Coinbase’ customer support is crap. You van only get someone on the phone if your account is compromised; anything else goes to email, and they respond when they get around to it. Also their email verification system for transfers fails frequently causing transfers to be canceled. Pretty convenient way for them to keep your money. I am biased but I’m pretty unhappy with coinbase right now.
Coinbase S-1
341–350 of 736 posts
Re: Coinbase S-1
#342Earlier quoted context omitted.
in reverse. the evolution of the modern financial system is less and less friction for each transaction, lower costs. crypto: more friction, slower transactions, higher transaction costs. And wicked exchange volatility. Plus no way to expand or contract the supply to prevent economic shocks. I like my fiat and central banks, thank you very much.
> more friction, slower transactions, higher transaction costs. Bitcoin, sure. Plenty of other cryptocurrencies which don't have these issues. Cardano has faster transactions than any monetary transfer method (besides cash), with low fees. You also get Bitcoin cash has negligible transactions fees with 10-20 minute transactions. Nano has fee-less, near-instant transactions (could actually compete with cash for p2p tr…
Everything you said is true, yet still getting downvoted.
HN doesn't like crypto. Say anything pro crypto (even when it's true) and get downvoted.
very sad.
Re: Coinbase S-1
#343Earlier quoted context omitted.
I once saw crytpocurrency described as "speedrunning the evolution of the modern financial system".
in reverse. the evolution of the modern financial system is less and less friction for each transaction, lower costs. crypto: more friction, slower transactions, higher transaction costs. And wicked exchange volatility. Plus no way to expand or contract the supply to prevent economic shocks. I like my fiat and central banks, thank you very much.
Pretty sure central banks have never intentionally or significantly "contracted" their pyramid schemes.
https://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/051315/what-...
Re: Coinbase S-1
#344Earlier quoted context omitted.
Like yesterday, when Fedwire and ACH were offline for hours? https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/government/federal-res...
How many people would have noticed, if not for the headlines?
Anyone trying to send money using ACH. Maybe that doesn’t include you, but many regular people use it on an everyday basis.
Re: Coinbase S-1
#345Many 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.
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…
> rooting for their own society to collapse just to have another reason to use Bitcoin.
I view the main value of Bitcoin (or gold, especially paper gold) is as a gamble or hedge against currencies collapsing, in a situation which leaves Bitcoin (or gold) relatively unaffected.
Without doing the formal calculation, I'd guess that Kelly criterion will suggest that an average person with an average risk profile should hedge 0 on this basis (exactly what the vast majority of people have done).
If you've invested more than that, it becomes in your personal interest that currencies collapse in precisely that way.
Re: Coinbase S-1
#346Earlier quoted context omitted.
>All it takes Oh just that huh? The market wouldn't value that new fork on par with finite BTC, so those miners would be hurting themselves, and burning energy for a worth-less coin. This action is trivial to consider, so what makes you think it has bearing on BTC value? When these miners leave old network, hash power & difficulty go down so other miners who prefer finite protocol can come in to mine. What's the actu…
Actually this isn’t the only way. If financial intermediaries like Coinbase start extending credit or engaging in fractional reserve banking, then yes, you can “create more Bitcoin.” Just like how in the gold standard, you could still create more gold backed dollars by making a mortgage loan... Kind of funny how all these new monetary wizards miss out on this simple fact.
That’s nonsense. Only miners can create new Bitcoin. What Coinbase could do is to issue a financial derivative backed by Bitcoin e.g. a “Coinbase Penny” representing a 1/1000th of Bitcoins. And then could go on issue more of those pennies than actually backed by Bitcoins. But it wouldn’t be cryptocurrency if it wouldn’t run on a blockchain. Of course, the “Coinbase Penny” could collapse if we people stopped trusting Coinbase. Bitcoin wouldn’t notice like the gold price does not care whether a single US dollar is still backed by 24.057 grams of silver like it originally did.
Re: Coinbase S-1
#347Earlier quoted context omitted.
How are you going to convert $0.001 to Euros? Why is receiving $0.001 a matter of urgency that can't wait until tomorrow?
Funny how this conversation started how crypto is slow and expensive, and now turned into slow and expensive is OK :P. In a crypto world, you don't need to convert to Euros. Are we in a crypto world yet? No. Will we live in crypto world in the future? Maybe, when it's faster and cheaper ;).
It's a bit of both.
For the common transactions people make, crypto is both slow and expensive. I can Zelle someone instantly, for free. In the EU, Australia, etc., bank-to-bank transfers are similarly instant. I don't know that Bitcoin etc. ever get to totally free in this fashion, and it's probably 99.9% of most people's money transfer usage.
For the uncommon transactions - like the $50k international transfer you mention - slow tends to be OK, and it's likely gonna have some expense either way.
Short version: In contrived scenarios, Bitcoin may come out on top, but that's not likely to convince many people.
Re: Coinbase S-1
#348Earlier quoted context omitted.
They have a reasonable sized moat then no? I’ve no idea $77bn seems large, but they intend to be the world’s financial system in 10-20 years so could be worth even more.
> They have a reasonable sized moat then no? Do they? I'd rather own a couple of major exchanges in today's financial system for the same price. ICE net income $2.1bn market cap $63bn NDAQ net income $0.5bn market cap $23bn CME net income $2.1bn market cap $72bn CBOE net income $0.4bn market cap $11bn
Coinbase's real value seems like it'll be its ability to use deposits to provide loans. Big money in banking.
Re: Coinbase S-1
#349Argentina is a great example. I am an American and have been there many times. They have extreme inflation and regressive policies against USD or foreign currency. Take a look at https://bluedollar.net. Official rates are buy at 89.98 and sell at 94.98 (ARS). Unofficial rates are buy at 138 and sell at 143. That's a massive spread saying that the people on the street are willing to spend 35% more because they know the Peso will eventually blow up and the USD is more stable which they can sell down the line for more ARS. This is sketchy in country. You might be walking a slightly illegal line. Possessing cash makes you a target for theft. Owning bitcoin makes this money transfer and storage of equivalent money easier.
Re: Coinbase S-1
#350Earlier quoted context omitted.
Coinbase does allow people to store their funds with them, but it's common for people to buy bitcoins on Coinbase and then immediately transfer them to their own wallet, or to a service with far better security like Kraken(which will happen less once Kraken supports ACH and immediate funds).
Some people transfer coins out, but that’s definitely not what the average person is doing with ever-increasing Bitcoin transaction fees.
Doesn't have to be what the average person is doing, it just has to be an option for those who want it.