> Ah, the old "It's of no use to me, so what's the point?" argument. You're not the person the Coin is targeting. It's for people who have more cards than they can comfortably carry in their wallet.
The thing is, a lot of the people who don't originally see the use to something can wind up using it later on because they have a need for it (DropBox, etc). This has a built-in usefulness limitation in that it is only of use to people with lots of cards that need to carry them all. Sure, I have 6 credit/debit cards, but I only ever carry 2 in my slim front-pocket wallet. I only know 2 people that Coin would apply to for their use-case scenario and neither of them would carry this device instead of their cards.
> I'll admit that I don't shop in many brick and mortar stores, but when I have, the cashiers have never so much as glanced at my cards. Most of the time, the scanner is out of their view anyway. I can see it possibly being a problem if they have to scan it for you (like at a restaurant or something), but I'd be willing to bet that most people just aren't going to care enough to make a fuss about it.
I'd wager that at least 25% of the merchants here in NY would refuse to accept this. Easily at least that many. While many cashiers don't look at your cards when you use them, that's because it still fits the profile of a credit card: thin plastic, bank logo, Visa/MC/Amex logo, magnetic stripe, raised numbers, etc. Giving them something that fits none of these criteria will instantly set off some alarm bells.
The thing is, a lot of the people who don't originally see the use to something can wind up using it later on because they have a need for it (DropBox, etc). This has a built-in usefulness limitation in that it is only of use to people with lots of cards that need to carry them all. Sure, I have 6 credit/debit cards, but I only ever carry 2 in my slim front-pocket wallet. I only know 2 people that Coin would apply to for their use-case scenario and neither of them would carry this device instead of their cards.
> I'll admit that I don't shop in many brick and mortar stores, but when I have, the cashiers have never so much as glanced at my cards. Most of the time, the scanner is out of their view anyway. I can see it possibly being a problem if they have to scan it for you (like at a restaurant or something), but I'd be willing to bet that most people just aren't going to care enough to make a fuss about it.
I'd wager that at least 25% of the merchants here in NY would refuse to accept this. Easily at least that many. While many cashiers don't look at your cards when you use them, that's because it still fits the profile of a credit card: thin plastic, bank logo, Visa/MC/Amex logo, magnetic stripe, raised numbers, etc. Giving them something that fits none of these criteria will instantly set off some alarm bells.