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

Introducing the Shift Card: Use Bitcoin where Visa is accepted

blog.coinbase.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

121–130 of 359 posts

Re: Introducing the Shift Card: Use Bitcoin where Visa is accepted

#121

Post by mithaler »

Uptrenda wrote: post #114

I've always found it ironic how companies like Coinbase are indirectly contributing to their own destruction with every passing transaction that's not purely based around Bitcoin. This is of course: assuming that Bitcoin gets as big as a lot of people think it will. If it does: their increased focus on centralization and traditional fintech services (which is completely incompatible with the philosophy behind Bitcoin…

By this logic, Coinbase basically can't win. If they do what they need to do to allow Bitcoin to become popular -- that is, make it as pleasant to use as a bank with credit and debit cards -- they essentially become a bank, thus earning the scorn of the Bitcoin community. But if they don't, Bitcoin remains a niche product that no one besides a few ideological supporters with axes to grind will ever use.

Re: Introducing the Shift Card: Use Bitcoin where Visa is accepted

#122

Post by dsmithatx »

um_ya wrote: post #75
ewillbefull wrote: post #19

You can now use Bitcoin anywhere VISA is accepted, so long as coinbase doesn't close your account, ignore you and close all the tickets you open. Even if you painstakingly collect and compile sensitive documents for them to review, which was a gigantic waste of my time, thanks! I have for months encouraged everyone I know not to use coinbase and will continue to do so.

Can confirm, was banned by Coinbase too.

Anyone banned, were you given a reason?

Re: Introducing the Shift Card: Use Bitcoin where Visa is accepted

#123

Post by adrianmacneil »

ewillbefull wrote: post #19

You can now use Bitcoin anywhere VISA is accepted, so long as coinbase doesn't close your account, ignore you and close all the tickets you open. Even if you painstakingly collect and compile sensitive documents for them to review, which was a gigantic waste of my time, thanks! I have for months encouraged everyone I know not to use coinbase and will continue to do so.

This might be a silly question, but did you use your Coinbase account to conduct any illegal transactions? The team there really cares about customer experience, so generally if they are ignoring you it's because your account has some connection to illegal/banned activity, which they can't disclose due to ridiculous financial laws.

Re: Introducing the Shift Card: Use Bitcoin where Visa is accepted

#124

Post by donpdonp »

c0nducktr wrote: post #118
iamsohungry wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apparently you didn't study it last week when Coinbase was $20-$50 different from BTC-E for 5 days.

Are you sure BTC-E wasn't the outlier? That's what I've seen in the past.

I've been watching the spread between exchanges for a long time at https://cointhink.com/arbitrage/btc:usd and BTC-E is nearly always 'away' from the rest of the markets by 5% or more, and always less than the others. I assume there are significant hurdles to getting USD in or out of this Bulgarian exchange.

Re: Introducing the Shift Card: Use Bitcoin where Visa is accepted

#125

Post by vkou »

celticninja wrote: post #68
JupiterMoon wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The mtgox débâcle springs to mind. EDIT: My point is that a financial service is more than just the protocols used. Actually the protocols are the least important thing to the average customer. The more important thing is trust. I trust that my money in the bank will stay there and that transactions made using my bank will go to the person I say they should. Part of the reason for my trust is in the regulation around…

But that was not a disaster for bitcoin, that was a case of fraud and theft. Not much different to someone embezzling fiat from a firm e.g.secure investmen, and that wasn't a disaster for fiat currencies or the traditional banking system. I think that many people hold bitcoin and bitcoin businesses to a higher standard than they would companies that operate outside this sphere.

If someone stole 5% of all the world's fiat currency from an unregulated, uninsured financial institution (Which in that sense was no different from any other BTC exchange... So it's not like anyone had better options.) with customers not getting any recourse, that would be a disaster for fiat currencies.

At least, it would be an unmitigated disaster for the Wild West style of regulating fiat currencies.

People hold BTC businesses to a higher standard because after your BTC is stolen by 'hackers' in an ex-Soviet republic, you have absolutely zero recourse. They hold BTC to a higher standard because no individual in the fiat world siphoned off a trillion dollars into his accounts last year. They hold BTC to a higher standard because the companies operating in the space absolutely refuse to properly protect their customers.

Re: Introducing the Shift Card: Use Bitcoin where Visa is accepted

#126

Post by vkou »

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #90
bachmeier wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not only that, but there's a $10 issuance fee associated with this, and based on the announcement, there will be usage charges as well in the future. So it's Visa + fees. As opposed to the Visa I pull out of my wallet now and use without paying any fees.

Well, except for the 2% merchant fee of course (that's passed along to all of us in the price)

Which you won't get a discount on if you buy with BTC.

Meanwhile, I get 1-3% cashback...

Re: Introducing the Shift Card: Use Bitcoin where Visa is accepted

#127

Post by adrianmacneil »

Uptrenda wrote: post #114

I've always found it ironic how companies like Coinbase are indirectly contributing to their own destruction with every passing transaction that's not purely based around Bitcoin. This is of course: assuming that Bitcoin gets as big as a lot of people think it will. If it does: their increased focus on centralization and traditional fintech services (which is completely incompatible with the philosophy behind Bitcoin…

As someone who used to work at Coinbase, hopefully I can shed some light on this.

First of all, Bitcoin should not be seen primarily as a currency, but as a protocol. Therefore, bitcoin does not need to increase in value for it to be successful, and in the long term the price is irrelevant. Bitcoin can be used as a medium of exchange without regard to the price, and many people at Coinbase believe in this future (rather than bitcoin becoming a widely used currency held directly by end users, at least in the near future).

Secondly, many people at Coinbase believe deeply in the decentralized (and potentially anonymous/privacy-focused) aspects of using bitcoin as a currency (myself included). However, bitcoin cannot be successful as a currency unless it is easy to exchange between bitcoin and your local currency, and bitcoin won't gain worldwide acceptance until it is easy to (a) exchange bitcoin and (b) spend bitcoin. Therefore, Coinbase's primary goal is to make buying and selling bitcoin as easy as possible, so that we can enable a future where financial privacy is optional (versus today, where it is basically inescapable).

Re: Introducing the Shift Card: Use Bitcoin where Visa is accepted

#128

Post by elcct »

AYBABTME wrote: post #60

I'm curious what the exchange rate looks like when purchasing stuff that's not in USD. If the conversion is the same as that of Bitcoin USD, then it would make this card super useful for people who travel a lot. What I mean is, it'd be cool if the card would do: - Bitcoin CAD - Bitcoin EUR - Bitcoin BHT - Bitcoin HKD - Bitcoin AUD So that we wouldn't need to do: - Bitcoin USD CAD - Bitcoin USD EUR - Bitcoin USD BHT -…

   - BitcoinDogecoinCAD
   - BitcoinDogecoinEUR
   - BitcoinDogecoinBHT
   - BitcoinDogecoinHKD
   - BitcoinDogecoinAUD

Re: Introducing the Shift Card: Use Bitcoin where Visa is accepted

#130

Post by adrianmacneil »

chatmasta wrote: post #55

Any idea why only 24 states? Is coinbase following FINCEN regulations by filing as a money transmitter in each eligible state?

Yes, probably related to money transmission licensing (and various other state finance laws). See https://www.coinbase.com/legal/licenses. There may also be some restrictions at the Shift end.
Post reply on HN