Coin, the company behind the innovative electronic card that aimed to consolidate your wallet into a single card, has today announced the 2.0 version of its offering. The first iteration of Coin began shipping in April 2015 and anyone who owns the first generation of the product is eligible for a free upgrade to Coin 2.0. Coin 2.0 includes a variety of enhancements, most important of which comes with the addition of NFC.
Coin 2.0 ships with NFC technology in “Early Access Mode,” which means the feature will work at a variety of retailers, but not all locations until partnerships to enable EMV compatibility are finalized. When those partnerships are established, over-the-air updates will be available. Contactless EMV is the same technology that is already used by Apple Pay and Android Pay, which makes it very easy for Coin 2.0 to be accepted at a variety of retailers.
Other features of Coin 2.0 include the ability to give payment cards a 4-character nickname, an improved electronic stripe, a display that is two times as fast as its predecessor, and a design that is 8 percent thinner on average. Coin also touts that the software update that brings EMV capabilities could include other new features, as well.
Coin heavily touts that security is the primary focus for the company, which means every Coin 1.0 wonder will be able to update to Coin 2.0 for free. Users can do so by heading into the settings menu of the companion Coin app on their mobile device and following the steps there.
Coin 2.0 units will begin shipping today. You can signup to purchase the card here. View the video below for details on how Coin 2.0 works:
[youtube https://youtu.be/fOaxS56DzC0]
