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

Coin Card Teardown

bitsofcents.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

91–100 of 121 posts

Re: Coin Card Teardown

#91

Post by concerned_user »

leni536 wrote: post #59
urda wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

>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.

Re: Coin Card Teardown

#92

Post by [deleted] »

flurdy wrote: post #45
azdle wrote: 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

[deleted]

Re: Coin Card Teardown

#93

Post by concerned_user »

deegles wrote: post #55

Does cloning your card to a Coin make you liable for fraudulent transactions? I assume it would be against the ToS for most cards to allow cloning.

That is what signature is for, isn't it? If bank can't prove it is your signature then it is a fraudulent transaction. Technically cashier/clerk should not accept the transaction if signature doesn't match but I've rarely seen them check it.

Re: Coin Card Teardown

#94

Post by jtchang »

I actually have the Nordic NRF51822 / NRF51 development board and it is super fun to play with. I come from a web dev background so getting into hardware is rough.

The toolchain for building firmware is crazy. It's kind of like in webdev we dynamically generate css through sass and then put it through all these different stages (minification/etc). Except this is all old school Makefiles. Made me cringe a bit.

Re: Coin Card Teardown

#95

Post by concerned_user »

jackmaney wrote: post #63

I'm amazed that this idea actually caught on in the first place. "Wait, you mean I can put every single source of (non-cash) money in a single card, for a single point of failure? And if it breaks, I'm effectively penniless? WHERE THE FUCK DO I SIGN UP?!"

Also imagine it gets stolen, good luck remembering all the cards you had in there and banks you need to call. Payment gateway route, like paypal, gives same convenience and less headaches.

Re: Coin Card Teardown

#96

Post by cgriswald »

nadams wrote: post #24

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

Nope. And I was offered the chance to get the beta or wait for the real thing. I opted for the beta and never received either. The app when pressed would tell me "just wait it's coming"

Re: Coin Card Teardown

#97

Post by pjc50 »

thaumaturgy wrote: post #77
pjc50 wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suspect flexing the PCB caused the usual problems of hairline cracks in solder joints, resulting in intermittent faults.

If that's true, I wonder if something like a paper circuit would work? e.g., http://www.instructables.com/id/Paperduino-20-with-Circuit-S...

Flexible substrates are not a problem - the industrial solution is polyimide (Kapton) or just really thin FR4. The problem is inflexible components. As soon as you bend a curved surface attached to a small flat rectangle (IC), it pulls at the joins.

You might get better results with bare die+wirebonding, then encapsulating with slightly flexible epoxy. That would allow the bondwires to flex and take up the bending. Doesn't help with the discrete components or the battery.

Re: Coin Card Teardown

#98

Post by jordanthoms »

jackmaney wrote: post #66
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?

> 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.

That'll change very shortly, first of my US credit cards was just reissued with a chip and you can expect that all of yours will be within the next year or so.

Note that it is Chip and Signature though, not chip and pin.

Re: Coin Card Teardown

#99

Post by CaptainZapp »

stephengillie wrote: post #54
mbreese wrote: 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…

From October the merchant is responsible for fraud if the card has no chip and he accepts it.

Be prepared for a lot of merchants not willing to take that risk and to decline your card if it has a mag stripe only.

Re: Coin Card Teardown

#100

Post by strange_quark »

jackmaney wrote: post #66
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?

> 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.
Post reply on HN