I'm actually more interested in it replacing non-credit/debit cards as I have more of those than credit/debit cards. That said, a lot of those cards are never swiped so maybe it won't be of much use there other than a fancy way of storing my frequent flyer numbers in a device :-)
This thing will likely be a card skimmers dream. I could almost pretend I'm scanning someone's card with my Square reader but it really be my Coin reader.
I worry merchants would reject my Coin, not just because of fraud suspicions but just because they don't know what the hell it is.
But it's just such a cool concept, I'm almost willing to spend $50 (minus any referrals—hint, hint) just to have one.
Some people are complaining that Coin doesn't support chip cards. Not much of an issue for me.
Coin - because what I want is to replace all my payment tokens with a Single Point Of Failure that has a battery to charge.
— Kevin Marks (@kevinmarks) November 14, 2013
@kevinmarks There's no battery to charge, lasts 2 years, then trash.
— Sean Bonner Ⓥ (@seanbonner) November 14, 2013
One referral discount so far. Thank you!
What's to stop the merchant pressing the button when they take your Coin and switching the card used?
In an email to people who have ordered Coins, a few questions have been answered:
- You will be able to reactivate your Coin even if your phone is dead by tapping in a "Morse-code-like" password using the button
- Coin will track how many times your card is being swiped and tell you if someone is using it when it isn't near you
- Coin can "auto-lock" based on proximity such that you can swipe, but cannot change the card that is selected -- so a waiter or waitress can't accidentally switch your payment method when you pay your bill