[1711] in cryptography@c2.net mail archive
Re: stored value cards in NYC - Motorola PR fluff.
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (John R Levine)
Tue Oct 7 15:28:30 1997
Date: Tue, 7 Oct 1997 12:59:36 -0400 (EDT)
From: John R Levine <johnl@iecc.com>
To: Lyle Seaman <lws@transarc.com>
cc: cryptography@c2.net
In-Reply-To: <2.2.32.19971007130806.007573d8@mailhost.transarc.com>
> Anybody on the list know more about this project? ("...one of the largest
> and most exciting..." :-) The puff piece has some contact info, but I don't
> expect to get anything useful from them.
This could be interesting. NYC already has stored value cards called
Metrocards which you can use for subway and bus fares. The MTA has tried
with little success to get newsstands and other vendors of low-price high
volume stuff to take them. Physically they're just thin plastic cards with
the usual magnetic stripe, nothing fancy. They permit variable sized
decrements and are rechargable, so their design must be reasonably
sophisticated.
I read somewhere in an account of an NYC hackerfest that the Metrocards
have been subjected to intense hacking but they apparently remain secure.
Citibank wants to run their own debit cards, having decided for some reason
that the Visa debit cards (which work like Visa credit cards) aren't for
them.
Regards,
John Levine, johnl@iecc.com, Primary Perpetrator of "The Internet for Dummies",
Information Superhighwayman wanna-be, http://iecc.com/johnl, Sewer Commissioner
Finger for PGP key, f'print = 3A 5B D0 3F D9 A0 6A A4 2D AC 1E 9E A6 36 A3 47
