Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Introducing the Shift Card: Use Bitcoin where Visa is accepted

blog.coinbase.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

111–120 of 359 posts

Re: Introducing the Shift Card: Use Bitcoin where Visa is accepted

#111

Post by baby »

Seems like nobody understands how this can work, or why would they do that.

Easy. You swipe your card, Coinbase pays with $, then Coinbase tries to sell enough of the bitcoins you have there to make it even (there might be a fee).

So you need to have a bitcoin balance in Coinbase when you want to use this card.

Now why would you do this? If you're asking yourself this question, there are high chances you are not the target of this product.

There are a lot of people who made a lot of money in bitcoins, and who hold a LOT of bitcoins. This is going to be an easy way for them to spend it on a normal day-to-day basis.

Re: Introducing the Shift Card: Use Bitcoin where Visa is accepted

#112

Post by 27182818284 »

Mimu wrote: post #58

Pardon my lack of knowledge but wasn't the whole point of bitcoins being anonymous? How are you anonymous with a card connected to an account? I'm not trolling I really don't see what I'm missing.

>Pardon my lack of knowledge but wasn't the whole point of bitcoins being anonymous?

It is about decentralization and trying to establish trust outside of the normal banks.

An interesting possible example is in the Genesis block. Satoshi added the newspaper headline:

    The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks
This serves the purpose of a sorta time stamp by using a newspaper headline, but a lot of people like myself think there was also a reason of choosing that headline in particular--we think that it was part of the motivation for the creation of bitcoin--something that would be decentralized and away from banks.

Re: Introducing the Shift Card: Use Bitcoin where Visa is accepted

#113

Post by simplemath »

__tmg wrote: post #76
Mimu wrote: post #58

Pardon my lack of knowledge but wasn't the whole point of bitcoins being anonymous? How are you anonymous with a card connected to an account? I'm not trolling I really don't see what I'm missing.

Decentralisation was (and still is) the point of Bitcoin; any additional perks (e.g. anonymity) are emergent. Here's a quote from the original paper: >Abstract. A purely peer-to-peer version of electronic cash would allow online payments to be sent directly from one party to another without going through a financial institution.

The irony being of course is that Coinbase is literally a financial instution

but given confirmation time inherent to the network, I don't see a way around doing something similar to what coinbase have done here (minus the egregious part where they hold your private key)

Re: Introducing the Shift Card: Use Bitcoin where Visa is accepted

#114

Post by Uptrenda »

I've always found it ironic how companies like Coinbase are indirectly contributing to their own destruction with every passing transaction that's not purely based around Bitcoin. This is of course: assuming that Bitcoin gets as big as a lot of people think it will. If it does: their increased focus on centralization and traditional fintech services (which is completely incompatible with the philosophy behind Bitcoin) is like shorting the entire currency on a long position, and will eventually be unsustainable. But I guess if they're right: all they're doing is profiting from the hype. If we look at what Bitcoin actually is, companies like Coinbase couldn't be further apart from what they're actually selling (philosophy, economics, and technologically) so I consider them nothing more than a bunch of hypocrites.

I wonder what it's like working for a company that's so obviously full of shit? How would you reconcile the obvious contradictions in what you're doing every day? I guess it would be kind of like working at the ministry of truth and then getting paid directly in lies.

Re: Introducing the Shift Card: Use Bitcoin where Visa is accepted

#115

Post by mikkom »

baby wrote: post #111

Seems like nobody understands how this can work, or why would they do that. Easy. You swipe your card, Coinbase pays with $, then Coinbase tries to sell enough of the bitcoins you have there to make it even (there might be a fee). So you need to have a bitcoin balance in Coinbase when you want to use this card. Now why would you do this? If you're asking yourself this question, there are high chances you are not the…

> There are a lot of people who made a lot of money in bitcoins, and who hold a LOT of bitcoins. This is going to be an easy way for them to spend it on a normal day-to-day basis.

It's a wonderful way to laundry your drug money!

Re: Introducing the Shift Card: Use Bitcoin where Visa is accepted

#116

Post by [deleted] »

baby wrote: post #111

Seems like nobody understands how this can work, or why would they do that. Easy. You swipe your card, Coinbase pays with $, then Coinbase tries to sell enough of the bitcoins you have there to make it even (there might be a fee). So you need to have a bitcoin balance in Coinbase when you want to use this card. Now why would you do this? If you're asking yourself this question, there are high chances you are not the…

[deleted]

Re: Introducing the Shift Card: Use Bitcoin where Visa is accepted

#117

Post by draven »

ewillbefull wrote: post #19

You can now use Bitcoin anywhere VISA is accepted, so long as coinbase doesn't close your account, ignore you and close all the tickets you open. Even if you painstakingly collect and compile sensitive documents for them to review, which was a gigantic waste of my time, thanks! I have for months encouraged everyone I know not to use coinbase and will continue to do so.

What alternative do you point them to ? (just curious)

Re: Introducing the Shift Card: Use Bitcoin where Visa is accepted

#118

Post by c0nducktr »

iamsohungry wrote: post #103
csomar wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The exchange rate is almost identical through all exchanges. Have been studying the market for a while, the slippage between exchanges barely last more than 5 minutes.

Apparently you didn't study it last week when Coinbase was $20-$50 different from BTC-E for 5 days.

Are you sure BTC-E wasn't the outlier? That's what I've seen in the past.

Re: Introducing the Shift Card: Use Bitcoin where Visa is accepted

#119

Post by colordrops »

Uptrenda wrote: post #114

I've always found it ironic how companies like Coinbase are indirectly contributing to their own destruction with every passing transaction that's not purely based around Bitcoin. This is of course: assuming that Bitcoin gets as big as a lot of people think it will. If it does: their increased focus on centralization and traditional fintech services (which is completely incompatible with the philosophy behind Bitcoin…

Bitcoin is a protocol, not a philosophy. Can you explain how accepting Bitcoin through Visa transactions is a bad thing besides spreading FUD? Bitcoin is decentralized and Visa adoption doesn't change that.

I'm not a fan of Coinbase but your argument is unfounded.

Post reply on HN