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Understanding Coinbase

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Re: Understanding Coinbase

#51

Post by purple_ferret »

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.

This is like saying the biggest threat to Microsoft is Linux.

Re: Understanding Coinbase

#52

Post by dleslie »

opportune wrote: post #38
echelon wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

As a Canadian, there's basically no fast and _safe_ way to turn _serious_ amounts CAD into BTC without using a large exchange.

Given the choice, I would immediately choose the option where I can pay in CAD and not BTC.

Re: Understanding Coinbase

#53

Post by dleslie »

opportune wrote: post #39

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.

Yep, it's a centralized crypto bank. They welcome regulation, so their product can show its strengths.

Re: Understanding Coinbase

#54

Post by nomadiccoder »

> Some of the risks are positively futuristic: they compete against decentralized exchange-like platforms, where market-makers trade directly with users. In a way, this is like any other software company that nominally competes against open-source clones; Adobe users could switch to Gimp, and Microsoft could hypothetically lose revenue due to OpenOffice. But the decentralized entities Coinbase competes against can have a life of their own even if they're not updated or maintained; Coinbase, a company with over a thousand employees, competes against incorporeal techno-economic zombies.

I dont think that this is what open source is about. I dont think that comparing Microsoft and OpenOffice is a relevant statement. I mean at least one means LibreOffice, and furthermore there is no competition to Microsoft, they satisfy different objectives.

Secondly, decentralization is not about moving business value from one entity to 'the masses,' it is about agreeing to a protocol and establishing that protocol in a trustless implementation.

Re: Understanding Coinbase

#55

Post by tyre »

samatman wrote: post #35
littlestymaar wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Yep. And then you can go spend them on

Re: Understanding Coinbase

#56

Post by latchkey »

pta2002 wrote: post #42
ravenstine wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doesn't Coinbase give you a wallet? What am I missing?

You don't have the private keys. If coinbase loses them, you're out of money. Possibly. They're insured supposedly, but if you have your own private keys then the only entity you have to deal with in this case is yourself (this can be both a positive and a negative, depending on how careful you are)

I'm less worried about coinbase losing my keys than them randomly shutting my account down.

Re: Understanding Coinbase

#57

Post by vangelis »

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...

Uniswap is cool until you have to pay those tx fees.

Re: Understanding Coinbase

#60

Post by gruez »

vmception wrote: post #49
gruez wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How's the liquidity/UX/fees on decentralized exchanges these days? Last I heard they were pretty lacking in those aspects.

AMMs are quite a different beast than posted-order exchanges. These are more like ballast systems, yes, as seen in large ships, than anything else I could describe. It has revolutionized trading and liquidity without exactly being a panacea, but its pretty damn close. They’re pretty good, and it is an active area of development to be better. Transaction fees can range from $.01 to $150.

>These are more like ballast systems, yes, as seen in large ships, than anything else I could describe.

can you elaborate on this?

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