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Coinbase down for maintenance

coinbase.com

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Re: Coinbase down for maintenance

#71

Post by TFortunato »

syntaxing wrote: post #63

I'm curious what the implications are that all these exchanges go offline whenever there is a huge spike in bitcoin. That being said, anyone care to elaborate how the price of bitcoin is determined? I mean it's easy when there is a large central bank monitoring this figure. However, how exactly does it work for bitcoin? What makes it worth the $15K value when there is no "goods" to back it up. Are there anyone here b…

As others said, its determined by what people will pay for it. If you go to an exchange like GDAX (or any stock exchange), you can look at what is called the "order book". If you are a trader, you can act as either a:

- "Market Maker" - By placing an entry in the order book, which says something like: "I have up to 100 Bitcoin I'm willing to sell at $15,000.01 a piece", or "I'm willing to buy up to 100 bitcoin at 14,999.99 a piece".

- "Market Taker" - You can do this by looking at the book and saying: "I will take that deal". You can also do a "market order", saying: "I want to buy 100 BTC at market price", in which case, the exchange will match you with as many sellers as it takes to fulfill your order of 100 BTC, working from the lowest offered price on up.

The price is determined by either whatever the last trade executed at, or a weighted average of the buy side and sell side of the order book. If you hear someone talking about the spread, that is the difference between the highest buy price offered on the book, and the lowest sell price offered on the book. (2 cents in my above fictitious example).

The exchanges make their money by running the order book, matching makers and takers, and charging a small fee for the transaction. (On GDAX for example, market makers get charged no fee, market takers get charged some fraction of a %). The exchanges make money on the volume of trades going through them.

It can get a bit more complicated, but I hope that gives you an idea!

Re: Coinbase down for maintenance

#72

Post by aaavl2821 »

syntaxing wrote: post #63

I'm curious what the implications are that all these exchanges go offline whenever there is a huge spike in bitcoin. That being said, anyone care to elaborate how the price of bitcoin is determined? I mean it's easy when there is a large central bank monitoring this figure. However, how exactly does it work for bitcoin? What makes it worth the $15K value when there is no "goods" to back it up. Are there anyone here b…

simplistically, the exchange manages an "order book", which records the amount each person wants to buy or sell, the price at which they are willing to trade, and the time the order is received. if there is enough "buy" volume at a given price to fill a given "sell" volume, then a trade happens. the price of the latest trade is the "market" price. this happens for every order that has a volume and price matched "other side" of the trade.

there are many orders that are above or below the current market price. those wont get cleared until the trades that are closer to market clear, and they may not get cleared at all if the market moves the other direction

Re: Coinbase down for maintenance

#73

Post by bob_theslob646 »

wskinner wrote: post #65
syntaxing wrote: post #63

I'm curious what the implications are that all these exchanges go offline whenever there is a huge spike in bitcoin. That being said, anyone care to elaborate how the price of bitcoin is determined? I mean it's easy when there is a large central bank monitoring this figure. However, how exactly does it work for bitcoin? What makes it worth the $15K value when there is no "goods" to back it up. Are there anyone here b…

What makes it worth 15k is that people will pay that much for it. The price is determined by buyers and sellers, trading with each other on markets called exchanges.

This is true. It also helps that their is a finite supply, so if demand remains constant, the value theoretically should rise over time.

Re: Coinbase down for maintenance

#74

Post by kwelstr »

wolco wrote: post #38
Snackchez wrote: post #8

All of this is anecdotal: These past couple of days, whenever a coin soars a ridiculous amount, on any given exchange, that exchange seems to mysteriously go down. For example: Binance and Bitfinex were down for "maintenance" (or just plain down), while IOTA was experiencing a surge in price (from ~1.10 to 6$). Similarly this happens with Bitcoin today (it seems Quadriga had some issues and Coinbase; not sure about o…

On the 10th bitcoin will be listed on the chicaco exchange. This is the reason for the price swing lately.

The 10th is a Sunday

Re: Coinbase down for maintenance

#75

Post by syntaxing »

wskinner wrote: post #65
syntaxing wrote: post #63

I'm curious what the implications are that all these exchanges go offline whenever there is a huge spike in bitcoin. That being said, anyone care to elaborate how the price of bitcoin is determined? I mean it's easy when there is a large central bank monitoring this figure. However, how exactly does it work for bitcoin? What makes it worth the $15K value when there is no "goods" to back it up. Are there anyone here b…

What makes it worth 15k is that people will pay that much for it. The price is determined by buyers and sellers, trading with each other on markets called exchanges.

I get the "market" determines the price but I guess I'm confused with who is agreeing to the value? Is there a small amount of big players that are playing with the price? Or is there a general consensus that the price is $15K. And wouldn't there have to be people that we willing to pay this price? What prevents the exchanges from colluding and raising the price artificially?

Re: Coinbase down for maintenance

#77

Post by dang »

zzxxddere333 wrote: post #59
hervature wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree, so putting this together from the parent's info: $0000 - $1000: 1789 days $1000- $2000: 1271 days $2000- $4000: 85 days $4000- $8000: 96 days $8000- $19000: 20 days Edit: Even on a logarithmic scale, bitcoin is experiencing exponential growth.

wow

Would you please stop posting unsubstantive comments to HN?

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

https://news.ycombinator.com/newswelcome.html

Re: Coinbase down for maintenance

#79

Post by rednerrus »

fullshark wrote: post #37
tome wrote: post #27

Now what would happen if Coinbase went down at a time when Bitcoin was going through a short period of decreasing value?

This is exactly my question. What happens when these exchanges face the inevitable panic/bank run?

We've been through this in the past. They just cancel your transactions without apology.

Re: Coinbase down for maintenance

#80

Post by simonsarris »

It's a matter of time until Mt. Gox part 2 I think. It may not even take nefarious workings at the top, just sloppy work somewhere + one bad employee or outsider.

Is this going to end in a re-discovery of exactly why we have FDIC? Or the SEC? How do people even know how much bitcoin activity is real and not essentially faked?

Popular Google Searches by year, by my estimation.

2016: "what is bitcoin"

2017: "what is ethereum"

2018: "what is a wash trade"

2019: "can you eat squirrel"

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