Coin, a new tech company that is allowing users to sync all of their credit, debit and reward cards to one physical card with a magnetic stripe, is the talk of the town. They’ve done a successful crowdfunding campaign, they’ve been all over Facebook and even Google has launched a product to compete.
Early backers and people pre-registered for the service will enjoy a 50% discount making the “smart card” just $50 instead of $100. They all seem to like the idea of consolidating all of the cards in their wallet to just one card. Many also seem to need that physical card rather than trying to pay for things with their phone.
People were so impressed by the idea of a smart card that Coin hit it’s crowdfunding goal in forty minutes. That’s quite impressive even though there is concern and criticism from the tech community, fraud specialists and even hackers.
Even with all this excitement though, Business Insider’s Tony Danova posts a very important question that no one wants to think about when a new technology company is on fire. All in all, isn’t a “smart card” actually going backwards?
There are companies out there that are consolidating cards onto a mobile NFC equipped wallet or barcode generator on iOS and Android. This is supposed to be the wave of the future. Everyone was talking last year about ditching the cards and the wallet all together.
There are even more sophisticated tech companies working on biometrics for paying for things. The idea behind that technology is that you’ll be able to pay for items at a store using just your finger print, and as time goes on maybe even a retina scan. Some security pundits even raise the point that if all the data from all your cards can be siphoned onto one card by Coin or Google, a hacker or credit card thief could take the same information.
Now, if one of your credit cards is lost, or stolen you simply call that card company, report it and you’re on your way. If someone steals and then hacks your smart card they may have access to not only every card in your wallet, but every dollar you have.
Definitely food for thought.
