Coinbase: The Heart of the Bitcoin Frenzy • Hacker News Board

Re: Coinbase: The Heart of the Bitcoin Frenzy

#311

Post by mbrock » Thu, Dec 07, 2017, 4:30 PM UTC

PeterisP wrote: post #280

mbrock wrote: post #236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And that's a huge indicator of why blockchain finance is attractive. The banking system is AWFUL. Exchanges are bridges between banks and blockchains, and it's quite reasonable to want to keep your money in cryptocurrency just for technical usability reasons. I can send cryptocurrency from a shell script -- that's not going to work with bank money in a million years, or if it does it's going to be because of the comp…

You're talking about the USA banking system, which is pretty much stone age compared to everyone else. (paper checks? really?) For example, in EU the requirement for banks to open up APIs to everyone is coming in force next year, a bit closer than a million years - and it's not happening because of competition from blockchains, it was put in force (before blockchains boomed) for reasons of consumer rights and restric…

I'm not sure the EU directive will open up APIs to everyone. More likely it will be to a regulated class of businesses, right? If it really means I will be able to directly access and manipulate my own personal and business bank account with curl, then I'm really excited. If I have to go through a bureaucratic approval process, then it's still pretty cool, but not what I really want (permissionless innovation).

Re: Coinbase: The Heart of the Bitcoin Frenzy

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Post by matwood » Thu, Dec 07, 2017, 4:31 PM UTC

ThomPete wrote: post #258

ehsankia wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've run into all sorts of bugs which made the site annoying to use. 1. My bank account has a 5000$ limit and my credit card has a 750$ limit. After spending 1000$ from the bank (which takes a week), I wanted a quick 50$ from my CC, but it said I was already past the 750$ limit. 2. When trying to recover an older account, the recovery keeps asking for my phone number but isn't sending me texts properly. If you say yo…

You can transfer money to a usd wallet so that should make it easier to purchase if you need to.

And for those worried, the USD wallet is FDIC insured in the US.

Re: Coinbase: The Heart of the Bitcoin Frenzy

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Post by matwood » Thu, Dec 07, 2017, 4:32 PM UTC

cobbzilla wrote: post #201

njarboe wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Coinbase does give one the sense of security and ease of use. It does not seem sketchy, is American based, has KYC procedures, etc. If they lose coins or go under, a lot of "normal" people will lose money. Not sure what regulations might be passed in Congress if that happens, but the cryptocurrency Wild West would likely be over in America at that point.

I would guess they also have some kind of insurance. iirc one of the larger exchanges was hacked and lost millions, but the insurance paid out and made whole the users who lost coin. it's a dynamic market.

According to their website, the USD wallet is FDIC insured and they have insurance for the crypto.

Re: Coinbase: The Heart of the Bitcoin Frenzy

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Post by egeozcan » Thu, Dec 07, 2017, 4:34 PM UTC

vocatus_gate wrote: post #307

hectorr1 wrote: post #276

I have a ton of respect for Coinbase. It seems like their implied priorities are: 1) Security 1a) Compliance ... 57) Customer Service While annoying, this was both sufficient and necessary for the business to date. Security is necessary for obvious reasons. Compliance is necessary because to be able to do business with US banks (card processing, ACH, wires...) they had to be aggressive about complying with US regulat…

Agree with almost everything you've said, and unfortunately if past experience is anything to go by, they'll crash/go down during the next big price dip.

Maybe this is because of the immense increase in the number transactions during a dip? (really just guessing)

Re: Coinbase: The Heart of the Bitcoin Frenzy

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Post by ukoki » Thu, Dec 07, 2017, 4:41 PM UTC

hectorr1 wrote: post #276

I have a ton of respect for Coinbase. It seems like their implied priorities are: 1) Security 1a) Compliance ... 57) Customer Service While annoying, this was both sufficient and necessary for the business to date. Security is necessary for obvious reasons. Compliance is necessary because to be able to do business with US banks (card processing, ACH, wires...) they had to be aggressive about complying with US regulat…

Yep! I contacted customer support over a month ago as I am unable to make withdrawals. Still haven't heard a thing from them.

Re: Coinbase: The Heart of the Bitcoin Frenzy

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Post by tome » Thu, Dec 07, 2017, 4:42 PM UTC

JBlue42 wrote: post #22

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.

This is what my uneducated hunch is, so I'm glad to hear you say it, but I'm enjoying reading all the countervailing opinions too, to educate myself further!

Re: Coinbase: The Heart of the Bitcoin Frenzy

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Post by ethagnawl » Thu, Dec 07, 2017, 4:43 PM UTC

mrb wrote: post #179

rexf wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While coinbase & BTC seems to be doing well, I've anecdotally seen a bunch of people who can't get a response from coinbase support over long periods of time. Doesn't make relying on coinbase seem like a good idea.

Coinbase is simply suffering from insane growth pains. I mean, come on, they are adding half a million new users per week ! Of course support isn't going to be very responsive.

You've got a point, and I tried to be understanding about the slow customer support response, but after a certain point the _growing pains_ excuse just does not pass muster. Coinbase has been around for years and their business model would seem to be dependent upon rapid adoption/growth of BTC/ETH/LTC. So, they knew this day would come and should have had processes in place to handle the influx (of traffic and related customer support requests). I just cannot _understand_ how a business could misplace $NON_TRIVIAL_AMOUNT_OF_BTC and then not respond to their customer's inquiries about it for _days_ at a time.

Re: Coinbase: The Heart of the Bitcoin Frenzy

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Post by vocatus_gate » Thu, Dec 07, 2017, 4:45 PM UTC

vertex-four wrote: post #274

Jommi wrote: post #234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wait you're suggesting one of the legally most robust changes out there (the one doing the most compliance) is actually slower than the shady, non-transparent exchange..?? Wow. Wonder why that might be

Because of bitcoin's origins in a largely an-cap community - and the continual anti-Government, pro-capitalist mindset in a significant part of the community as it stands now - there's not actually as much demand as there should be for "legal" exchanges etc. As a result, there's much more competition in the "shady" exchange space, less competition in the "legal" exchange space, and two things result: people occasiona…

That's pretty insightful, actually. I mean, outside of Kraken (terrible), who are Coinbase's (legal/compliant) competitors? Basically no one.

Re: Coinbase: The Heart of the Bitcoin Frenzy

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Post by shams93 » Thu, Dec 07, 2017, 4:47 PM UTC

jacobr1 wrote: post #304

ethagnawl wrote: post #285

Earlier quoted context omitted.

UPDATE: My "pending" transaction was marked as "complete" and the coins appeared in my coinbase wallet this morning (almost 11 days after I initially moved the coins). I'm not necessarily chalking it up to this comment, but I suppose it's possible. Fortune favored me this time around, but I don't know if I can trust coinbase again. If the price had dipped, I'd be out a bunch of money. (Just to be clear: they received…

Coinbase isn't a trading platform. But they do own and operate one: gdax.com

Yeah exactly it's just a way to acquire initial crypto to move elsewhere for trading it's just a money exchange at it's core not the crypto equivalent of a day trader platform.

Re: Coinbase: The Heart of the Bitcoin Frenzy

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Post by tome » Thu, Dec 07, 2017, 4:50 PM UTC

sillysaurus3 wrote: post #265

b1daly wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Holy crap, there is a top. To realize these gains, owners of bitcoins are going to have to convert back to fiat. US dollars have a built in floor as government issued fiat, which is that they are required to pay taxes. The money supply of a country is a precious resource, and the government has a responsibility, and incentive, to maintain some level of control. Look how serious the Secret Service is about counterfeit…

To realize these gains, owners of bitcoins are going to have to convert back to fiat. If BTC wins, we'll be converting our dollars to BTC, not the other way around. There are many tools the government has to control the use of bitcoin, the simplest being to just outlaw it. This won't work. BTC will just migrate to countries where it isn't illegal, taking millionaires with them. Libertarian geeks who haven’t thought t…

> This won't work. BTC will just migrate to countries where it isn't illegal, taking millionaires with them.

Productive capacity is not so easy to migrate.