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Coinbase S-1

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Re: Coinbase S-1

#411

Post by phreack »

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…

There's a bit more nuance to it, in that you're not even allowed to buy at the official rate, and buying something in USD with a credit card gets you slapped with a 65% tax, so it's more like the 140-160 rate actually reflects the current real value of the currency. Having an 'official' rate nowadays is more of a performance to pretend that the already high inflation rate is actually a lot higher, and incredibly it works.

Re: Coinbase S-1

#412

Post by tcoff91 »

chadash wrote: post #371
silentsea90 wrote: post #352

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 also a skeptic and here are my thoughts: - Market cap is sort of a misleading stat. Microsoft's market cap is ~1.75 trillion, but it's p/e ratio is 34. So if they stopped reinvesting in their business, I'd be making 3% yearly on that investment with a hedge against inflation since they can just raise prices. A lot more goes into their valuation than that, but my point is that even if you are a huge skepti…

By the time the volatility is gone so is the opportunity. Bitcoin would need to expand its userbase massively to be stable. Stability can't happen unless the price goes up massively.

Re: Coinbase S-1

#413

Post by phreack »

dalyons wrote: post #410
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…

How do you get your ARS income into BTC though? Surely the government tries to put controls on that too? Or is there a black market for btc too with a similar high spread? Genuinely curious

There's a lot of legal exchanges, and also a booming black market and p2p, all of them with a similar spread. And there's a lot of legal projects aiming to control crypto trading going on at the moment, but it's uncertain what'll end up as law.

Re: Coinbase S-1

#414

Post by ericpauley »

mr_sturd wrote: post #364
beaner wrote: post #354

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Yep, the market maker fee was added after the beginning of 2018.

Re: Coinbase S-1

#415

Post by Zetaphor »

electriclove wrote: post #333
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.

This is the main fiat to crypto onramp in the US. The success of CoinBase will increase crypto adoption. I don't see this as preventing DEX growth but actually increasing it by growing the pond.

I had to scroll past far too many hot takes about how centralized exchanges signal the end of decentralization before finally finding someone saying this.

There is a decentralized version of every service that Coinbase currently provides and many more they don't, with the exception of fiat on/off-ramps. Until regulations change that's going to mean centralized entities that cooperate with the existing financial institutions.

That fact alone does not invalidate the significant progress being made in every other part of this space with regard to decentralization. Once my USD are converted to crypto I can leave Coinbase and fully engage with the decentralized ecosystem, only going back to a custodian like Coinbase if/when I want to return to USD or other fiats.

Re: Coinbase S-1

#416

Post by tcoff91 »

xoralkindi wrote: post #113

Someone on here once said decentralized systems tend to end up centralized, this will be my goto example. A p2p system of exchanging digital tokens end up centralized around the a bank.

There are so many other options than coinbase for fiat crypto exchange. How is crypto centralized around coinbase? Hell if you really want to be a true cryptopunk you can use bisq for decentralized crypto fiat exchange.

Re: Coinbase S-1

#417

Post by jellicle »

bhupy wrote: post #377
jellicle wrote: post #322

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're still wrong. Any exchange, due to the crazy lax regulations in the industry, can do this: * accept 100 bitcoins for deposit, giving their previous owners "100 claims against exchange X" in return * sell those 100 bitcoins * the new owners of those 100 bitcoins can roll down to exchange X and deposit them and accept 100 claims against exchange X in return * and the exchange can sell those 100 bitcoins once agai…

What you've described is also roughly how gold vs gold certificates work. You're correct that an owner of a gold certificate doesn't truly own the gold, and are exposed to extra risk on account of that. That being said, the value of gold has still remained stable/flat (relative to USD inflation). Also, every time you buy BTC, you can see the underlying transaction on the public block explorer. The day that stops bein…

You seem confused about what I wrote. Suggest you read it again. All you've done is reiterate some Bitcoin dogma without attempting to grapple with reality as it presents itself to you.

Re: Coinbase S-1

#418

Post by pvarangot »

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?

What about usable but inconvenient? Most of the world is like that, Africa, China, India, for large transactions gold or the USD is inconvenient and dangerous. Venezuela, Argentina, are other examples closer to the US.

Re: Coinbase S-1

#419

Post by lxgr »

codehalo wrote: post #374
WD-42 wrote: post #297

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Bitcoin is not stored on your HDD, or on a local wallet. The "local wallet" simply points (or references) an address on the bitcoin blockchain. There are obviously more details, but you can do your own research.

Isn't this functionally equivalent to the statement "(access to) the coins is stored on your HDD" for most purposes?

Not all discussions require the highest level of technical detail.

Re: Coinbase S-1

#420

Post by justapassenger »

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.

Mining is a small, niche part of crypto craziness. Real action is in trading.
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