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vrDrew

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jan 31, 2010
1,376
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Midlife, Midwest
I really like the idea behind Coin: A smart device that basically replaces all the credit, debit, and loyalty cards in your wallet. Coin also has some built-in security devices that make it much less likely to be lost or stolen.

However, I see that in its current iteration, Coin does not support the "Chip and Pin" EMV encryption technology that most European debt and credit cards use. This, IMHO, is a fatal weakness of the Coin concept.

"Chip and Pin" is not a cure-all for credit-card fraud. There are still ways to defeat its security features, especially in "card not present" transactions. But the fact that CCV and pin data is encrypted by the chip, makes it much, much harder for hackers to get ahold of huge volumes of cardholder data - as happened in the recent Target and Neimann-Marcus attacks.

I have great respect for the concept behind Coin - but unless and until they figure out a way to integrate EMV security features, then I don't see much future for it. (My personal prediction is that we'll see EMV-like security features introduced to most US credit cards within the next eighteen months. Thats how much the recent Target, etc. security breaches are going to cost.)
 
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