Insert cryptocurrency endorsement here -- or at least something else, because the current tech has hit a wall.
[0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chip_and_PIN [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3-D_Secure
EMV is a more secure than a trivially copyable magnetic stripe.
And 3-D Secure is a JOKE.
When you hack a PIN keyboard, all the transactions will still go through the merchant's account, and it's easy to catch the thief.
Yes, there are pin readers, either a fake keyboard or a camera.
edit: for the record, I believe EMV should be upgraded to put a display and PIN pad on the card itself
Using virtual cards provides you a fine level of control over various features of the credit card and also protects your real credit card number. One can set up time limits (expiry date), set a monetary limit or make it a one time use card.
Virtual credit cards are also useful for dealing with service providers who make it hard to cancel their subscriptions (e.g. you have to call in and talk to a person to unsubscribe). With virtual credit cards, one can sign up freely and not have to worry about being continuously surreptitiously charged each month. Once the card expires or the transaction limit is exceeded, the service provider will be forced to close/suspend the account on their own.
We can have "better credit cards". Most countries do.
Bitcoin at present has a massive theft rate. Clearly it alone doesn't solve that problem at all.
Still, I'm not saying that Bitcoin sucks and I disclaimed that I don't care one way or the other about Bitcoin up-front specifically to preclude predictable knee-jerk defensive replies like this. My claim is that "Bitcoin will solve this problem!" in response to every article about money is bullshit because we have Bitcoin and it still has problems, like a massive theft problem.
It's a problem of bad implementations, whether cloned credit cards or stolen wallet files. And Bitcoin doesn't keep me from writing bad implementations. In fact it may make it worse: financial companies that move dollars have a high startup cost because of the regulatory work. Because it can no longer be two guys in a garage, it becomes more likely that the chain of people that they have to hire and speak to has at least one competent member. Clearly not guaranteed though, you'd think that the DMV would have the resources to become competent if they wanted to.
Uh, yeah. I'm not a knee-jerk defender of Bitcoin, and my statement is not a defense of Bitcoin so much as a balanced evaluation of the weaknesses of all sorts of payment systems.
Bitcoin is actually worse in terms of security for the end user than the centralised systems we have now - with banks keeping ledgers of who paid what, who owns what, in charge of security and paying insurance etc. if money is stolen from banks, it is their responsibility to make it good, if they can't, the state steps in. Contrast that with the many bitcoin exchanges going bust. Ordinary people are not good at security (physical or digital), so keeping hoards of intrinsically valuable stuff at home without paying insurance is a terrible idea, and I'd argue that keeping hoards of intrinsically valuable stuff anywhere is a bad idea, and digital currencies have moved on from there.
Bitcoin is still trying to be a digital analogue to paper cash, so even if the protocol is not broken, the premise is.
Just the fact that it's digital puts Bitcoin into another realm entirely. I can make a bitcoin hoard so secure that only rubber hose interrogation will allow another access to it. It's also true that it would require concerted effort, or that I could do this improperly, or that I may already be subject to surveillance.
It used to be that ordinary people were hopelessly clueless about automobiles, up to the point that people hung bulbs of garlic under the hoods of their Ford Model T's to "fix" them. Now, while not everyone is an expert mechanic, there's all sorts of automotive knowledge floating around the culture.
Unfortunately, the sad truth is that we don't yet have the proper security infrastructure for even very knowledgeable people to be safe without constant, concerted effort. Expecting general security knowledge in today's world is like expecting widespread literacy in the days before the printing press.
Not likely to happen soon:
"The system is not sustainable but it may take decades until it collapses. Having multi billion budget credit card companies can shape legislation to stifle innovation that could reduce amount of fraud. Banks have no incentive to fix the system. The more fraud exists, the more obscure and complex services they can offer and the more effectively can justify their existence and demand higher fees."
http://www.securitykiss.com/resources/roboblog/credit_cards/...
Second people need to have their wallets on their phones and know how to use it. That's more of a consumer education problem than a tech problem, though.
People say "with growth.. etc.. will be stable." But USD/EUR isn't all that stable and that has massive volume and resources in motion to keep it stable (http://www.fxstreet.com/rates-charts/usdollar-index/) (See 88 -> 74 in 10 months).
Online payment is the only reason I have a (pre-paid) credit card, but it really doesn't need a credit card. I don't want/need "credit" and since it's online a "card" is useless. We already have e-banking for many things, why can't I use this for payment?
This is quite common in Sweden at least. It's called "direct payment" and works with the 3 biggest banks. The rules around disputes and chargebacks are muddier though. Debit/credit cards also have 3DSecure for password authentication.
edit: also, debit cards work 100% for online payment, there's no reason to apply for credit