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Tell HN: Coinbase is a joke (product and support)

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Re: Tell HN: Coinbase is a joke (product and support)

#41

Post by throwaway1777 »

vlod wrote: post #30

I would like to get into crypto (for transfer, not for asset speculation) but can't understand the point of using a decentralized ledger and yet using these centralized exchanges which control the on/off ramps. Isn't the whole idea not to rely on gatekeepers? There's been news (Canadian truckers incident) where the government told Paypal/Visa/Mastercard etc to stop the flow on crypto currency. Am I missing something…

How else would decentralization work besides being peer to peer? Of course it’s more inconvenient that’s why centralization always seems to win.

Re: Tell HN: Coinbase is a joke (product and support)

#43

Post by Mikeb85 »

Ukrainians aren't under any kind of sanctions so why not just use a service like Wise?

As for anything related to crypto, most of it is a scam so it comes as no surprise that the few companies trying to be legit in this field are under so many restrictions it's incredibly inconvenient to use them...

Anyhow, everyone I know transfers money to Eastern Europe with Wise.

Re: Tell HN: Coinbase is a joke (product and support)

#44

Post by nibbleshifter »

vlod wrote: post #30

I would like to get into crypto (for transfer, not for asset speculation) but can't understand the point of using a decentralized ledger and yet using these centralized exchanges which control the on/off ramps. Isn't the whole idea not to rely on gatekeepers? There's been news (Canadian truckers incident) where the government told Paypal/Visa/Mastercard etc to stop the flow on crypto currency. Am I missing something…

Try Bisq. Its a P2P exchange system that acts as a good "on ramp".

Re: Tell HN: Coinbase is a joke (product and support)

#45

Post by polygamous_bat »

e40 wrote: post #15
polygamous_bat wrote: post #6

I think this level of heavy-handed measures are a result of cases like this [0] where a Sony employee embezzled $150 millions and converted them to BTC using Coinbase. Probably their silly security flags went up thinking you are trying to steal your business's money using BTC? Edit: people who want to know more about the case, here's a Money Stuff article by Matt Levine [1], jump to "Coinbase compliance". Bunch of re…

Well, the accounts share nothing in common other than me. And, I deleted my personal account, like they asked. They seem unable to move forward after that. As a developer myself, it's clear that request (delete personal account) was a hail mary. They had no idea if it would work. And, the amounts of money involved are very small.

Well yes, I completely agree that they seem to have set up a series of security flags that they do not understand themselves, even though the flags were mandated for a legitimate reason initially. Coinbase paid $50 million in fines for that (see [0]) so they would rather lose some business from people like you than risk a fine like that again.

[0] https://www.dfs.ny.gov/reports_and_publications/press_releas...

Re: Tell HN: Coinbase is a joke (product and support)

#46

Post by chordalkeyboard »

vlod wrote: post #30

I would like to get into crypto (for transfer, not for asset speculation) but can't understand the point of using a decentralized ledger and yet using these centralized exchanges which control the on/off ramps. Isn't the whole idea not to rely on gatekeepers? There's been news (Canadian truckers incident) where the government told Paypal/Visa/Mastercard etc to stop the flow on crypto currency. Am I missing something…

what you're missing is that Bitcoin is still a prototype. The intent was for it to be decentralized but people are still trying to achieve that, and once it became popular, it became overrun with scams and get-rich-quick schemes.

Re: Tell HN: Coinbase is a joke (product and support)

#47

Post by RomanPushkin »

Meanwhile, I needed to pay folks who have fled the country, and now are located in Kazakhstan. I used... Western Union. Surprisingly, it was without any fees, I sent the exact amount in dollars from the US and they received exactly the same amount in US dollars in minutes.

I don't know why Bitcoin today is something people want to use, since you can send Western Union or use other payment methods (like Wise) to almost all countries.

Re: Tell HN: Coinbase is a joke (product and support)

#48

Post by mgbmtl »

e40 wrote: post #21
chatmasta wrote: post #13

Have you tried Wise (formerly TransferWise)? I don't know if they have issues with transfers to Ukraine, but in general they have provided an excellent service for paying contractors in foreign currency. We also use Deel and I can recommend it. It's $50/month for contractors which is usually sufficient depending on employment law (FTE through Deel is more expensive ). They handle all payments and we just connect our…

I haven't. To detail the issue, going through the banking system, there seems to be a non-zero chance that the transfer will be parked at a bank in NY. No one knows why, but everyone assumes it's because the US government decided to look at the transaction. Sometimes the money is returned, sometimes it's forwarded on... I haven't been able to talk to anyone at that bank or in the government, to tell them why I'm send…

That could be a reason to use Wise. You send money to Wise (in the same country), and they transfer money to the account in the other country. I think it works in part by assuming that they have currency in that other country, so they can avoid conversion fees.

Although I have no idea if that works for Ukraine. This page has some interesting bits: https://wise.com/help/articles/2932349/guide-to-uah-transfer...

Re: Tell HN: Coinbase is a joke (product and support)

#49

Post by chordalkeyboard »

RomanPushkin wrote: post #47

Meanwhile, I needed to pay folks who have fled the country, and now are located in Kazakhstan. I used... Western Union. Surprisingly, it was without any fees, I sent the exact amount in dollars from the US and they received exactly the same amount in US dollars in minutes. I don't know why Bitcoin today is something people want to use, since you can send Western Union or use other payment methods (like Wise) to almos…

Western Union being free is the outlier here.
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