331–340 of 515 posts
I'll say this again about coinbase, I'm convinced they are playing the market on peoples investment. I bought when bitcoin was starting to rocket, they tied my money up for weeks, bitcoin doubles in that time. Then after that I get a sorry letter and my money back. What was my money doing in that time? Probably making them money.
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No...Bucketing would be you buying 100gal of fuel through a broker for $5/gal and your broker in turn not buying your fuel until the price drops to, say, $4/gal. Thus they get to keep the $100 difference + their normal fees.
Not saying this applies here, but assuming goods sold are delivered on time, does it matter what price and when they were purchased for sale? I can understand it not being legal in the case of brokerages that submit orders to an exchange but if I buy fuel (or sell a futures contract to buy fuel) the other end of that doesn't have to have the fuel at the time of agreeing to the contract, just when its delivered right?…
As this can get very lengthy I will just point you to the right resources where good information is available.
In terms of futures it is correct that the other party does not need to possess the underlying commodity. In the US commodity futures and options trading comes under Commodity Futures Trading Commission[0]. With futures contracts institutions that you would initiate the trade through are required to maintain strict margins this is usually the case for speculators and small hedging operations. Most if not all trading platforms I have come across automatically close/roll-over the futures contract, thus delivery does not usually become a problem. If delivery does arise, the definition of delivery is not the traditional definition, you can read more about it at [1],[2] and [3].
In terms of a small purchase of physical crude oil from a middle man with upfront cash it comes down to the paperwork and the terms that were agreed to. For example if you were given a delivery date of 5th December with a guaranteed latest by 10th, and they failed to deliver you'll be able to take them to court if you feel the losses and hardship suffered due to the delay justifies the lawyer and court fees you would incur.
In terms of a large shipment of crude (may also apply to a small purchase, but would be more trouble than necessary), the money is rarely given upfront but is usually on the basis of Letter of Credit(LC) issued by a financial institution that works similar to an Escrow, with the performance terms built-in. So in case of failure to deliver, damage etc. the monies released conform to the terms of the agreement. There is a ton of information available about how LCs work, start of with the wikipedia page [4], it would also help to learn how delivery works in international trade(Incoterms) [5].
[0] http://www.cftc.gov/index.htm
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Futures
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[1] http://futures.tradingcharts.com/tafm/tafm10.html
[2] http://investdaily.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/450
[3] http://www.investopedia.com/terms/f/failuretodeliver.asp
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International Trade
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I know this is bad, but financial institutions haven't exactly been reliable, honest, faultless or good, particularly the last few years. My own experiences have been bad, but the world still hasn't pulled out of the hole that the financial industry dug, so I'm pretty well off and lucky if I'm compare myself to the average. I'd suggest a different standard to hold this company to.
Having spent some time in financial institutions, I can only agree with lastlogin's point. It's important to remember that there are many such mistakes in large financial institutions every day. If I could post on yc and quickly get a response from my bank, I'd be a happy customer.
Brian from Coinbase here. Sorry for the delay on that - definitely not the customer experience we are striving for. We should have things squared away for you by end of day. Edit: your bitcoin credit has now been processed. It looks like as we were performing server upgrades last week a handful of jobs didn't run as normal. We should have certainly caught it and responded sooner so that was our fault. My deepest apol…
-1 for the cavalier, "looks like were were performing server upgrades last week..." That is a startup excuse. I'd love to hear Chase Bank use this excuse and see how that flies with banking regulators.
Brian from Coinbase here. Sorry for the delay on that - definitely not the customer experience we are striving for. We should have things squared away for you by end of day. Edit: your bitcoin credit has now been processed. It looks like as we were performing server upgrades last week a handful of jobs didn't run as normal. We should have certainly caught it and responded sooner so that was our fault. My deepest apol…
Off-topic, but since you guys have ignored: 3 emails from me, and a tweet... I sent you an XSS vulnerability to whitehat@coinbase.com according to https://coinbase.com/whitehat almost 3 weeks ago and haven't received so much as a confirmation "thanks we are looking into it" email from you guys.
Brian from Coinbase here. Sorry for the delay on that - definitely not the customer experience we are striving for. We should have things squared away for you by end of day. Edit: your bitcoin credit has now been processed. It looks like as we were performing server upgrades last week a handful of jobs didn't run as normal. We should have certainly caught it and responded sooner so that was our fault. My deepest apol…
Off-topic, but since you guys have ignored: 3 emails from me, and a tweet... I sent you an XSS vulnerability to whitehat@coinbase.com according to https://coinbase.com/whitehat almost 3 weeks ago and haven't received so much as a confirmation "thanks we are looking into it" email from you guys.
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It sounds like they gave him $35k worth of bitcoins at their current price, which is more bitcoins than he would have received had the transaction went through at the earlier date. Maybe I'm completely misunderstanding though.
Coinbase updated their comment after seeing the backlash.
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In other words, Coinbase just pocketed his loss. (Assuming the transaction was made today.)
That would be my impression, and that's really shady.
Coinbase US understaffed, running fast and loose, and can't handle the spike in attention. This proves bitcoin isn't ready. Coinbase has a long road ahead of it.
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As highlighted in the thread and in PG's reply, the default response to criticism of Coinbase is to nuke the conversation. As PG wrote: > Strictly speaking I should have killed the post entirely Now, it's possible that other complaints on HN were nuked by PG or some other moderator, making it difficult for someone to find it.
As highlighted in the thread and in PG's reply, the default response to criticism of Coinbase is to nuke the conversation As PG wrote: > Strictly speaking I should have killed the post entirely That's not why he said that. He explains further down thread: HN is a news site, not a customer support forum for companies funded by YC, and in fact the site guidelines explicitly ask that it not be used that way
Brian from Coinbase here. Sorry for the delay on that - definitely not the customer experience we are striving for. We should have things squared away for you by end of day. Edit: your bitcoin credit has now been processed. It looks like as we were performing server upgrades last week a handful of jobs didn't run as normal. We should have certainly caught it and responded sooner so that was our fault. My deepest apol…
The worst thing is, during this whole time, my support ticket was never answered and is still unanswered. There is no indication that it has ever been read by a human.
Since you admitted to guilt, I shall be entitled to the bitcoin credit at today's price as well.