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Coinbase S-1

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Re: Coinbase S-1

#361

Post by kgwgk »

spamizbad wrote: post #256
levosmetalo wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I like Bitcoin as a diversification for being a “better version of gold” - it has the scarcity ... Why do we repeat the claim of Bitcoin scarcity when we all know it's just a promise and nothing more, there is no technical limitation? All it takes to "print" more Bitcoins is for the majority of miners to agree to make a fork that will allow for more. And that will happen at one point. As for Gold, good luck trying…

> As for Gold, good luck trying to mine an infinite amount of it. Biggest barrier to more gold is technology. There's a ton of it in space.

You don't need to go to space. Gold can be created from other elements. It's just a question of tweaking atoms after all.

Re: Coinbase S-1

#362

Post by rglullis »

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.

Trust and "Independence" are not binary qualities when we are talking about these systems. It's a matter of risk exposure, a sliding scale that you can control.

With crypto I can choose how much of my assets are going to be in crypto that I control (long-term savings, DeFi investments), how much is going to be in a custodial wallet (could be for my scheduled on-ramp DCA buys, could be to keep more liquid trading) and how much I am going to keep in a regular traditional bank for more "traditional" investments, my checking account, private pension payments, credit cards, etc, etc.

This wouldn't be easy to achieve if we don't have reputable centralized exchanges. I am not dependent on them to control the funds I already moved out, but I am relying on them to have a functional system to fill in the gaps that the current permissionless/trustless systems can not provide.

Re: Coinbase S-1

#363

Post by csomar »

jmcqk6 wrote: post #264
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…

> 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?

Bitcoin can actually be quite resilient to that. Also the USD failing, doesn't necessarily mean a global world war. The US can go the way of the Soviet Union or the British Empire.

Re: Coinbase S-1

#364

Post by mr_sturd »

beaner wrote: post #354
ignoramous wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> These are insane fees ripe for disruption. To think that coinbase started with a no-fee model: Coinbase will make money more like an exchange down the road, 0.5% to convert money into our out of bitcoin, but once you have your money in bitcoin there are no transaction fees (it mentions this on the homepage, but admittedly it's still a bit confusing)... It would be much easier to just say "no fees" - this is simple…

You're conflating things. When they say "transaction fees" here, they're referring to blockchain network fees (which they previously covered for users, before network congestion), not buy/sell fees, which they have always charged.

Though they used to take no fees from market makers.

Re: Coinbase S-1

#365

Post by goat_whisperer »

silentsea90 wrote: post #352
goat_whisperer wrote: post #338

Bitcoin made a lot of sense when I first read about it in 2011. Back then I feel like it was primarily used as an anonymous payment method. Think dark web/silk road type stuff. I certainly don't endorse that behavior, but bitcoin as a payment method made a lot of sense. Bitcoin makes 0 sense to me as an investment. It's pure speculation with no underlying intrinsic value. It's the Dutch Tulips 10.0 basically. And now…

At what point either in years or market cap or price per coin will you start to question your mental model of Bitcoin?

Ironically, as the market cap and price per coin increase, I grow more and more skeptical of bitcoin!

Re: Coinbase S-1

#366

Post by csomar »

ppierald wrote: post #349

Argentina 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 t…

Most countries with capital controls have this spread. There is a reason that they have these capital control in place. Most people in the western world don't have any idea how bad it is. Here is how much bad it is: https://tradingeconomics.com/country-list/inflation-rate

Re: Coinbase S-1

#367

Post by hungryhobo »

gruez wrote: post #305
dgellow wrote: post #283

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not buy gold if that's what you want? What is better than gold about bitcoin? I never really understood this argument. I see some value in bitcoin but it doesn't have the same properties as precious metals: bitcoin value is only based on faith (so from this point of view it's not too different from so-called fiat currencies), there is no natural demand. If you have gold, silver, platinum, you will always have at…

>If you have gold, silver, platinum, you will always have at least some demand from the industry. Even if the majority of the current market price is due to speculation you still have an actual need for the metal. That's not the case for bitcoin. You could have the market losing faith tomorrow and it's done, your coins have zero value. Is there a difference between investing in gold (30% "real" value, 70% "speculated…

Volatility?

Re: Coinbase S-1

#368

Post by freewilly1040 »

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.

Why does being on this site imply a rooting interest in YC’s portfolio?

Re: Coinbase S-1

#369

Post by victor22 »

akudha wrote: post #90
victor22 wrote: post #66

Coinbase is a stain in cryptocurrency's history and will be remembered as that in the future. It still has a chance to change and help, but for now its against everything bitcoin stands for.

I don't know what bitcoin stands for anymore. It is consuming insane amount of energy solving silly math problems, it is the perfect example to showcase human greed, it cannot be used for anything practical and the only reason people seem to be interested in it is to make a quick buck. It all started with good intentions, but those seem to be gone now.

Yeah I understand your frustration and I can see how projects can change after it grows (by many factors in bitcoins case), but I dont see bad intentions in play here. Fiat will still be printed non stop across the planet while bitcoin will keep following the same minting rate, locked at the same growth pace and the same 21M max limit. Isn't this a million times better than a system that is by design made to rob us?

Re: Coinbase S-1

#370

Post by graeme »

silentsea90 wrote: post #352
goat_whisperer wrote: post #338

Bitcoin made a lot of sense when I first read about it in 2011. Back then I feel like it was primarily used as an anonymous payment method. Think dark web/silk road type stuff. I certainly don't endorse that behavior, but bitcoin as a payment method made a lot of sense. Bitcoin makes 0 sense to me as an investment. It's pure speculation with no underlying intrinsic value. It's the Dutch Tulips 10.0 basically. And now…

At what point either in years or market cap or price per coin will you start to question your mental model of Bitcoin?

Not OP, but for me it would be about when crypto actually starts doing something. Smart contracts and NFTs show the hint of a possible future use case.

But Bitcoin seems to have no use case, and it takes more and more energy as the price goes up.

The higher price absent any use case or advantage seems like it only has speculative value. It could become a religious thing where it has value because people value it: a lot of gold’s value exists for this same reason.

But I’ll wait to see how things play out with Tether before thinking that is likely. They are under pretty severe reporting requirements for the next two years and if they can’t show reserves for the $30 billion they printed last year they are in trouble.

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