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Re:Card.io - fast and easy mobile credit card scanning by richcollins on Friday June 24, 2011 @01:23AM (#2691117)
How are credit cards more flexible than a computer in your hand? Worst case your phone acts exactly like your credit card where you read numbers off of it.

Also, how would a phone lead to more fraud? You could authorize each transaction by cryptographically signing it after entering a passphrase. With a credit card anyone that steals your numbers can charge to it.

Re:Card.io - fast and easy mobile credit card scanning by bonzoesc on Friday June 24, 2011 @01:35PM (#2693060)
Magnetic credit card readers are cheap; look at how much Square charges.

The fraud prevention mechanism for magnetic cards is mostly reactive and doesn't require "passphrases" or "cryptographically signing," which is a big usability win.

Since issuers are on the hook for unauthorized charges, and generally make money from transaction fees, it's in their best interest to find a good compromise between fraud protection and usability. Adding consumer software and a wide variety of commoditized portable computing devices into the mix doesn't seem worth the cost.