Cbartenstein

We're very excited about NFC and mobile payment. We feel, however, that mobile payment is not yet ready for prime time. A small fraction of current smart phones are NFC enabled, and an even smaller fraction of merchants and retailers have upgraded to terminals capable of accepting NFC payment. Echo is compatible with existing swipe terminals and therefor enables Americans to begin taking advantage mobile payment/wallet technologies today!

Zenst, our product is extremely secure. All card holder information is actually stored in secure memory on the card (Echo) itself, not on the phone or app. By default, Echo locks when out of range of your phone's Bluetooth (and can be unlocked by entering a pin code on echo, enabling you to use Echo without your phone). So, even if you lose Echo or phone, your card info will not be vulnerable to theft.

We are confident most merchants will accept Echo at the POS. Echo will be laser engraved with the cardholder’s name, will display a CVV code in E-Ink, and will be signed just like any other card. Today, merchants are increasingly used to seeing unusual looking cards, such as the Chase Sapphire (https://creditcards.chase.com/credit-cards/chase-sapphire.as...) and Amex's titanium Centurion card.

Echo may be used with or without a phone. When you are without your phone, you can use any one of the three cards already loaded on Echo. When you have your phone (iPhone or Android) with you, you can set Echo to mimic any mag-stripe card in your wallet with a couple taps of your phone.

Hi guys,

As Co-founder and COO at Protean, I wanted to thank each of you for sharing your thoughts on Echo. I tried to clarify some things in my responses to several of your comments. Feel free to contact me any time at cbartenstein@getprotean.com with additional questions, comments or concerns regarding Echo.

Thanks again for your interest in Echo!