system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: How are credit/debit cards with chips more secure than others when most card readers have a "Bypass PIN" option that allows the transaction to go through without any additional verification? It seems to me that this is less secure than an old chipless card that at least requires a PIN.

EDIT: After having it pointed out that the chip has nothing to do with the PIN, I guess my real question is: Why do some card readers offer a "Bypass PIN" option on debit transactions? Isn't this completely unsecure?
gpt
It's about replicating the card, not about paying with a legit card. The traditional magnetic strip on the card is just a dumb data storage. It has some data that can be read, and that's it. But that also means that the whole information that makes your card "yours" is sent around in every payment, making impersonation a lot easier.

A chip on the other hand can do some calculation. That enables a so-called "challenge-response" authentication: the reader generates a question for the chip, and the chip combines the quesiton with its internal data to make an answer, and only sends the answer. The actual chip data is never sent, and therefore it's much harder to make counterfeits.