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Coinbase from YC to DPO

blog.ycombinator.com

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Re: Coinbase from YC to DPO

#691

Post by newsclues »

briefcomment wrote: post #585
rgifford wrote: post #385

The NYSEs parent company Intercontinental Exchange Inc (ICE) is worth 66.40B. Today's IPO puts Coinbase at 100B+. The NYSE has been in operation since 1817. Coinbase has been in operation since 2012. The value of all crypto is Trading fees in the crypto-world are getting more competitive as more established players support crypto. I don't see a defensible market position here, let alone established track record or st…

The value of all crypto is over 2T now

What’s the value of all companies on the nyse?

Probably at least 10x that

Re: Coinbase from YC to DPO

#692

Post by anonporridge »

mtnGoat wrote: post #562
anonporridge wrote: post #534

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It depends on the scale of shit hitting the fan. If the global internet goes down and stays down, then I think it's safe to say that global civilization is permanently collapsing, in which case billions of people are going to die in the resulting famine and the survivors probably won't be able to maintain enough technology to survive long term as climate change continues to snowball. In this scenario, yeah bitcoin is…

it wouldn't even take a global internet shortage, just your country to go offline, how you gonna pay someone to get you out(keep you safe, etc) if you cant transfer your crypto to them? A few ounces of gold on the other hand will take you anywhere you want to go. Crypto is far from a safe hedge in any type of crazy event. you see, gold can still be traded without power and internet, as could cash or really anything p…

It doesn't need to be usable through the crisis to still have value. Holding the private keys will still help preserve some of your wealth through to the other side so you don't have to start over with nothing.

You can flee with some gold, but I'd expect that to all be taken from you by the border guards or smugglers you have to pay off to get out. They can't take your bitcoin if they don't know you have it.

Re: Coinbase from YC to DPO

#693

Post by betterunix2 »

thebean11 wrote: post #581
enjo wrote: post #551

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bitcoin is worthless without dollars backing it. It’s because you can turn Bitcoin into dollars that anyone wants it.

You can make the same argument about any asset class. The path from Bitcoin/gold/real estate/crops to other goods or assets goes through dollars out of convenience (because your destination is purchasable in dollars). Don't confuse convenience with necessity.

Actually it is out of necessity on some level. My landlord needs me to pay rent with dollars, because my landlord needs to repay a loan to the bank and the bank will only accept dollars. The bank only accepts dollars because if my landlord defaults on said loans the bank will go to court to resolve the matter, and the courts only deal in dollars. Similarly, we all must pay taxes of one form or another, and we must do so using something the government will accept, which is dollars and not Bitcoin.

(You can adjust the currency for whatever country you might be considering if dollars are not the local currency.)

Don't kid yourself -- without exchanges of some sort (including payment processors) cryptocurrency is basically worthless.

Re: Coinbase from YC to DPO

#694

Post by rawtxapp »

tibiahurried wrote: post #575

As many other recent IPO, this valuation is just out of this world. Also, Coinbase is not the only player in the space. Many also use Binance.us; it offers stacking, cheaper fees and usually lists more alt coins. I must admin that I bought my first cryptos on Coinbase but soon realized how expensive it was and looked for alternatives. I don't understand what is so unique about Coinbase and why this insane valuation.…

I trust Coinbase a lot more than Binance. Their fees on the Coinbase Pro exchange are actually more reasonable than the simple user facing app Coinbase app that they push. Especially once you start reaching certain volumes (above 50M$), their fees for market makers drop to 0%. So those heavy traders aren't affected by fees.

And they are very well integrated and trusted within the US financial system.

Re: Coinbase from YC to DPO

#695

Post by gjs278 »

eloff wrote: post #602
llamataboot wrote: post #515

Compare Coinbase to say a major exchange like the NYSE. Realize that crypto is a space that could be damaged by gov intervention at any time. Realize that there is very little lock in effect on these markets, and fees are becoming less and less over time. How does Coinbase ever manage to justify a valuation this high? 100B.... Ping me when the stock price is under $100.

Agreed. I'm doing a little side project with my brokerage account where I pick 20 good socks and 20 bad stocks. Sell the bad ones short and double down on the good ones. That's how hedge funds work. It's interesting because as long as your picks are mostly right you can make money regardless of of the market is going up or down. Plus it'll be fun to say I started a hedge fund at parties. Coinbase is my number 1 bad p…

enjoy going broke if bitcoins spike

Re: Coinbase from YC to DPO

#696

Post by joering2 »

deviation wrote: post #667
olalonde wrote: post #606

Fun trivia: Brian Armstrong was looking for a co-founder on HN back in 2012: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3754664

Credit to him for following through with his vision, and standing his ground in his replies to all the comments in that thread. Looking back now, it's certainly evidence of a group bias and the "If the opportunity was that great, X company would be doing it by now" way of thinking. Props are owed for bringing some true innovation to the space. I'd love to know how this turned out. Did he eventually find a co-founder?…

How did he follow thru with his vision? Read his other comments to get better picture - he was angry at the system of Credit Cards, PayPals etc that charge outraged fees just to be able to use their network. He wanted to build network that performs exchange at zero fee. Instead, he ended up building and owning one of the most expensive crypto exchanges in the USA.

Sure props to him to pull it off, you don't get net worth of $20B by accident or pure luck... but in terms of his vision of the world more united where it is easier to send and receive money without paying outrages fees, he definitely failed on that promise.

Re: Coinbase from YC to DPO

#697

Post by janitor_monkey »

golergka wrote: post #620
rgifford wrote: post #385

The NYSEs parent company Intercontinental Exchange Inc (ICE) is worth 66.40B. Today's IPO puts Coinbase at 100B+. The NYSE has been in operation since 1817. Coinbase has been in operation since 2012. The value of all crypto is Trading fees in the crypto-world are getting more competitive as more established players support crypto. I don't see a defensible market position here, let alone established track record or st…

> This is all feeling very dotcom bubble 2.0. Dotcom bubble was unique among other market crashes, because the main prediciton that fueled the dotcom bubble — that internet is the future and internet-based companies will be worth a lot of money — turned out to be completely right.

That's actually not so weird. Biggest bubbles are usually rooted in reality.

Re: Coinbase from YC to DPO

#698

Post by austenallred »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #689
austenallred wrote: post #615

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Coinbase is... not a stock exchange?

Compare it to the CME then, which is a commodities/futures/derivitives exchange, as Bitcoin is designated as a commodity by the US government. $74B market cap. https://www.cmegroup.com/

Compare it to Visa. $475B market cap.

I mean it’s not really like any of these things, the comparisons are totally arbitrary.

Re: Coinbase from YC to DPO

#699

Post by jm20 »

seriousquestion wrote: post #671
barnabees wrote: post #479

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At least he's not selling a course

"How I Made $2B By Doing Almost Nothing", on sale now for a limited time. Only $19.99! Order today. And don't forget to like and subscribe. That would really help me out.

The better title would be "How I made $2B on an educated $300k bet" because even the best startup investors will tell you that investing that early is essentially betting.

And early-stage help and intros are crucial for startups - between YC and Garry's network I'm sure a ton of that contributed to their success as well. At the end of the day still a bet, but just saying.

Re: Coinbase from YC to DPO

#700

Post by jm20 »

ZephyrBlu wrote: post #434
paulpauper wrote: post #357

Earlier quoted context omitted.

i dunno how people say VCs have a return of only 9% year when Ycombinator is absolutely crushing that even with a high failure rate. AirBNB, box, dropbox, coinbase, etc. Paul stumbled on an absolute goldmine by just giving a bunch of promising companies with good founders 10k in exchange for a decent portion of equity and then some of these companies being worth billions. NOw you know what those homes and are so expe…

> i dunno how people say VCs have a return of only 9% year when Ycombinator is absolutely crushing that even with a high failure rate YC is a massive outlier and they have insanely good deal flow because of their brand.

*and the people running it. The brand comes from the success of the companies which comes, in large part, because of the partners and network.

You won't find a better group of truly qualified, highly accomplished people giving advice to startups, holding talks for cohorts, etc. in any other accelerator anywhere, period.

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