>>The Coin was secured through your phone's passcode/biometrics/pattern, so yeah if they broke that you'd be boned. The same as with GWallet/iPay. A sophisticated mugger could do it I guess.
Mugger A: "Give me the wallet!"
(Hands over wallet)
Mugger A: "Now unlock your phone and give it to me!"
(Unlocks phone and hands it over)
Mugger B: "Better chop off his thumb too ... might need it to unlock some apps!"
(Gulps)
While I usually try to stay serious while reading HN, That statement really made me lol. I'm rooting more for Samsung's magnetic secure transmission (MST) to be more mainstream then these card replacements.
Also, my iPhone 5s seems to read my toeprint better than my fingerprint.
They're fine for casual authentication, but really poor for actual security.
More serious, organise, full time muggers might, but I would suspect those are more rare (and you're probably in a whole lot of danger with them anyway. missing digits probably isn't your biggest concern)
http://www.3ders.org/articles/20140308-world-first-3d-printe...
These were not casual muggers, since they resorted to kidnapping, also keep in mind that this was done to steal a very valuable car.
With phones also now also becoming wallets, it's not outlandish to think a thief would cut off a finger.
microwave ?http://www.androidauthority.com/how-fingerprint-scanners-wor...
TL;DR: Cheap phones use optical sensors (can be fooled by an inkjet). Older high end phones and some new ones use capacitive scanners which require the actual finger plus an equivalent capacitance which can be faked by holding the finger with your bare hands (making sure to get close to the actual finger tip). Might take a few tries but it'll work. The latest tech uses ultrasonic sensors which measure the ridges of the fingerprint incredibly accurately. Enough so that blood loss may result in failure but I doubt that any phone's sensor is going to require that level of accuracy (do you press your finger with that precise amount of pressure every time?).
Example of someone unlocking an iPhone with the latest and greatest sensor tech (on phones anyway): https://youtu.be/2u4ZLGsw1zo
They had less than a severed finger: A simple silicone copy. Something you can actually manufacturer with a high resolution picture of a fingerprint (as demonstrated by the CCC).