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Coinbase raises $100M Series D led by IVP

blog.coinbase.com

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Re: Coinbase raises $100M Series D led by IVP

#101

Post by slg »

aresant wrote: post #90
stanmancan wrote: post #35

I'm pretty naive on the subject of Bitcoin so I might be missing something here, but can someone explain to me how it's used right now? Aside from treating BTC like a stock that is. The value of it fluctuates so much that actually buying/accepting it seems incredibly risky. The price can go down just as fast as it goes up. As a someone looking make purchases with BTC; if the value of a BTC is going up, why would I us…

Fascinating how many questions / comments in this thread question if crypto currency macro even has a use case in this world. And for good reason. Is it a currency? Yes and no. Is it a store of value? Yes and no but sure is volatile. Is primary use case illegal transactions? Definitely, sometimes. Is it a anarchist mechanism to shelter wealth and detach from any nation state? Yes absolutely, probably most of the Chin…

You say that like most of these things are good? I wouldn't consider boundless tax evasion or a boundless pyramid scheme "the fun part".

Re: Coinbase raises $100M Series D led by IVP

#102

Post by utexaspunk »

aresant wrote: post #90
stanmancan wrote: post #35

I'm pretty naive on the subject of Bitcoin so I might be missing something here, but can someone explain to me how it's used right now? Aside from treating BTC like a stock that is. The value of it fluctuates so much that actually buying/accepting it seems incredibly risky. The price can go down just as fast as it goes up. As a someone looking make purchases with BTC; if the value of a BTC is going up, why would I us…

Fascinating how many questions / comments in this thread question if crypto currency macro even has a use case in this world. And for good reason. Is it a currency? Yes and no. Is it a store of value? Yes and no but sure is volatile. Is primary use case illegal transactions? Definitely, sometimes. Is it a anarchist mechanism to shelter wealth and detach from any nation state? Yes absolutely, probably most of the Chin…

>And finally, because it's entertaining to think about, Crypto could drive the biggest pyramid scheme the world has ever seen. There is absolutely no SOFTWARE of structural limitation to running a $1 trillion dollar end game pyramid on Crypto. In fact you figure out the privacy side, add in mass adoption and you could just leverage the current ICO structure for it.

Couldn't Crypto itself be the big pyramid scheme? It might never get adopted enough to become the defacto currency (can you imagine the gov't accepting BTC for tax payments?). In the meantime the SEC, or Congress, or maybe some big, multilateral "anti-money laundering" international agreement might do something that threatens it enough to start a run on the "bank", driving the exchange rate to nothing. Those who bought a ton a long time ago and who since cashed out would then be the winners. No?

Re: Coinbase raises $100M Series D led by IVP

#103

Post by burger_moon »

IgorPartola wrote: post #31
phaed wrote: post #9

That money would have had better upside if invested in bitcoin directly.

I believe during a gold rush the people who consistently come out ahead are those selling shovels.

the analogy doesn't really hold to coinbase though. Shovels are a utility for mining gold. That would correlate to GPUs and other computer hardware. In that regard perhaps the VCs should be investing in AMD or Nvidia.

Re: Coinbase raises $100M Series D led by IVP

#104

Post by ryanSrich »

trjordan wrote: post #91
joering2 wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At this point me and many of friends with Coinbase account came to conclusion that there is NONE. I don't believe a single person works in customer support. I also heard that it is such a big issue that some California attorney is advertising heavily in top 5 states to gather traction for a class-action lawsuit regarding this problem. Unfortunately I haven't stumbled upon his advertisement yet, but wouldn't be surpri…

According to LinkedIn, they have 7 people who work in support. At a company of ~200 people, that's not an unreasonable number to have. It feels mean to say they have none.

You know what I find mean? Getting locked out of my GDAX account for no apparent reason for months on end while ETH rises and I have no way of doing anything because I can't access my USD or ETH. Not one single word from support until one day I get a random message that directs me to an article that I've already read 10 times and is of no help.

Re: Coinbase raises $100M Series D led by IVP

#105

Post by fpgaminer »

45h34jh53k4j wrote: post #50

Coinbase is positioning themselves to be the first legit cryptobank. Fidelity now feeds their customer portfolio data (on BTC, LTC and ETH holdings) from their user cold storage holdings at coinbase. Its extremely risky to hold client keys that hold money. Making a CryptoBank is like making a regular bank on hard mode.

> Making a CryptoBank is like making a regular bank on hard mode.

Back in "the old days" bank security was based around metal vaults and guns. That I would also consider doing banking on hard mode.

Coinbase just needs good specialist engineers and a good insurance policy. Not much different from a traditional bank.

At least Coinbase has an advantage over traditional banks. Good engineers would probably rather work at Coinbase where they get to play with cool Bitcoin tech, rather than a stuffy old banking system which still limits passwords to 8 characters...

Re: Coinbase raises $100M Series D led by IVP

#106

Post by shatterpop »

ryanSrich wrote: post #67

Hopefully they spend all $100mm on support. I've never experienced such bad support.

Yes! I've been trying to get an answer about if message signing will ever be fixed for months. They just closed my email ticket saying they're sorry they didn't have time to respond to it.

Re: Coinbase raises $100M Series D led by IVP

#107

Post by droopybuns »

skizm wrote: post #55
stanmancan wrote: post #35

I'm pretty naive on the subject of Bitcoin so I might be missing something here, but can someone explain to me how it's used right now? Aside from treating BTC like a stock that is. The value of it fluctuates so much that actually buying/accepting it seems incredibly risky. The price can go down just as fast as it goes up. As a someone looking make purchases with BTC; if the value of a BTC is going up, why would I us…

Bitcoin purists will say that, eventually, there is no "cash out" phase. 1 BTC = 1 BTC and who cares about what the dollar equivalent happens to be. Once everything is in BTC you will never exchange it for dollars. Do you spend dollars today wondering if tomorrow the Euro will be worth more or less? No, so why would you care what the dollar equivalent to a BTC is when everything you buy is priced in BTC? This is long…

Is it a big deal that a BTC can never be lost and later found?

On a long enough timeline, won't lost credentials result in BTC that are functionally permanently out of circulation?

Re: Coinbase raises $100M Series D led by IVP

#108

Post by ringaroundthetx »

stanmancan wrote: post #35

I'm pretty naive on the subject of Bitcoin so I might be missing something here, but can someone explain to me how it's used right now? Aside from treating BTC like a stock that is. The value of it fluctuates so much that actually buying/accepting it seems incredibly risky. The price can go down just as fast as it goes up. As a someone looking make purchases with BTC; if the value of a BTC is going up, why would I us…

For an entire half-decade there have been payment processors that made it seamless for businesses to accept bitcoin and cash some or all of it out immediately if they wanted to.

If it takes a $100 million fund raise article for you to ask why everyone else isn't crazy, c'est la vie. People look for validation all manner of ways.

Coinbase also has merchant services that allow for immediate cash outs. This is probably one of cryptocurrency's smallest markets.

Re: Coinbase raises $100M Series D led by IVP

#109

Post by lloyd-christmas »

puranjay wrote: post #99
UndeadAuraS wrote: post #77

Bitcoin purists will say that, eventually, there is no "cash out" phase. 1 BTC = 1 BTC and who cares about what the dollar equivalent happens to be. Once everything is in BTC you will never exchange it for dollars.

This is just about the most absurd belief any smart person can actually hold.

Why? Currencies existed prior to governments. What prevents that from happening in the future? Beyond that, the USD is just one of many mediums of exchange. What prevents the USD from becoming the next Deutsche Mark, French franc, or Spanish peseta? While I don't believe BTC is The One, calling it "the most absurd" shows a blatant ignorance of history, and hardly supports a notion of superior intelligence.

Re: Coinbase raises $100M Series D led by IVP

#110

Post by ringaroundthetx »

So that's why they refunded everyone after they got taken advantage of in the flash crash.

Maintaining confidence had greater consequences than not.

All about those user numbers, or attracting other people attempting to exploit the same glitch. Pretty efficient market in that regard.

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