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

Instant Bitcoin Purchases at Coinbase

blog.coinbase.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 88 posts

Re: Instant Bitcoin Purchases at Coinbase

#41

Post by bdcravens »

downandout wrote: post #11

Someone credible is finally trying to compensate for the abysmal failure that is Bitinstant (see http://bitinstantscam.com and basically any Bitcoin forum). That is fantastic. However, let's not get carried away. This is not instant for first-time users. You still have to go through verification and wait at least 4 business days for your first purchase to go through before reaching the qualifications for instant purc…

I've used Bitinstant, and it worked well enough (was a small transaction, however). My impression is that it isn't a scam, but more of a bunch of nerds in over their head.

Re: Instant Bitcoin Purchases at Coinbase

#42

Post by pdeuchler »

ferdo wrote: post #36

Different strokes for different folks, but I'll never understand why someone would want to buy bitcoins with their personal info attached to the coins. It seems to defeat the purpose of a pseudonymous, decentralized currency.

What, did you expect bitcoin to suddenly create an anonymous economy out of thin air? Unless you can create value, and then charge bitcoin anonymously for that value you have to convert previous holdings into bitcoin. You can do so anonymously via cash P2P. But if you would like to convert funds from the current system, you have to 1) use the current system 2) play by their rules.

This really doesn't even hurt the anonymity of bitcoin anyway, simply buy your bitcoins, run them through a tumbler, and voila, out comes anonymity.

Re: Instant Bitcoin Purchases at Coinbase

#44

Post by wmf »

wilfra wrote: post #18
tocomment wrote: post #12

I've wondered about starting a service to sell bitcoins via credit card but the catch is he service holds your coin for you for 6 months or whatever the period for chargebacks is. Is that a viable idea?

Buy BTC from tocomment Inc with credit card. If in 5 1/2 months the price of Bitcoin is lower, issue a chargeback and take no loss. If the price is higher, do not issue a chargeback and take the profit. Sounds like a bad deal for tocomment Inc.

This could be "fixed" by holding USD for 6 months and then converting it to BTC, but it's still fairly pointless.

Re: Instant Bitcoin Purchases at Coinbase

#45

Post by bdcravens »

joelrunyon wrote: post #6

Isn't the point of bitcoin to stay anonymous? It's nice to be able to purchase it instantly, but it seems to be going against the purpose of bitcoin.

"the point"? no. More of a side effect, but something that alot of folks have clung to. In reality it's pseudo-anonymous, and depending on your interpretation, it's the opposite on anonymity: all transactions are conducted in the open. (the exchange of currency that is; not the underlying identity of item of value on the other side of the transaction)

Re: Instant Bitcoin Purchases at Coinbase

#46

Post by eeky »

ferdo wrote: post #36

Different strokes for different folks, but I'll never understand why someone would want to buy bitcoins with their personal info attached to the coins. It seems to defeat the purpose of a pseudonymous, decentralized currency.

The purpose of bitcoin is that the user controls it. It's about trust. Do you trust a bank with your money? Cypriots sure found out the hard way when their bank accounts were suddenly frozen. Do you trust a government with your currency? Argentinians sure don't as they're experiencing 10-20% inflation rates. Bitcoin allows you to store your wealth without being fleeced by currency controls of parasitic central banks. It's refreshing and quite profitable.

Re: Instant Bitcoin Purchases at Coinbase

#47

Post by geuis »

I have an issue with Coinbase. I have an account that I opened a few months ago but didn't use. I'm trying to sign into it now, and it brings me to a screen asking for a code from "Authy" (whatever that is) or Google Authenticator.

Ok, so I grab GA again. GA wants me to setup an account using a key provided by Coinbase. Coinbase has never provided such a key to me, as I have never setup GA to work with them before.

Fine, click "Code not working" and they'll text the code to you. Why they don't do this to begin with, I have no idea. Anyway, its now been 15 minutes and no text has come through.

Exactly what is a user supposed to do when their entire login system is broken and offers no information on what to do?

Please, please, PLEASE test your systems BEFORE you go public and make big announcements.

Re: Instant Bitcoin Purchases at Coinbase

#48

Post by oscilloscope »

chatmasta wrote: post #28
lwhalen wrote: post #14

To be honest, it's kind of creepy. I just identified myself, and they somehow knew what month and year I purchased my car, a list of names I may or may not have been 'associated' with, a list of counties I may or may not have lived in, and stuff like that. I'm not particularly comfortable with a company knowing that much about me, but it's already complete so... horse, meet barn door? I wish they would at least tell…

Our team at Startup Weekend actually worked on "Identity Verification for Developers." So I'm pretty familiar with this. These kind of questions are called "wallet questions." You can get a lot of them from county records, which are public.

What stops identity thieves from using these records too?

Re: Instant Bitcoin Purchases at Coinbase

#50

Post by awt »

geuis wrote: post #47

I have an issue with Coinbase. I have an account that I opened a few months ago but didn't use. I'm trying to sign into it now, and it brings me to a screen asking for a code from "Authy" (whatever that is) or Google Authenticator. Ok, so I grab GA again. GA wants me to setup an account using a key provided by Coinbase. Coinbase has never provided such a key to me, as I have never setup GA to work with them before. F…

You might try Authy. It's been working well for me.
Post reply on HN