Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Understanding Coinbase

diff.substack.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 157 posts

Re: Understanding Coinbase

#31

Post by littlestymaar »

noman-land wrote: post #12
brianvli wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Coinbase is more about turning non-crypto currencies into crypto currencies while UNI/SUSHI are more about turning crypto currencies into different crypto currencies. In my POV, there's only two ways to get into crypto: - Centralized exchanges with KYC - Mining Coinbase is a KYC centralized exchange and enables people to turn their bank account $$s into crypto. Uniswap and Sushiswap are only relevant once someone has…

Don't forget working for it by doing stuff and receiving payment in them. That's my personal philosophical favorite.

True, though in practice “stuff” means “drug dealing”. \s

Re: Understanding Coinbase

#32

Post by hanniabu »

mancerayder wrote: post #10
gbasin wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would argue the biggest threat to coinbase is another crypto winter where volumes fall by 90%! And eventually the asset class becoming mature, so fees also fall by another 90%

Didn't Coinbase already survive that 2 years ago?

Yes, and before that.

Re: Understanding Coinbase

#33

Post by fastball »

jacques_chester wrote: post #29
fastball wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As others mentioned you're forgetting an economy which just uses crypto as the means of exchange, which for many has always been the long term goal. But you're also forgetting P2P crypto marketplaces like LocalCryptos[1], which (for Ethereum) allows you to have smart contract escrow and therefore the middle-man is only really required in the case of disputes. I personally have transacted > $100k with LocalEthereum, n…

> As others mentioned you're forgetting an economy which just uses crypto as the means of exchange, which for many has always been the long term goal. Taxes are owed in income or capital gains, whatever form that income or capital takes, but taxes can only paid in legal tender. Until the IRS et al hang out a wallet address for payments you will still need to touch the ordinary financial economy.

A good number of people (in the US at least) legally pay no taxes every year. So it's hypothetically possible to live entirely within crypto (legally) already.

But yes, that was more talking about the future. That is the matter at hand, after all – Coinbase's future (or lack thereof).

Re: Understanding Coinbase

#34

Post by [deleted] »

brianvli wrote: post #6
eruleman wrote: post #2

The biggest threat to Coinbase are decentralized exchanges like Uniswap & Sushiswap. During the peak of DeFi summer, Uniswap handled more trading volume than Coinbase. [0] Uniswap airdropped its token $UNI to all users on Sept 17, 2020. Uniswap is already at a $17 billion market cap. Coinbase is expected to IPO at ~$100 billion. [0] https://www.theblockcrypto.com/data/decentralized-finance/de...

Coinbase is more about turning non-crypto currencies into crypto currencies while UNI/SUSHI are more about turning crypto currencies into different crypto currencies. In my POV, there's only two ways to get into crypto: - Centralized exchanges with KYC - Mining Coinbase is a KYC centralized exchange and enables people to turn their bank account $$s into crypto. Uniswap and Sushiswap are only relevant once someone has…

[deleted]

Re: Understanding Coinbase

#35

Post by samatman »

littlestymaar wrote: post #31
noman-land wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't forget working for it by doing stuff and receiving payment in them. That's my personal philosophical favorite.

True, though in practice “stuff” means “drug dealing”. \s

It's fairly normal to receive payment in cybercoins if you're working for a company in the space. At least it was in the ICO era.

Re: Understanding Coinbase

#36

Post by hanniabu »

xienze wrote: post #20
eruleman wrote: post #2

The biggest threat to Coinbase are decentralized exchanges like Uniswap & Sushiswap. During the peak of DeFi summer, Uniswap handled more trading volume than Coinbase. [0] Uniswap airdropped its token $UNI to all users on Sept 17, 2020. Uniswap is already at a $17 billion market cap. Coinbase is expected to IPO at ~$100 billion. [0] https://www.theblockcrypto.com/data/decentralized-finance/de...

> The biggest threat to Coinbase are decentralized exchanges like Uniswap & Sushiswap. Yeah, assuming gas fees ever come down to something halfway sensible. A _minimum_ of $50 both ways to trade is a tough pill to swallow.

Optimism L2 it's having its public release on the 15th. Uniswap is expected to launch on Optimism with their V3 update not long after.

Re: Understanding Coinbase

#37

Post by opportune »

brianvli wrote: post #6
eruleman wrote: post #2

The biggest threat to Coinbase are decentralized exchanges like Uniswap & Sushiswap. During the peak of DeFi summer, Uniswap handled more trading volume than Coinbase. [0] Uniswap airdropped its token $UNI to all users on Sept 17, 2020. Uniswap is already at a $17 billion market cap. Coinbase is expected to IPO at ~$100 billion. [0] https://www.theblockcrypto.com/data/decentralized-finance/de...

Coinbase is more about turning non-crypto currencies into crypto currencies while UNI/SUSHI are more about turning crypto currencies into different crypto currencies. In my POV, there's only two ways to get into crypto: - Centralized exchanges with KYC - Mining Coinbase is a KYC centralized exchange and enables people to turn their bank account $$s into crypto. Uniswap and Sushiswap are only relevant once someone has…

There are p2p market places where you can exchange regular currency for crypto too (with a huge benefit that you actually own it from day one).

Re: Understanding Coinbase

#38

Post by opportune »

echelon wrote: post #19
brianvli wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Coinbase is more about turning non-crypto currencies into crypto currencies while UNI/SUSHI are more about turning crypto currencies into different crypto currencies. In my POV, there's only two ways to get into crypto: - Centralized exchanges with KYC - Mining Coinbase is a KYC centralized exchange and enables people to turn their bank account $$s into crypto. Uniswap and Sushiswap are only relevant once someone has…

Yesterday someone asked for me to pay them in Bitcoin rather than PayPal/CashApp. I'm kind of at a loss for how to do this...

If you had said this 6 years ago I would have laughed, now I'm just sad at how bastardized this project has become. You know you can just... use a bitcoin wallet and do an on-chain transfer?

Re: Understanding Coinbase

#39

Post by opportune »

The point of coinbase is to be a normie-friendly, trusted onramp into crypto. It has tons of direct and indirect competitors, many of which will give you better rates or more variety, but none of which have managed to market themselves into the degree of "legitimacy" that people give Coinbase. It is an exceedingly boring business IMO.

Re: Understanding Coinbase

#40

Post by ravenstine »

hanniabu wrote: post #30
dwighttk wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Coinbase tells me there are no fees for crypto to crypto conversion, just when I initially buy crypto with cash. What does a decentralized exchange give me that beats that?

> What does a decentralized exchange give me that beats that? Owning the actual asset and not just an IOU

Doesn't Coinbase give you a wallet? What am I missing?
Post reply on HN