Coin, an electronic credit card that allows you to load all of your credit cards onto in

You don’t have to walk very far to bump into someone frustrated at the huge wallet or purse they need to carry around to accommodate the myriad of credit card, gift cards, loyalty cards and reward cards needed for everyday living in today’s world. New start-up Coin is aiming to change all that with a credit card lookalike machine that stores up to 8 cards at once.

Swapping all your credit cards for a coin doesn’t sound like such a bad idea when the coin is Kanischk Parashar’s new offering. The Coin looks like a credit card and acts like a credit card. It acts like 8 credit cards actually, storing the electronic data and allowing the user to toggle through the loaded cards to select which one he or she wants to use at the time. The Coin can be swiped just like a normal card. With The Coin, you can leave that fat wallet at home.

The Coin uses low powered Bluetooth technology to stay in touch with your phone. Cards are stored on The Coin through the Coin phone App and a standard smartphone credit card reader. To load in a card, open the Coin App, swipe the credit card and take photos of the front and back of the card (to ensure you are actually in possession of the card). To toggle between cards, place your thumb or finger firmly over the circle button. It’s designed so as not to activate if sat on, dropped or accidentally brushed over.

This may sound like the Coin needs to be connected to a smartphone to work but this is not the case. The Coin operates as a standalone item although if decoupled from your smartphone for a long period of time it may power down to protect the data. Users can customize this period of time from the Coin App. One of the niftiest features of the Coin is its ability to remind you when you may accidentally be leaving it somewhere. Get a certain number of metres away and your smartphone will activate with a notification that you’ve probably left it behind.

How secure is it? The Coin uses a 128-bit or 256-bit encryption to keep the credit card details safe. The Coin account is password protected as is the sensitive data in the Coin App. In this respect it works more effectively to protect your credit card data in the event of being lost or stolen. There’s no need to wait for a bank to shut down the credit card and then get a new one sent to your address days later. When the Coin is powered down it can’t be powered up again until it recognises the Bluetooth signal of the smartphone.

Like any credit card or electronic device it can be damaged by magnets and some serious waterboarding. But provided you take care of the device and use it less than 20 times a day, the Coin will last all the way to the end of its battery life, conveniently approximately 2 years, before it needs to be replaced.