[jmathai]

Not sure I see your argument. Credit cards can obviously be improved upon and it doesn't seem that credit card companies are doing much in regards to its form factor and ease of use.

We've got a couple choices. 1) Wait for companies that have enough R&D budgets to develop something that doesn't directly cost consumers or 2) fund another company to do so.

For #2 it doesn't differ much if that comes from a VC firm or crowdfunding campaign besides the VC firms adding a layer of abstraction.

I agree that we don't see this kind of money flowing around in other industries but you also don't see much change on most industries.

I'm not advocating the VC model or saying that SV spends money on what I believe are the most important problems. But I'm also not seeing how it's dumb money.