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Desperate Coinbase customers turn to SEC with allegations of fraud

mashable.com

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Re: Desperate Coinbase customers turn to SEC with allegations of fraud

#31

Post by mkirklions »

thisisit wrote: post #22

This is a settlement problem. Coinbase is unable to settle money between different accounts. And there is a perfect solution for this. We can use blockchain....Oh Wait. /s On a serious note, building a production level real time two book entry system is hard. Many times money just disappears because both legs of transactions don't match. The only way to track is some real good amount of sleuthing. But given the amoun…

How does money go missing? Ive been reading about money in a database and it seems pretty straight forward.

Each transaction has an ID and a user ID, how does money disappear?

Re: Desperate Coinbase customers turn to SEC with allegations of fraud

#32

Post by mkirklions »

eximius wrote: post #24

If you are a US customer and this happens to you, is submitting an SEC complaint really the best option or should you lawyer up and sue?

Wait?

I got locked out of coinbase and 2 months later BTC went up 2.5x.

Thank god because I was going to sell 2 BTC. Only ended up needing to sell 0.5 + 3 shitcoin cash.

Re: Desperate Coinbase customers turn to SEC with allegations of fraud

#33

Post by commandlinefan »

starpilot wrote: post #26

What I think computer programmers tend to ignore are principles of real engineering in classical, high-consequence fields. It seems like Coinbase has been following the mantra of "move fast and break things," that would absolutely horrify any traditional engineer. Any civil engineer reviewing a bridge, any aerospace engineer designing a passenger aircraft that he himself may to have to fly on. When the work gets seri…

Well, remember, we work in an industry managed by people who are convinced that programmers spend all their time browsing facebook and playing fortnight and develop "give me one good reason why I shouldn't fire you right now" methodologies like Scrum and "always looking over your shoulder" open offices. Working slowly, deliberately, and safely is indistinguishable from slacking to people who do nothing except look for slacking.

Re: Desperate Coinbase customers turn to SEC with allegations of fraud

#34

Post by yoran »

I lost access to my Coinbase account when I lost my phone and got locked out due to 2FA. This was partially my fault for not being careful enough and not saving the recovery code.

Anyway, they told me to create a new account. Their team would then verify that both accounts are matching, as you have to submit a copy of your passport. The funds would then be transferred from the old locked-out account to the new account.

I did all this over 2 months ago. I am still waiting for the funds to be transferred. I contacted support twice now, and I'm always getting the same reply (we're still working on it).

Fortunately, due to a mistrust of exchanges, I only have a small portion of my crypto-assets on Coinbase and keep most of it offline. However, it's still a non-trivial amount of money. I'm not sure what extra steps I can take now without it being too much effort on my part, because the amount is not that high.

Re: Desperate Coinbase customers turn to SEC with allegations of fraud

#35

Post by adyus »

spaceandthyme wrote: post #20

I know several good people that have been locked out of Coinbase permanently - without any explanation of why - for over a year despite repeated unanswered requests to have accounts reinstated. I watched those people turn from advocates for coinbase into critics. Just a simple explanation would have helped prevent that scenario. This company is a terrible example of how to do business. It's as if they watched how Goo…

Is it better to have reduced fraud and disgruntled customers, or viceversa?

I'm genuinely curious. I suppose it depends on the ultimate goal, but seeing as Coinbase is VC-funded, well...

Re: Desperate Coinbase customers turn to SEC with allegations of fraud

#36

Post by largehotcoffee »

I operate an adult comic book publisher and Coinbase shutdown our account without notice and blamed the bank they work with (despite the fact that we were not converting our BTC to USD). All support tickets took 3 - 5 weeks to get a reply and it was always unhelpful.

For a company like ours the whole appeal of Bitcoin is the anonymity, so our readers don't have to worry about buying lewd comics and having it show up on their statements. Coinbase tarnishes what Bitcoin stands for and they do not protect artists/publishers.

Do not use Coinbase.

Re: Desperate Coinbase customers turn to SEC with allegations of fraud

#37

Post by Animats »

There's a law firm taking complaints against Coinbase and wrapping them up into a class action.[1] PACER shows multiple lawsuits against Coinbase. Arbitrations are confidential, but there are probably some of those, too; Coinbase puts an arbitration clause in their contracts.

Arbitration clauses don't prevent a lawsuit where there is fraud. One of the cases against Coinbase was forced out of arbitration because of that.

[1] https://www.silvermillerlaw.com/current-investigations/coinb...

Re: Desperate Coinbase customers turn to SEC with allegations of fraud

#38

Post by eximius »

mkirklions wrote: post #32
eximius wrote: post #24

If you are a US customer and this happens to you, is submitting an SEC complaint really the best option or should you lawyer up and sue?

Wait? I got locked out of coinbase and 2 months later BTC went up 2.5x. Thank god because I was going to sell 2 BTC. Only ended up needing to sell 0.5 + 3 shitcoin cash.

This is both off topic AND harmful advice.

Re: Desperate Coinbase customers turn to SEC with allegations of fraud

#39

Post by kennxfl »

pavlov wrote: post #30
spaceandthyme wrote: post #20

I know several good people that have been locked out of Coinbase permanently - without any explanation of why - for over a year despite repeated unanswered requests to have accounts reinstated. I watched those people turn from advocates for coinbase into critics. Just a simple explanation would have helped prevent that scenario. This company is a terrible example of how to do business. It's as if they watched how Goo…

Coinbase is basically the PayPal of cryptocurrency. Arbitrary unexplained account freezes are part of the model.

Couldn't have said it better!
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