Hasta La Gadget!

This ship is a pirate’s conundrum. You can board her and get the booty, but you can’t take the loot without taking apart the ship. It just reminds me of what I could have accomplished had I not wasted so may quarters in the arcade.

This model sailing frigate made entirely out of coins.  It is the work of Sergei Nikolayev Knurov, a chef in Ukraine. The 30-pound hull is made of 17,000 coins held together with glue. The sails are even made of paper currency.

Knurov used mostly 2- and 10-kopek coins and 25 5-hryvnia banknotes. He and his wife, Alena, worked on the project together. It took them two to three hours a day for six months, and it cost about 800 hryvnia (~$77 USD) to build. They hope to sell it for about 4,000 hryvnia ($386 USD). That will be a nice profit.

[Pravda via Neatorama]

Coin, a YC-backed company looking to thin down your wallet, is currently in the process of raising around $15 million in Series A funding, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter.

Led by Kanishk Parashar and K9 investor/board member Manu Kumar, Coin offers a replacement for every credit card in your wallet. It swipes just like a credit card normally would, but with a button to switch between your AMEX, your personal Visa and your corporate credit card. But it does more than just slim your wallet.

The company put the Bluetooth-powered wallet up for pre-order in November using their own crowdfunding campaign, and blew past the $50,000 goal in less than 40 minutes. Coin promised to get first shipments out by this summer.

According to sources, the company needed to raise a Series A to cover production costs in the midst of unexpected and overwhelming demand. (I pre-ordered, too.)

Though the raise is imminent, it is unclear which investors are playing in the round. Rumors suggest that Redpoint may be involved. We have also heard that Coin has hired several new engineers, which could signal that they are expecting a cash infusion soon, or even that the round has already closed.

Prior to this, Coin had raised $1.5 million in seed funding from K9 Ventures, SoftTech VC, and Y Combinator, according to Crunchbase.

Coin creator and engineer Kanishk Parashar originally started a payments company called SmartMarket before moving on to develop a credit card replacement.

Pairing with your smartphone, Coin ensures that you never leave your credit card behind through alerts, and has sophisticated security features that recognize fraudulent activity the moment that someone tries to steal CC information. (Oftentimes, credit card owners aren’t aware that their credit card info has been stolen until the thief tries to use the card, not when they first steal the information.)

The price for such a device? $50, plus $5 shipping, as long as you participate in the pre-order phase. Once the device goes on sale officially, it will cost $100.

The company faced as much criticism as it did hype when pre-orders first opened, but has done a good job of answering questions.

This is hardly the first time a company has tried the all-in-one card strategy, nor is it the first time consumers have embraced it. In 2012, the press were similarly excited about a device called the Protean Echo, which is still listed as shipping soon. Flint is another startup dabbling in the consumer payments space.

Clearly, an evolution in the way we pay for things is on the horizon. The question, rather, is whether or not Coin will join Square and Stripe and Bitcoin and others as a major player in the revolution.

If you’re interested in learning more about Coin, check out TC writer Ryan Lawler’s interview with CEO and co-founder Kineshk Parashar below:

Judging by the millions of YouTube views since it launched just last week, there’s quite a bit of interest in Coin. The Bluetooth-enabled swipeable lets you add in identifying info from up to eight individual credit, debit, membership, loyalty and gift cards, and comes along with companion Android and iOS apps that boost functionality. While the applications enable you to save detailed card info for online purchases, push additional payment methods to Coin and access the Bluetooth-powered leash that will send an alert if you walk away without your card, the device works independently as well.

The company is announcing some additional security features today that should serve to ease at least some fraud concerns. Coin will include an “alarm” that tracks the number of times the card is swiped and sends an app alert if it suspects unauthorized use. It can also be locked to just one card before you hand it over at a store or restaurant, so a clerk can’t accidentally (or deliberately) swap cards before swiping. Reps also responded to 50 questions on a new Q&A page, addressing additional security-related and function queries, including ATM compatibility (yes, it will work), photo ID storage (uh, no) and chip and pin support (not yet, but it’s in the works). The firm is also releasing additional cards for pre-order, so if you want to get in before the price jumps to $100, there’s still time to hand over 50 bucks (plus $5 shipping) at the source link below.

Filed under: Household, Wireless, Mobile

Comments

Source: Coin

A lot of us carry a variety of different cards in our wallets. These cards range from reward cards, to multiple credit cards, ATM cards, to our train/bus passes, library cards, and whatnot. Sometimes this adds unnecessary bulk to purses or wallets but that’s what Coin is hoping to change. The rather ironically named device is hoping to take the bulk away from carrying multiple cards by introducing a single card that will be able to act as all of your cards when needed. (more…)

Coin Hopes To Replace All Your Cards With A Single Solution original content from Ubergizmo.

We are, I believe, in an interstitial zone when it comes to payments. Credit cards are still king – just ask Square – and NFC is just a dream in most countries. That’s why Coin is so interesting. It’s a credit-card-sized device that holds other credit cards, allowing you to swap from card to card and even store gift cards inside its ultra-thin innards.

The company planned a pre-order campaign that would top out at $50,000. They blew past that goal in 40 minutes today, a testament to the desire for folks to leave their plastic at home.

The card itself is as thin as a regular credit card. To use the card you select a payment type with the button and just swipe. The Coin card “mimics” your read credit or gift card. The technology is tightly packed inside the card’s plastic case. It uses low-power Bluetooth to connect to your iOS device that is coupled with a standard credit-card reader. You swipe your cards into the system and you’re done. The device holds up to eight cards.

Engineer Kanishk Parashar is leading the Y-Combinator-backed company alongside investor and board member Manu Kumar. Parashar cut his teeth in payments with a startup called SmartMarket, but this product seems to be his winner.

The company isn’t new – a company called Flint is already in this space and I suspect a bigger player will probably beat Coin to the mass market. However, it’s a cool idea in a cool package and, clearly, the idea has caught fire.

You can take a look at the product here; it ships this summer.