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Coinbase S-1

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Re: Coinbase S-1

#291

Post by PragmaticPulp »

lvs wrote: post #119
tristanj wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Satoshi's wallets have 1.1 million bitcoins, which are worth $56.4 billion at today's price. That would place Satoshi Nakamoto among the 25 wealthiest people on the planet.

The question is why that fact alone would affect the value of this company's shares. Just identifying him doesn't mean he'd liquidate.

Risk factors don’t mean “this will definitely happen”. It means this is a known risk for the system underpinning their profits.

A more likely scenario is that the keys to those coins are compromised, somehow, given their unbelievably high value.

Re: Coinbase S-1

#292

Post by tyre »

hanniabu wrote: post #217
blhack wrote: post #213

It's so weird to me that here, on hacker news people have such a hatred of coinbase. Coinbase is a YC company, and if some of the predictions are accurate, will be the highest valued YC company so far.

It's because they view crypto like people viewed the internet/computers back in the day. "It'll never work it's too complicated. No need for it, mail workers just fine. It's just used for illegal activity. Why do I need a productivity boost when I have my assistant to do everything. "

People keep making this parallel to “well they said this about the internet.” People also said that about pets.com, about bloodletting, about horoscopes and communism and hydroxyclorquine and Lizardpeople.

It doesn’t replace mail, it isn’t used mainstream for anything but illegal activity and casino speculation, and I’m not sure what productivity boost we are talking about here.

At some point you don’t get to make the internet or the “Henry Ford said they’d ask for a faster horse” comparison.

At some point you have to deliver the goods. Has coinbase made a shitload of money, sure. Has blockchain done any of the things its prophets have promised? Nope.

Re: Coinbase S-1

#293

Post by jmcqk6 »

temp8964 wrote: post #278
jmcqk6 wrote: post #264

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> an unstable society or one facing high inflation What are the chances that in an environment where the USD is not usable, there is an available network and electricity that makes bitcoin usable?

I don't think cactus2093 meant US / western world.

I get that I said USD, but the fundamental premise doesn't get that altered.

Bitcoin is heavily resource intensive. In an environment that is already resource pressed either due to political instability/natural disaster/inflation/whatever, what are the chances that the resources are going to be found that can actually operate bitcoin, and won't be better utilizied elsewhere?

Re: Coinbase S-1

#294

Post by Cthulhu_ »

missedthecue wrote: post #266
justapassenger wrote: post #244

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 1.14bn in revenue on 193bn in trading volume: thats 60bps on every dollar traded. These are insane fees ripe for disruption. They know really well, that best business during gold rush is to sell shovels.

Wouldn't that be more applicable to the GPU manufacturers? Coinbase is basically a bank.

Those too, but Coinbase will generate pretty constant revenue (depending on trading volume) while GPU manufacturers have the additional expense and risk of R&D, production and distribution.

Not to diminish Coinbase's work of course, they're dealing with a ton of international regulation. Their trade is probably more a legal one than a software engineering one.

Re: Coinbase S-1

#295

Post by lottin »

iexplainbtc wrote: post #269
arnaudsm wrote: post #44

Many have forgotten why we used cryptocurrencies in the first place. The original promise of cryptocurrency was to become independent from banks. In the end CoinBase (like every exchange) is a great product, but just a bank. It's centralized, hackable, has economies of scale, etc.

You can't go to a bank, ask them to give you all your money in cash and hide it under a mattress (not in most countries at least). You can go to Coinbase and simply transfer all your funds to your own wallet in a matter of seconds.

I didn't know that in most countries it is forbidden to hide money under a mattress. This is news to me.

Re: Coinbase S-1

#296

Post by felixfbecker »

temp8964 wrote: post #288
cactus2093 wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don’t speak for everyone there, “we” don’t all have the same reason. I like Bitcoin as a diversification for being a “better version of gold” - it has the scarcity and you can physically own it but it is much easier to store and send anywhere in the world if needed. These properties also mean that in a pinch, if you live in an unstable society or one facing high inflation it can work as an alternative financial syste…

Can you "physically own" Bitcoin? Or what does "physically own" mean exactly? I kind of understand what "physically own" gold means, but not sure it means the same as "physically own" Bitcoin. Getting downvoted on this. I am not complaining about the downvotes, but seriously, please enlighten me...

All you need is a wallet address, which you can put on a USB stick or even print out on a card and store at home.

Re: Coinbase S-1

#297

Post by WD-42 »

temp8964 wrote: post #288
cactus2093 wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don’t speak for everyone there, “we” don’t all have the same reason. I like Bitcoin as a diversification for being a “better version of gold” - it has the scarcity and you can physically own it but it is much easier to store and send anywhere in the world if needed. These properties also mean that in a pinch, if you live in an unstable society or one facing high inflation it can work as an alternative financial syste…

Can you "physically own" Bitcoin? Or what does "physically own" mean exactly? I kind of understand what "physically own" gold means, but not sure it means the same as "physically own" Bitcoin. Getting downvoted on this. I am not complaining about the downvotes, but seriously, please enlighten me...

If you use a local wallet to store your BTC, let’s say on a HDD, the the magnetic pattern on the disk that makes up the bits that represent your coins would be physically owning then. They can’t be retrieved any other way.

Re: Coinbase S-1

#298

Post by soared »

temp8964 wrote: post #288
cactus2093 wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don’t speak for everyone there, “we” don’t all have the same reason. I like Bitcoin as a diversification for being a “better version of gold” - it has the scarcity and you can physically own it but it is much easier to store and send anywhere in the world if needed. These properties also mean that in a pinch, if you live in an unstable society or one facing high inflation it can work as an alternative financial syste…

Can you "physically own" Bitcoin? Or what does "physically own" mean exactly? I kind of understand what "physically own" gold means, but not sure it means the same as "physically own" Bitcoin. Getting downvoted on this. I am not complaining about the downvotes, but seriously, please enlighten me...

It’s a comparison to your traditional bank account. At chase bank you don’t physically own the money in your account - it’s in a banks database. With Bitcoin you own that coin and it’s stored in your own digital wallet. Like cash v bank account, but Bitcoin is safer and easier to store than cash.

Re: Coinbase S-1

#300

Post by Cthulhu_ »

saberdancer wrote: post #208
jcims wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm a complete n00b so this is coming from a place of ignorance, why is that such a factor in the current price? Someone is sitting on $50B in a $1T market, who cares?

Unlike stocks where price is usually influenced by future dividend you can extract from the stock (profit), Bitcoin is more like gold. Imagine if suddenly someone found 100 000 metric tons of gold and wanted to sell fast. It would saturate the market and the price would plummet. Same would happen if Satoshi wanted to quickly sell 50 billion of coins.

Yeah, but if Satoshi - or anyone - finds the keys again (I'm fairly sure the keys are lost tbh), I doubt they would try and move it in one go.

Also, again I'm no expert but, I think the mere news of the BTC moving from that wallet would have much more of an impact on the BTC price than the BTC ending up on the market.

The crypto market is highly irrational and influenced more by memes than straight supply and demand. I'm confident that the crypto news sites are all owned by people holding crypto. If I had a ton of money and a lot more to gain, I too would invest in paying or setting up media outlets to try and direct the price upwards even further.

I mean I'm fairly sure that's market manipulation, but it's only a crime if it can be traced back to me AND if crypto is considered an investment product, beholden to market manipulation laws.

I mean if I put a haunted plant on sale on ebay and pay a bit of money for the media to report on it, and some schmuck comes by to buy it for $10K instead of its real value of $10, does that make me guilty of market manipulation? I mean the answer is yes, but is there a punishment for that?

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