Introducing the Shift Card: Use Bitcoin where Visa is accepted • Hacker News Board

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

#141

Post by zekevermillion » Fri, Nov 20, 2015, 5:37 PM UTC

mithaler wrote: post #121

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…

By this logic, Coinbase basically can't win. If they do what they need to do to allow Bitcoin to become popular -- that is, make it as pleasant to use as a bank with credit and debit cards -- they essentially become a bank, thus earning the scorn of the Bitcoin community. But if they don't, Bitcoin remains a niche product that no one besides a few ideological supporters with axes to grind will ever use.

This is a false dichotomy. Bitcoin is a useful protocol for other things besides consumer payments. It is also possible that even if Coinbase's value proposition is 99% as an exchange, there may still be some value to its users in providing a convenient device for extracting $ from their btc balances. Someday I could see Coinbase as a sort of wrapper around multi-currency wallets. Users may have btc, ltc, $, and various other digital assets which they (stupidly or not) wish to leave in one repository.

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

#142

Post by jessedhillon » Fri, Nov 20, 2015, 5:37 PM UTC

williamle8300 wrote: post #135

adrianmacneil wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This might be a silly question, but did you use your Coinbase account to conduct any illegal transactions? The team there really cares about customer experience, so generally if they are ignoring you it's because your account has some connection to illegal/banned activity, which they can't disclose due to ridiculous financial laws.

yuup

Curious, why would you do that? Why wouldn't you transfer coins to a wallet you control and then conduct the transaction from there? Doing it from Coinbase throws away anonymity -- why not just buy your drugs with a Visa card then?

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

#143

Post by bpicolo » Fri, Nov 20, 2015, 5:38 PM UTC

kuschku wrote: post #102

nacs wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> but if someone intercepts your mail, then they know your address and could possibly know your phone number. How secure is the activation process Every "normal" credit and debit card I've received in the mail has used this same procedure -- call a number on a removable sticker stuck to the card to activate it where the only verification is the phone number you're calling from (and caller ID is easily faked). How is…

Holy shit, that’s horrible. Where I am, PIN and Card arrive in different letters, and the Card letter is only sent once you confirmed via your online banking interface (which uses 2FA) that you received the PIN letter. And you need to confirm online in your banking interface to have received the card to be able to use it.

For credit cards in the US you virtually never use a PIN. Debit cards only

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

#144

Post by ssharp » Fri, Nov 20, 2015, 5:39 PM UTC

27182818284 wrote: post #112

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…

So instead of a currency being centralized between governments and banks, it's centralized around a few dozen miners and developers.

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

#145

Post by caskance » Fri, Nov 20, 2015, 5:40 PM UTC

Gorbzel wrote: post #65

wdewind wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't deal with international finance but I do deal with payments within the US and I have to say I really disagree with you on KYC. Our KYC process absolutely prevents fraud from happening, and because we are liable for any transactions we process I can't imagine operating without it.

Sure, but don't for one second pretend its ever for the convenience of the customer or any of that sort of nonsense. It's very clearly for your bottom line and for the government's ability to track financial movement.

Most customers find it convenient that the exchange they use doesn't abruptly get all its (and by extension, its clients') assets seized by government officials for not complying with financial regulations.

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

#146

Post by iamsohungry » Fri, Nov 20, 2015, 5:40 PM UTC

c0nducktr wrote: post #118

iamsohungry wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I'm not sure it makes sense to talk about outliers when there are so few major exchanges.

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

#147

Post by jsprogrammer » Fri, Nov 20, 2015, 5:40 PM UTC

adrianmacneil wrote: post #123

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.

This might be a silly question, but did you use your Coinbase account to conduct any illegal transactions? The team there really cares about customer experience, so generally if they are ignoring you it's because your account has some connection to illegal/banned activity, which they can't disclose due to ridiculous financial laws.

How would Coinbase know anything about your transactions? Shouldn't they just process the exchange of necessary payment information?

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

#148

Post by mirimir » Fri, Nov 20, 2015, 5:42 PM UTC

adrianmacneil wrote: post #127

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…

As someone who used to work at Coinbase, hopefully I can shed some light on this. First of all, Bitcoin should not be seen primarily as a currency, but as a protocol. Therefore, bitcoin does not need to increase in value for it to be successful, and in the long term the price is irrelevant. Bitcoin can be used as a medium of exchange without regard to the price, and many people at Coinbase believe in this future (rat…

> ... so that we can enable a future where financial privacy is optional (versus today, where it is basically inescapable).

This is a typo, right? Financial privacy today is basically impossible, not inescapable. Tracking is basically inescapable, unless one uses cash. And using cash is becoming virtually illegal.

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

#149

Post by privacy101 » Fri, Nov 20, 2015, 5:42 PM UTC

The only times I tried to use Coinbase to buy Bitcoins, they stopped processing orders apparently because the Bitcoin value was fluctuating too much, so I never got my Bitcoins... and I never used them since then.

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

#150

Post by caskance » Fri, Nov 20, 2015, 5:43 PM UTC

kuschku wrote: post #102

nacs wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> but if someone intercepts your mail, then they know your address and could possibly know your phone number. How secure is the activation process Every "normal" credit and debit card I've received in the mail has used this same procedure -- call a number on a removable sticker stuck to the card to activate it where the only verification is the phone number you're calling from (and caller ID is easily faked). How is…

Holy shit, that’s horrible. Where I am, PIN and Card arrive in different letters, and the Card letter is only sent once you confirmed via your online banking interface (which uses 2FA) that you received the PIN letter. And you need to confirm online in your banking interface to have received the card to be able to use it.

Which is itself horrendous on a different axis.