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Coinbase from YC to DPO

blog.ycombinator.com

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Re: Coinbase from YC to DPO

#781

Post by swensel »

sneak wrote: post #640
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

I spoke to him on the phone within a few hours of that post, as I had already prototyped an app to do what was described. I didn't launch mine, nor participate in his (obviously). I suggested that a business in that space, if successful, would result in a similar outcome as happened to other founders of international money transmission systems that weren't under direct government control: i.e. swatting. He was not di…

You see no benefit to a flat system in crypto where everyone can participate equally, vs traditional finance / stock brokerages where large institutions like hedge funds automatically get a better deal vs any retail trader?

Re: Coinbase from YC to DPO

#782

Post by swensel »

spacedude99 wrote: post #780
seriousquestion wrote: post #764

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or both. Bitcoin and Coinbase each have outrageous fees.

You can easily buy fee free on coinbase if you use buy orders instead of market buys.

This changed in 2019 (https://ethereumworldnews.com/end-of-coinbase-pro-introduces...).

At this point, there is no way to trade for free on Coinbase or Coinbase Pro. However, maker orders do still have a lower fee vs taker orders on Coinbase Pro, depending on the pricing tier / how much you trade per month (https://help.coinbase.com/en/pro/trading-and-funding/trading...).

Re: Coinbase from YC to DPO

#783

Post by swensel »

mtnGoat wrote: post #502
anonporridge wrote: post #429

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, but you also can't take your house with you stored in your brain if you have to flee the country. Bitcoin as chaos insurance (or schmuck insurance as Chamath calls it) is the use case that makes the most sense to me.

do you really think if the sh*t hit the fan? the entire BTC network and the internet at large would still be working for you to transfer these units around? this to me is where the comparison to gold falls off. i can hold physical gold and silver and trade it at will even without power, pricing updates, etc. this does not apply to crypto. considering cutting internet access is now a normal thing during unrest, being…

You really think the entire world would shut off the internet?

It is much harder to transport gold and silver, and those can be easily confiscated. A mnemonic seed can be stored in your head, and you can add a passphrase as a salt on top of that to create an infinite number of permutations, each being their own wallet, and provide just one of those if under duress.

Re: Coinbase from YC to DPO

#784

Post by pm90 »

mensetmanusman wrote: post #580
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.

Governments love crypto because it is easier to track than cash once it is used for a fiat exchange. Not sure why they would be against it.

Because they can’t control the supply.

Re: Coinbase from YC to DPO

#785

Post by rgifford »

austenallred wrote: post #698
toomuchtodo wrote: post #689

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Comps are a fundamental part of establishing fair valuation. Comparing Coinbase to the NYSE doesn't seem arbitrary to me. How likely do you think it is Coinbase becomes a household name like Visa, really? How many retailers process payments per day with Coinbase? How long did it take Visa to build its network? How consistent is Coinbase usership?

I don't see Coinbase having a future in payment processing. Not unless cryptocurrencies become drastically more stable and energy efficient. Even then, you're hoping for the goodwill of the government not to implement serious restriction.

Re: Coinbase from YC to DPO

#786

Post by Grustaf »

ufo wrote: post #557
Grustaf wrote: post #506

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The energy is not spent on storing though, it's expended when verifying transaction, isn't it?

In the sense that verifying transactions is what keeps the bitcoin network alive.

Yeah but if people would mostly store their bitcoins, wouldn’t the energy needs go down?

Re: Coinbase from YC to DPO

#787

Post by dehrmann »

bglusman wrote: post #278

It's a tiny bit pedantic, but the Coinbase offering today was not actually an IPO, I learned, but a DPO (Direct Public Offering). It was not a fundraising event for Coinbase, only a liquidity event for shareholders, and unlike an IPO no explicit valuation process occurred to select an offering price.

If you have employee shares, it's very much not pedantic since there's no lockup period.

Re: Coinbase from YC to DPO

#788

Post by quickthrower2 »

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

Ah the good old days, when people talked about Bitcoin solving too high credit card fees. It’s now $15+ per transaction in fees but it’s now a store of value so it doesn’t matter!

Re: Coinbase from YC to DPO

#789

Post by triangleman »

eloff wrote: post #706
ProAm wrote: post #579

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It will be a trend for heavy VC funded companies that are not really profitable (not speaking about Coinbase specifically). DPO's allow VC to recoup investments at around the 10 year mark for company's that do not make financial sense on paper.

Why does that matter here? Profitability is not a prerequisite for an IPO, and any IPO let's investors recoup their money.

It used to be that you could not IPO unless you were profitable, and furthermore the point of an IPO was to raise money needed to fund growth. But today these companies have raised enough money from VC's that they don't need any more from the public markets. By listing shares and letting these insiders sell, there is more limited supply and great demand, so they can sell tiny stakes for inflated prices. It's really great for VC's and other insiders.

Re: Coinbase from YC to DPO

#790

Post by quickthrower2 »

lmm wrote: post #656
d3ntb3ev1l wrote: post #558

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also ignoring most cities now are banning or highly regulating these illegal hotels in residential neighborhoods Coinbase seems less threatened by regulations

Coinbase is hugely threatened by regulations.

They are, but at the same maybe they’ll get big enough to get small fines for big crimes like HSBC helping out the cartels.
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