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Coinbase: The Heart of the Bitcoin Frenzy

nytimes.com

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Re: Coinbase: The Heart of the Bitcoin Frenzy

#21

Post by JumpCrisscross »

gt_ wrote: post #6

I have recommended Coinbase to many people. But, a few days ago, I had a double charge on my bank account from them and have learned since that their customer support is essentially non-existent. It’s been 8 days with no response by e-mail, their posted phone number results in a busy signal, and the alternate numbers I found posted on forums go straight to hold music before hanging up after a couple of minutes. I fil…

If you live in America, consider complaining to your state financial services regulator. New York's Department of Financial Services [1], for example, is well-known for its teeth.

[1] http://www.dfs.ny.gov/consumer/fileacomplaint.htm

Re: Coinbase: The Heart of the Bitcoin Frenzy

#22

Post by JBlue42 »

ggm wrote: post #12

"too big to fail" doesn't yet apply to any entity directly engaged in this space, as its entire business model. J.P. Morgan got away with a central role in the GFC because it did not suit the regulatory environment to kick one of the legs of a wobbly table. The same does not apply to this, or any other coin- centric company. Yes, in our terms, these are huge dollar sums. But if you work in fintech, this is a small pi…

That's a pretty good summary of a casual conversation I had with someone that works in investing about Bitcoin and Ethereum. He said blockchain is here to stay and that knowing what companies are going to try and do with it is useful but these currencies, or at the very least, their value, could go away very quickly.

Re: Coinbase: The Heart of the Bitcoin Frenzy

#23

Post by nordsieck »

JepZ wrote: post #11

> No company had made it simpler to sign up, link a bank account or debit card, and begin buying Bitcoin. Actually, I think it is still too difficult. I mean it is not that difficult, but if you had to send every e-commerce shop a photo of your driver license just to buy something there would be a lot fewer people buying stuff online.

There is a certain amount of financial regulation that they (and most other exchanges) have to comply with.

Re: Coinbase: The Heart of the Bitcoin Frenzy

#24

Post by zkms »

I used to use coinbase but some godawful KYC/AML thing kicked in and asked me to send them a "selfie" of myself, which creeped me the hell out. I'm a US citizen, am not on any sort of list of prohibited people, and had already given them a photo of my driver's licence and my SSN -- and have had no issues with opening other bank/bitcoin-exchange accounts online previously.

I thus switched to Gemini because I do not want to support this invasive nonsense. It's literally an automated version of "put shoe on head" (the request that /b/tards would make of camgirls that they wanted to troll).

Between that, and the thing where you literally have to enter your BANK'S username/password to ANOTHER WEBSITE (coinbase, in this case) to prove you have that account (of course it chokes on 2FA); the USian banking system is such a scary bad mess -- and i'm pretty sure that that's a significant driver of bitcoin adoption (and there's also the ACH clusterfuck).

Re: Coinbase: The Heart of the Bitcoin Frenzy

#25

Post by pishpash »

drawkbox wrote: post #18

With the frenzy out there, Coinbase makes crypto currencies trading/investing/purchasing as robust and seemingly as safe as possible. This could be a signal, now that we have some reputable market players that crypto currencies are really just starting and there is a very high ceiling. Getting in before coinbase you had to mine your own (that party ended quickly - Butterfly Labs, cex.io for cloud mining etc) or be pa…

Pretty sure forex markets are 24/7

Re: Coinbase: The Heart of the Bitcoin Frenzy

#26

Post by malloryerik »

drawkbox wrote: post #18

With the frenzy out there, Coinbase makes crypto currencies trading/investing/purchasing as robust and seemingly as safe as possible. This could be a signal, now that we have some reputable market players that crypto currencies are really just starting and there is a very high ceiling. Getting in before coinbase you had to mine your own (that party ended quickly - Butterfly Labs, cex.io for cloud mining etc) or be pa…

Most foreign exchange and derivatives exchanges are on 23.5 hours a day, except weekends.

Re: Coinbase: The Heart of the Bitcoin Frenzy

#27

Post by pishpash »

AlphaWeaver wrote: post #10
gt_ wrote: post #6

I have recommended Coinbase to many people. But, a few days ago, I had a double charge on my bank account from them and have learned since that their customer support is essentially non-existent. It’s been 8 days with no response by e-mail, their posted phone number results in a busy signal, and the alternate numbers I found posted on forums go straight to hold music before hanging up after a couple of minutes. I fil…

Their customer service was great in the early days, but has most definitely gotten worse since its gotten so popular. I think they simply can't find enough people.

You can always find enough people, by paying them.

Re: Coinbase: The Heart of the Bitcoin Frenzy

#29

Post by wslh »

pishpash wrote: post #25
drawkbox wrote: post #18

With the frenzy out there, Coinbase makes crypto currencies trading/investing/purchasing as robust and seemingly as safe as possible. This could be a signal, now that we have some reputable market players that crypto currencies are really just starting and there is a very high ceiling. Getting in before coinbase you had to mine your own (that party ended quickly - Butterfly Labs, cex.io for cloud mining etc) or be pa…

Pretty sure forex markets are 24/7

Not for retail trading and holidays can affect pairs.

Re: Coinbase: The Heart of the Bitcoin Frenzy

#30

Post by s0rce »

Cookingboy wrote: post #4

Coinbase has a key difference from traditional brokers such as Charles Schwab, Scottrade, etc. It doesn't charge a flat fee for buy/sell crypto currency, but a 2-3% fee based on the transaction value. So even though I'm sure they've been making cash hand over fist this past 12 months, it makes any sort of future prediction extremely difficult. They not only have to predict customer growth (which leads to transaction…

This seems similar to forex transactions. Fidelity charges a % based fee when buying/selling foreign currency.
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