Live data from Hacker News

Bitcoin Cash Soars to $700, Coinbase Customers Threaten to Sue

fortune.com

191–200 of 429 posts

Re: Bitcoin Cash Soars to $700, Coinbase Customers Threaten to Sue

#191
post #70

As an outsider, the remarkable thing about this to me is that one can (for now) sell the same bitcoins twice, right? If I own 1 bitcoin pre-fork, I can sell it for $2700 and then sell the exact same bitcoin again as Bitcoin Cash for $700. Crazy.

Well, you could if there was any practical way to sell the bitcoin cash version at the moment. I personally think it likely that once you can, you'll be lucky to get $7 for one.

I sold for $740 on Kraken exchange, which is pretty big. They credited all BTC accounts with equal amount of BCH and allowed trading right away.

Re: Bitcoin Cash Soars to $700, Coinbase Customers Threaten to Sue

#192
post #103

75% of the hashrate was just advertrolling. Which had the side effect of keeping the difficulty high. They should have forked Bitcoin and used a different PoW... Oh wait that's Litecoin. https://news.bitcoin.com/the-trading-center-in-hk-where-they...

LTC isn't a fork of the BTC chain but a fork of the BTC software BCH is a fork of both.

Re: Bitcoin Cash Soars to $700, Coinbase Customers Threaten to Sue

#193

As an outsider, the remarkable thing about this to me is that one can (for now) sell the same bitcoins twice, right? If I own 1 bitcoin pre-fork, I can sell it for $2700 and then sell the exact same bitcoin again as Bitcoin Cash for $700. Crazy.

Yes, if you find a willing buyer to hand you over the cash :-) Until then, both of these dollar figures are pure fantasy.

Related question, is there a way to see inflow/outflow of dollars or any other real-world currency from/to these exchanges?

Re: Bitcoin Cash Soars to $700, Coinbase Customers Threaten to Sue

#194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, that's how I feel about this. It's not coinbase's responsibility to act as a host to all cryptocurrencies. The article states, > An activist group, which claims Coinbase's decision is akin to a brokerage withholding new shares from its investors, ... which is not at all what it's like. Coinbase isn't the only source to buy/sell BCC. I think it's ridiculous that a company could be sued because they don't offer a…

That is not the issue at all. The issue is that Coinbase is _withholding_ the BCC from its customers. Technically, Coinbase has been awarded the BCC for all of the wallets they are in control of, but are refusing to distribute it. It really is akin to a brokerage refusing to award shares to customers due to a company split/stock split.

They clearly stated, well in advance, through multiple channels, their intention not to support BCC. They specifically told people to take their BTC off CoinBase if they wanted BCC.

I don't think they could have been any clearer.

Re: Bitcoin Cash Soars to $700, Coinbase Customers Threaten to Sue

#195
post #2

Meanwhile, it's 12 hours since Bitcoin Cash actually mined a block. The only reason the price is so high is because people can't make transactions to send their BCH to exchanges. EDIT: My mistake. Originally said 20 hours. It's only 12.

This also conveniently prevents people from dumping BCH to drive down the price. The number of confirmations required by most exchanges in order to guard against double spending Sybil attacks will take days. The price will continue to rise as it makes its way into the news. By the time people can dump their BCH it is likely there will be substantial momentum behind it. The launch has been brilliantly orchestrated.

But the amount of existing BCH is so high, that the moment it starts reaching the exchanges the dump will be earth-shattering. If only there was a way to short BCH... :(

Re: Bitcoin Cash Soars to $700, Coinbase Customers Threaten to Sue

#196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're more or less correct. Coinbase is sitting on the keys to customer wallets/funds. When the fork happened, those keys work both on the original Bitcoin network and the new "Bitcoin Cash" network. Which, apparently turned out to have substantial value (currently trading ~$650). Coinbase made a colossal mistake in outright ignoring BCC and will likely get sued (and lose) because of it. If I had 10 BTC on CB and mi…

If CB can't easily allow customers to withdraw the BCC, they probably can't easily exchange the BCC themselves either? (I recognize that people not being able to withdraw the coins at all is an issue, just curious also about the ability of CB to speculate in the interim).

Allowing customers to withdraw BCC involves adapting their platform to connect to the BCC network, track how many BCCs each user owns, allow them to issue transaction orders in it, etc.

To exchange themselves they only need to load their existing wallets in an existing BCC client.

Re: Bitcoin Cash Soars to $700, Coinbase Customers Threaten to Sue

#197
Coinbase will either cave in on this or be sued and lose. Especially since they're sluggish about large withdrawals.

The real risk for Coinbase comes if they don't have 100% of the Bitcoins on deposit. If they don't have all those Bitcoins, like Mt. Gox, we're going to find out.

Re: Bitcoin Cash Soars to $700, Coinbase Customers Threaten to Sue

#198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is not the issue at all. The issue is that Coinbase is _withholding_ the BCC from its customers. Technically, Coinbase has been awarded the BCC for all of the wallets they are in control of, but are refusing to distribute it. It really is akin to a brokerage refusing to award shares to customers due to a company split/stock split.

They clearly stated, well in advance, through multiple channels, their intention not to support BCC. They specifically told people to take their BTC off CoinBase if they wanted BCC. I don't think they could have been any clearer.

>well in advance

As a customer, the first notification of this was sent to me was around ten day before the fork, I don't think that would be considered as 'well in advance'.

Re: Bitcoin Cash Soars to $700, Coinbase Customers Threaten to Sue

#199
post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, you could if there was any practical way to sell the bitcoin cash version at the moment. I personally think it likely that once you can, you'll be lucky to get $7 for one.

If there's no practical way to sell bitcoin cash, where does the $700 valuation come from?

At the moment, there are relatively few exchanges where you can trade BCH, and the only BCH on those exchanges is that which was distributed by the exchange itself during the split - as there is no way to move BCH for now.

On the other way, people who want to buy BCH can move their money to those few exchanges, and inflate the bubble, hoping in the greater fool. Ergo, the $700 prices.

Re: Bitcoin Cash Soars to $700, Coinbase Customers Threaten to Sue

#200
post #182
post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Being able to easily handle a potentially large amount of money is exactly the reason why Bitcoin was created in the first place, so you don't need to depend on entities like banks. But even then, if you don't want to do that, there are other exchanges and online wallets that can do all that for you.

Uh, you literary did not respond to any of my remarks on why someone might find it scary.

But I did: if you read my comment you will see I literally wrote that you don't have to store the wallet yourself, just use some online wallet. Another option is a hardware wallet like Trezor.

What I don't understand is why would anyone who is so scared of using Bitcoin transfer money to Coinbase to buy Bitcoins. To me this is the same as withdrawing all your money from your bank while being super scared of having your own savings in cash at home.

Post reply on HN