Coin Teams With MasterCard In Wearable Payments Push (thestack.com)

An anonymous reader writes: Smart payments startup Coin has announced it will team up with MasterCard to use its electronic card technology to help companies integrate payment services into their wearable devices. Under the new MasterCard partnership, owners of wearables with integrated Coin technology will be able to pay at retail outlets without the need to take out any cash or card . The deal is not exclusive, which means that there is still potential for Visa and American Express customers to benefit when the Coin-embedded tech begins to ship later this year.

Comments

Chip cards

[110010001000]

On the other hand in the US we have finally started to require chip (and signature) cards. I never understood this stuff. How hard is it to insert a plastic card in a slot for payment? And given the sorry state of Smart Phone security why do people insist on using their phones for payment? You are just asking for trouble.

Re:Chip cards

[ewibble]

I agree, A device where you can download and install arbitrary software from the internet is not a place where I want the authentication method for monetary transactions to be kept. Yes I know buying things online counts, but there is a solution for that too.

Re:Chip cards

[110010001000]

You are 100% right. I guess what I meant is why the consumers keep using this stuff. I understand the credit card companies love the idea of frictionless payments. I also think paying with a phone is more of a hassle than paying with a card. And the other point is why even bother requiring chip and signature if you are going to push people to use insecure smartphones for payment?

Re:Chip cards

[unrtst]

The last two replies got it wrong (IMO), so here goes on my attempt...

MFA (Multi Factor Auth). Sorry, I couldn't find an easy doc or example within my first few searches, so you'll have to trust me a bit.
When you check out from some sites, such as newegg, if your bank supports the extra secure pay thingy (I can't remember its exact name), then newegg redirects you to your banks site. If you have it enabled, then you must enter some info for your bank so it can authenticate that you are the owner of the card, then it sends you back to the original site with some tokens it can use to verify that went through ok. If you don't have it enabled, you get the option to enable it at that time, or skip it and continue anyway.

The big shortfall there is that sites are not required to set up that support, so a rouge or less-professional site could still use your card without jumping through that hoop. However, that's the case for the real world as well - even retailers in the EU can, at their option, accept just the mag swipe, or even do a carbon rub of your card. The extra security protects the retailer and the bank - you don't get much say in protecting your credit card info.

There are also other online, alternative, payment methods that, supposedly, offer more security. PayPal, bitcoin, temporary CC numbers, etc. Regardless, there are solutions for that, but the physical world solution should not (IMO, and the opinion of the GP) be on some relatively insecure device where arbitrary software can be installed from the internet.

Re:I can see it already

[sycodon]

And people will come up with a way to read it as the walk by you. They'll pick your pockets even when you don't have a pocket.

Re:I can see it already

[cayenne8]

No thank you.

I'll just stick to cash. Especially for my private individual gun purchases.

:P

I hope they all die in a fire

[Hognoxious]

They deserve to fail and die for not only choosing a common word for their name, but also choosing a name that's in common use in something closely related.