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Coin Card Teardown

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Re: Coin Card Teardown

#31

Post by Someone1234 »

markbnj wrote: post #12
joshstrange wrote: post #3

I had the beta and a final Coin and neither one were reliable enough to to trust. You HAVE to carry backup cards which more or less defeats the purpose. Then there is the slightly embarrassing, extremely annoying "Your card didn't work/Do you have another card this one isn't swiping". I've stopped carrying my coin altogether because if you have the cards you might as well use the real ones (I tried for 7+ months to u…

They probably didn't have the ability to test it on nearly enough readers, given that there are literally thousands. They may also be running into some timing issues based on how people swipe. Those are things you sometimes just can't work out barring wide scale testing and adoption.

Right. But file this away in the "not my problem" draw. You can make all the excuses you want, but this is ultimately up to them to resolve, not for the consumer to deal with.

Re: Coin Card Teardown

#32

Post by pbreit »

jdhawk wrote: post #8
joshstrange wrote: post #3

I had the beta and a final Coin and neither one were reliable enough to to trust. You HAVE to carry backup cards which more or less defeats the purpose. Then there is the slightly embarrassing, extremely annoying "Your card didn't work/Do you have another card this one isn't swiping". I've stopped carrying my coin altogether because if you have the cards you might as well use the real ones (I tried for 7+ months to u…

Ditto - great idea - just never works reliably

Possibly letting me leave 1 or 2 cards at home is not really a great idea.

Re: Coin Card Teardown

#33

Post by mildweed »

yrral wrote: post #30

Fcc photos of the coin pcb here [1] I think that the coils that drive the magstripe are only activated when the buttons to the left or right of the stripes are depressed (e.g. by the process of swiping). Also, I believe coin only transmits track 2 [2]. Why it looks like there's 2 coils is curious to me as well. [1] https://fccid.io/document.php?id=2397353 [2] https://support.onlycoin.com/hc/en-us/articles/204263414-C…

I certainly have been rejected because of the lack of Track 1 data. One merchant told me as much.

Re: Coin Card Teardown

#34

Post by jackreichert »

nadams wrote: post #24

Was I the only one who canceled their pre-order after they asked for your social security number?

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.

Re: Coin Card Teardown

#35

Post by [deleted] »

Globz wrote: 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?

[deleted]

Re: Coin Card Teardown

#36

Post by ianburrell »

myth_buster wrote: post #6

I'm curious to know whether given proliferation of the NFC alternatives available now like Apple/Google Pay is there a problem that Coin Card addresses which the former don't. Is paying in the restaurants one of those use case or will we see table side point-of-payments in near future which would make it obsolete.

In Canada, where they have switched to chip-and-pin cards, the servers bring a terminal to table. Customer puts in card, enters PIN, and enters tip amount. For swipe cards or chip-and-signature, it prints out a receipt to be signed.

Card would still be useful for terminals that don't support NFC payment. Or for larger payments than are allowed with NFC. Or for people who prefer to use cards instead of phone/watch.

It should be possible to use the tokenization system of Apply Pay to have switchable card with chip-only card.

Re: Coin Card Teardown

#37

Post by myth_buster »

lvs wrote: post #7
treycopeland wrote: post #5

I received my Coin about 2 months ago. I was excited to test it out after preordering almost 2 years in advance. The concept of having all my cards on one central card was a great idea. But having it not work at some locations was rather embarrassing and frustrating. I have decided the Coin was a fail and I will not carry it anymore. But, Coin, keep innovating. You tried.

It sounds like just another startup hardware offering with a spotty launch. But I've always been confused about the perceived "embarrassment" of a card not working at the point of a transaction. This seems to be a common marketing trope in payments, but I don't know what it comes from. It's a piece of technology, and tech often doesn't work quite right. Sometimes my phone restarts itself. What's the big deal?

I think most nascent tech are buggy. It's part of growing pains. If I'm using something like that, it's mostly to encourage the people behind them by my patronage and for providing them with data from usage outside the controlled environment. I suppose its similar to why there is a community around product hunt, kickstarter etc.

I believe the "embarrassment" trope crops from the misunderstanding behind the motive.

Re: Coin Card Teardown

#38

Post by untog »

lvs wrote: post #7
treycopeland wrote: post #5

I received my Coin about 2 months ago. I was excited to test it out after preordering almost 2 years in advance. The concept of having all my cards on one central card was a great idea. But having it not work at some locations was rather embarrassing and frustrating. I have decided the Coin was a fail and I will not carry it anymore. But, Coin, keep innovating. You tried.

It sounds like just another startup hardware offering with a spotty launch. But I've always been confused about the perceived "embarrassment" of a card not working at the point of a transaction. This seems to be a common marketing trope in payments, but I don't know what it comes from. It's a piece of technology, and tech often doesn't work quite right. Sometimes my phone restarts itself. What's the big deal?

Because some may assume that you don't have enough money to pay your bill.

Re: Coin Card Teardown

#39

Post by goeric »

joshstrange wrote: post #3

I had the beta and a final Coin and neither one were reliable enough to to trust. You HAVE to carry backup cards which more or less defeats the purpose. Then there is the slightly embarrassing, extremely annoying "Your card didn't work/Do you have another card this one isn't swiping". I've stopped carrying my coin altogether because if you have the cards you might as well use the real ones (I tried for 7+ months to u…

Agreed. The coin absolutely failed me. It didn't work far too often for me and I always had to carry backup cards (my debit card because BofA's ATM can't read it, and my credit card because I still want my rewards on purchases when my Coin fails). Needing to carry 3 cards completely defeated the purpose of the Coin, and I ended up ditching the Coin just to have one less card in my wallet. The irony.

Re: Coin Card Teardown

#40

Post by urda »

Nursie wrote: post #20
Globz wrote: 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?

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.
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