Remember when wonder card Coin was introduced last year? That digital “uber card” that was described as the only card anyone would ever need to transact? Despite early adopter interest and massive hype, it still has yet to ship and many ask, why even bother, now.
That apparently hasn’t stopped Plastc. This, the second act in the “card tech” game, Plastc allows consumers to load and then swipe not 8 (Coin’s limit) different cards, but 20, including credit and debit cards and barcodes for loyalty cards, store cards and gift cards.
Plastc is totally hip to NFC for contactless transactions, comes fully equipped with an EMV chip and also has RFID to so that it can be used to access buildings and presumably hotel rooms at some point.
Plastc can last 30 days on a single charge and can be charged overnight from an included charging mat. Similar to Coin, Plastc includes several security measures, like a PIN code to enter the E-ink screen and a requirement that consumers can only add cards with their name on them, to prevent card skimming.
In an effort to demonstrate that Plastc has not forgotten that we are living in a mobile world, in order to use the Plastc Card, consumers will need to own and use a smartphone which is used to store, manage and sync all cards to the Plastc Card.
Plastc will ship the summer of 2015 and is offering referral rewards to anyone who, well, refers a buyer.
When asked why a card innovation in the face of the mobile revolution, COO Ryan Marquis remarked that “Ultimately a cloud-based digital wallet will be the winner, but with our technology, we can allow consumers to build a digital wallet using a form factor that they’re used to today.” Marquis says he will utilize Apple Pay because of it’s simplicity and user friendly interface, but there will be many cases where people will need physical cards. “There are so many things that point-of-sale machines just aren’t ready for it yet.”
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