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Introducing the Shift Card: Use Bitcoin where Visa is accepted

blog.coinbase.com

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

#241

Post by [deleted] »

ewillbefull wrote: post #151
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.

They only appear to care about the customer experience when someone complains on social media, until then they have a history of being jerks to their users. They closed my account after I made a (relatively small) wire transfer after not using their service for a while. The year before I made much larger transfers that didn't seem to concern them. Suddenly I needed to provide them with lots of financial information.…

[deleted]

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

#243

Post by gknoy »

mbesto wrote: post #240
ewillbefull wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They only appear to care about the customer experience when someone complains on social media, until then they have a history of being jerks to their users. They closed my account after I made a (relatively small) wire transfer after not using their service for a while. The year before I made much larger transfers that didn't seem to concern them. Suddenly I needed to provide them with lots of financial information.…

But....did you use your Coinbase account to conduct any illegal transactions? You didn't answer a very straight forward question.

> I have provided them with more than enough information to prove all of my income is legitimate

That seems like a roundabout way of saying, "No, I did not conduct any illegal transactions".

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

#244

Post by Symbiote »

Pfhreak wrote: post #138
AYBABTME wrote: post #60

I'm curious what the exchange rate looks like when purchasing stuff that's not in USD. If the conversion is the same as that of Bitcoin USD, then it would make this card super useful for people who travel a lot. What I mean is, it'd be cool if the card would do: - Bitcoin CAD - Bitcoin EUR - Bitcoin BHT - Bitcoin HKD - Bitcoin AUD So that we wouldn't need to do: - Bitcoin USD CAD - Bitcoin USD EUR - Bitcoin USD BHT -…

I'm curious if this could also be used to help with remittances. I have several friends who emigrated from countries around the world, and they struggle to find an easy way to remit to their parents. Bitcoin seems so close, but it's difficult for their folks to get it converted to local currency. The fees and hurdles they currently deal with are outrageous, and while it looks like the shift card is US only, it seems…

Since emigrating this summer, I've transferred about £25k ($40k) using TransferWise and been very pleased with the way the service works. I paid far less in fees than any other service I could find a quote for. I was concerned that being in a small European country with its own currency would mean payments took longer, but this wasn't the case.

They're based in the UK, and properly regulated by both the UK and US.

You get a free transfer using a referral link: https://transferwise.com/u/61f8ad

Or use the non-referral link if you prefer: https://transferwise.com/

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

#245

Post by wdewind »

steven2012 wrote: post #229
wdewind wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you're misreading my use of the word absolutely. I was responding to the idea that KYC compliance is a joke. It is absolutely useful, that does not mean it prevents 100% of fraud absolutely. > With millions of SSN and personal information being available after numerous breaches from health care, etc how exactly are you supposed to vett someone's identity over the Internet? I can't really get into our entire K…

KYC is a joke. If you have information external to KYC for fraud prevention, that's something altogether different from KYC. The KYC requirements themselves are a joke and provide nothing in terms of verifying identity.

I think I probably agree with your general point that the mandated KYC practices are not enough to protect you and your stakeholders in and of themselves. That being said, I think you'd be surprised how much fraud fails to get through basic KYC checks. (I did not downvote you fwiw).

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

#246

Post by doppelganger27 »

hollerith wrote: post #189
simantel wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's changing as of this month. Most banks have already issued new chip cards, which require a PIN. If a merchant is still using the old swipe and sign system, now they'll be liable for any fraudulent transactions if the customer has a chip card.

All of the new chip cards in the US I've read about are signature only. It was decided that the US consumer would dislike the added complication of needing to use PIN. I'd like a chip card that requires a PIN (and that is accepted widely in the US) because such a card would make unauthorized charges less likely after the card is lost or stolen, but was not able to find one.

I have a US chip card where I've set a PIN for transaction purposes, so it's not signature only, but it'll still accept both. That said, all of the chip card readers that I've used (few and far between still...) seem to have been configured for signature only, so I haven't been prompted for my PIN yet.

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

#247

Post by agorabinary »

IkmoIkmo wrote: post #198
drcode wrote: post #39

Just a reminder to Bitcoin newbies: This card looks like an OK product (still open questions about how much coinbase is gaming the ask/bid spread) but just realize that this card does NOT use Bitcoin, it uses "Coinbase Bitcoin"[1] which is Bitcoin for which the coinbase company is managing your private key: You only truly own Bitcoins if you own the private key for the account (users of MtGox learn this the hard way…

Well no you're not really using bitcoin, not even Coinbase bitcoin. At the end of the day the creditcard simply uses a normal credit card transaction, which is denominated in dollars and paid for by Coinbase, in dollars, to the merchant. All Coinbase does is 1) make sure you enough bitcoin to cover the transaction 2) sell your bitcoin to recoup the dollars they're paying on your behalf to the merchant None of this ha…

In all possible worlds, bitcoin has to begin with use as a currency-of-currency before it can operate stand alone. Which isn't something you necessarily disagree with, based on your comment. But I think it is interesting because it is a natural and necessary step before the "bitcoin and bitcoin only" applications start to really develop. Bitcoin needs legacy support first before a transition to those really lofty bitcoin ambitions.

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

#248

Post by Symbiote »

AYBABTME wrote: post #109
aggronn wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This might be the case for people who travel a lot and only hold money in bitcoin and not their native currency, but even then its worse then using USD. There are much better debit cards for travelers which don't charge foreign transaction fees or ATM fees (Schwab Investor Checking for example).

The thing that sucks more is the unexpected and shitty conversion rate you get. I'm not too sure yet what's the best way to go about this, open bank accounts in all those countries and do your currency exchange yourself?

Find a card using the MasterCard or VISA base rate, with no additional fee.

As an example, I was charged CHF20.00 on 5 October, which the card statement says was converted at a rate of 1.4728 to a £13.58 charge on my account¹. XE.com has that day's average rate as 1.4785.

There aren't going to be any other benefits to the card, but that's OK — I have another card for spending in pounds.

The alternative is a pre-paid credit card.

¹ Halifax Clarity.

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

#249

Post by caskance »

kuschku wrote: post #217
caskance wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Different axis aka not security. The security is much better. But it's slow and inconvenient.

How is it inconvenient? It’s not like you get a new card every day. And it only delays the process by 2 days. At maximum.

Rare inconvenience may be more easily tolerated, but it is no less inconvenient.

The fact that you can even say "well it's only 2 days delay" seems insane to me.

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

#250

Post by tw04 »

gknoy wrote: post #243
mbesto wrote: post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But....did you use your Coinbase account to conduct any illegal transactions? You didn't answer a very straight forward question.

> I have provided them with more than enough information to prove all of my income is legitimate That seems like a roundabout way of saying, "No, I did not conduct any illegal transactions".

You can buy drugs with legitimate income. The fact he didn't directly say no the first or second time says the answer is probably yes.
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