own chip and pin layer that they put on top. In the UK the only reason you can't use magnetic stripe is because no shops allow it (if they do then they are completely reliable for the authenticity of that transaction) - if you could add a chip and pin…

This makes the most sense to me. They have their own chip and pin layer, which forwards the charge to the appropriate card account on the backend.

They probably don't have to worry about fraud, since the barrier to entry is $155 and they charge your card immediately.

The only thing that might be tricky is whether they get the 'card present' rates or not.

Re: Plastc Card

#278

Post by ZoFreX »

abritishguy wrote: post #271
natrius wrote: post #16

They say this supports chip-and-PIN, but I don't believe them until they explain how. If I have a chip-and-PIN card from my bank, the chip has an unreadable secret used to generate one-time cryptograms to verify the authenticity of the card. There's no way to get that secret onto my Plastc card. You'd need partnerships with banks to get a new secret the way Apple Pay does. Without those, this sounds like it'll be use…

From my careful reading of their released material this is how I think they are doing it: They clone the magnetic stripe part of a chip and pin card and then have their own chip and pin layer that they put on top. In the UK the only reason you can't use magnetic stripe is because no shops allow it (if they do then they are completely reliable for the authenticity of that transaction) - if you could add a chip and pin…

Plenty of shops still allow it in the UK (source: my chip broke), but hardly any employees know how to tell the till to swipe a card, so it's still difficult.

Re: Plastc Card

#279

Post by aragot »

bravo22 wrote: post #28
kamkazemoose wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the bottom of their wallet tab [1], they list several participating banks, so it sounds like they might have those partnerships you mention. [1] https://www.plastc.com/wallet

Question is what exactly does "participating" means. Banks generally hate anything that takes away their branding. Less sleek of this -- i.e. reprogrammable Visa cards -- have been around for a few years but banks never supported them, again because of branding.

Same for loyalty cards. Commercants are eager to give you a card or an app because the want to be seen all the time in your wallet/mobile and you have to carry it around. They probably wouldn't see the point if they're stored away in a virtual list.

Re: Plastc Card

#280

Post by egypturnash »

mahyarm wrote: post #130
untog wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This and Vessyl feel like the harbingers of Silicon Valley doom. Products that solve no meaningful problem and cost orders of magnitude more than their 'dumb' alternatives. A waste of good brains.

They are targeting women with this device. Look at all the marketing materials. Female main characters, a woman is in the facial recognition part, 'you shouldn't buy this for yourself, buy it for your female wife', clothing shops & restaurants, etc.

"buy it for your female wife"

...as opposed to your male, neuter, or enby wife, I suppose?

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