Digitization has changed the way we transfer funds. While credit and debit cards have sufficed, PayPal and the like are making online payments easier and safer, but they are hard to manage as they are separate. REUBEN YONATAN, CEO of Get VoIP believes that a new innovation, Coin, may make things easier.
Over the last several years, digitization has changed the way businesses and consumers transfer funds. While debit and credit cards have allowed for electronic transfers for a while, now there are mobile banking applications as well as services like PayPal and Chase bank’s QuickPay. These services take electronic transfers one step further as they integrate users’ banking information to allow for more direct, quick, and secure transfers of funds. Despite these advancements, however, these services can still be a bit hard to manage, especially since they’re all separate. As such, users are forced to carry around various different payment methods. Well, this may now be a practice of the past.
Enter the new innovation, Coin.
What is Coin?
Coin is designed to condense the contents of your wallet into one debit/credit type card. As such, this technology looks to essentially digitize your wallet. In doing so, users will be able to store and access any one of their cards‚Äîi.e. credit, debit, company, loyalty, rewards, gift, etc.‚Äîdirectly on the device. When it’s time to make a transaction, users select which card they’d like to use on the device itself and slide Coin just like they would a credit or debit card. That’s it. Sound good?
The point of Coin is to simplify digitized transactions. With so many different accounts linked to different cards, holding onto different cards can get messy. Even worse, you could end up losing a card. While Coin isn’t impossible to lose, it’s definitely easier to keep track of. First off, it’s the only card you’ll have to worry about. Secondly, even if you do forget, the mobile app uses Bluetooth to alert your mobile device that you are leaving the immediate proximity.
How’s It Different?
Coin is unlike mobile banking applications and payment services in a few different ways: however, the most prevalent is in its primary function. Coin is NOT intended to view and manage accounts. Instead, it’s more of a digital wallet that users can store all their accounts in. That being said, Coin doesn’t really apply to online purchases. When shopping online, users still use their credit card information or payment service account information‚Äîi.e. PayPal. However, in person, Coin functions as any debit, credit, gift, or other card would, the only difference being that various cards’ information is stored on this one card.
In comparison to debit, credit, gift, loyalty, rewards, or any other type of card, there is really no difference. Coin swipes the same as any of these cards. The only difference is all of these cards’ information is stored on one master-card.
Why Should You Care?
Again, digitization has changed the way businesses and consumers conduct transactions. As such, Coin can really help simplify the buying process for users. There’s no limit to the amount of cards you can add: therefore, users can link every carded account you have.
This is not dissimilar from Amazon.com’s payment method directory. Users with an Amazon account can link any type of credit or debit card and choose the payment method at checkout. Coin does this in a physical setting‚Äîi.e. the Coin card stores your different cards and allows you to choose your payment method at checkout. Coin goes even further than this, as users are also able to store a variety of other cards (mentioned above). This is a pretty big deal. Stop carrying around your portfolio of payment options and keep it simple.
What Can Coin Mean For Your Business?
In regards to businesses, Coin can work to digitize and simplify all transactions. For example, if an employee without a corporate credit card goes to a business lunch, he or she will need a receipt in order for the company to reimburse. With Coin, businesses can provide users with a corporate credit card without physically giving them a corporate card. Instead, the information can be stored on the device, along with any other card information the company and/or employee wants.
In the same vein, Coin can also be used to better manage corporate credit cards (the cards themselves, not the accounts). While utilizing this technology might seem a bit daunting, Coin can be implemented similarly to a BYOD, bring your own device, program. With BYOD, employees literally use their own devices (smartphones, tablets, laptops, etc.) for business use. In doing this, businesses aren’t tasked with providing staff with devices. Coin can be utilized the same way. Businesses can allow employees with Coin to sync their corporate credit card to their own device. As such, employees have the card stored directly on their Coin for whenever they need it.
Still, some businesses may want to cut out physical corporate cards completely. In this regard, Coin can work, too. Businesses can store their card information on Coins and disperse them to employees as needed. In doing so, businesses can keep one physical card in office and register that information through employees’ Coin devices.
As a result, companies can better manage their accounts as well as reduce security risks. How? With less physical cards floating around, there’s less likelihood for the card to be stolen or misplaced. Still, accidents do happen. Luckily, Coin makes it hard to forget as it utilizes Bluetooth technology to notify users’ mobile phone when they are getting out of range of the card. Additionally, the current make of Coin locks up after being away from a user’s smartphone for ten minutes or if your mobile phone dies. While this is problematic, it could serve as a good makeshift security measure.
At the opposite end of the spectrum, some feel that the use of Coin welcomes increased security concerns. For example, if one does lose their Coin, it’s the equivalent to losing all their cards. Again, the tech does employ Bluetooth 4.0 LE, but there are no guarantees. Also, Coin could make card duplication easier. ‚”It reads the magnetic stripe and shoots the card over to Coin so you can use it instantly. That’s great when you want to get your own cards set u, but it could also allow someone else to make a clone of your credit card in mere seconds,‚” states Extreme tech’s Ryan Whitwam. While this might raise a red flag with some, this concern is still just speculation.
The Bottom Line
Both consumers and businesses really stand to benefit from Coin: however, since the technology has yet to be released, it’s not yet known if Coin is capable of delivering. Currently, the platform faces some obstacles‚Äîi.e. no major credit card issuers have given their approval, mobile notifications drain your battery and the device doesn’t work with a dead or out of range device, merchants might not accept it because they don’t recognize it (no hologram or raised numbers). While these issues seem pretty serious, Coin CEO and co-founder, Kanishk Parashar, has insisted that these are tiny hindrances as opposed to insurmountable problems, and that they will be worked out.
Though Coin has yet to be released, it has enjoyed a very successful launch. Why? Though there may be a number of contributing factors, perhaps the most recognizable is that it works to solve a real problem. Ultimately, users will have to wait for the platform’s release to hear the final verdict. For now, however, Coin looks like a very promising way for consumers and business to digitize their wallets.
* Article courtesy of Reuben Yonatan, CEO of Get VoIP
* Image courtesy of Shutterstock.com
* Follow Gadget on Twitter on @GadgetZA
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