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Coinbase Commerce: merchants can accept multiple digital currencies

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Re: Coinbase Commerce: merchants can accept multiple digital currencies

#51

Post by vosper »

blunte wrote: post #49

The KYC/AML regulations require essentially 1:1 human effort for every new person who attempts to buy any practical amount of cryptocurrency (within the US and EU, and probably elsewhere). So the #1 problem is that people who want to buy some cryptocurrency cannot. They wait days or weeks to get verified. And the exchanges and money changers want to provide the virtual currency to the hungry customers, but they canno…

I'm in this boat now - I've been a Coinbase customer for years, and then randomly they blocked my ability to withdraw my money (MY money, BTW) from the account. Nothing had changed about my account setup.

Now they want me to go through the Photo ID process, but I don't have a US drivers license, only a permanent resident (green) card for ID. Which should be fine, after all it works as ID for literally everything else I could need ID for in the US - including flying. Support have been fairly responsive, but they keep sending me back to through their photo verification process, and I keep telling them "but this is not a driver's license, please look at the pictures!".

It's really annoying - this is a federally-issued photo ID I'm required to carry with me, and yet Coinbase seems to be struggling to accept it. In the meantime my money is stuck and I don't know how to get it back.

Re: Coinbase Commerce: merchants can accept multiple digital currencies

#53

Post by lewi »

blunte wrote: post #49

The KYC/AML regulations require essentially 1:1 human effort for every new person who attempts to buy any practical amount of cryptocurrency (within the US and EU, and probably elsewhere). So the #1 problem is that people who want to buy some cryptocurrency cannot. They wait days or weeks to get verified. And the exchanges and money changers want to provide the virtual currency to the hungry customers, but they canno…

When I first bought ETH (Coinbase) it took 5 min verification and a debit card. Practically instant in comparison to traditional financial setup times.

Re: Coinbase Commerce: merchants can accept multiple digital currencies

#54

Post by beaner »

vim_wannabe wrote: post #4

Looks exactly like Sprite's offering right down to the scary 15 minute window you are expected to complete your Bitcoin transaction in, doesn't it?

Bitpay and Coinbase's old merchant tools both already use a 15 minute window. Not sure what Sprite is but most likely the influence was the other way around.

Re: Coinbase Commerce: merchants can accept multiple digital currencies

#55

Post by decorator »

notahacker wrote: post #48
decorator wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't think of anything that is universally good other than God. & from what I've heard about the Old Testament that's not even true! So we a situation where people can't even construct something from their imagination that is virtuous in all concerns. & people want financial technology to meet that bar? Seems unlikely to me. Could there be some money laundering? Probably. Will there be attempts by the owners of th…

The traditional financial system carries out trillions of transactions which are not money laundering, yet is required to jump through enormous amounts of red tape to prove its customers are not money launderers, and companies still get into trouble with regulators if they're not satisfied with their AML policies. A new payment processor advertising the ability to accept completely anonymous transactions as a key ben…

> The traditional financial system carries out trillions of transactions which are not money laundering, yet is required to jump through enormous amounts of red tape to prove its customers are not money launderers, and companies still get into trouble with regulators if they're not satisfied with their AML policies.

I'd agree the traditional system would probably have less money laundering. It also has less freedom, & could have significantly less innovation in the future.

> marketing Lack-of-AML-as-a-Service is sort of thing that gets regulators interested in shutting you down

I think they're run from South Africa, so I'm not sure if regulators could shut them down. Crypto is global & crypto is on the internet. Wherever cryptocurrencies go, human minds will follow. People will create them with their computers (mining) & transact with those who accept them.

Coming down hard on crypto assets could create a parallel economy. Untaxed & no regulation. Then what do regulators do? Nothing, because they just lost their jobs & any control over anything.

Re: Coinbase Commerce: merchants can accept multiple digital currencies

#56

Post by JustAnotherPat »

So this just shows you an address to send crypto to and calculates the equivalent amount needed with a 15 minute window??

No conversion to fiat at a guaranteed rate?

Can't you game this with such rapid price fluctuations? Time buying a high priced item during a crash maybe?

Re: Coinbase Commerce: merchants can accept multiple digital currencies

#57

Post by JustAnotherPat »

josu wrote: post #29
tyfon wrote: post #7

I've never used bitcoin but to my understanding it can take quite some time for a payment to be processed. What happens if you buy something and pay, then when the merchant receives the bitcoins the value of them has dropped say 10%? Does the merchant take the loss in this system?

Coinbase can easily take care of this. They can have a small reserve and sell the bitcoin as soon as the transaction is published/sent to the mempool. No need to wait for any confirmations. If the transaction happens to be fraudulent†, they just buy the bitcoin back and realize the earning/loss (in the long run they will tend to even out). †Not sure what the attack vectors are here.

but they don't seem to convert to fiat (at least from this article or the demo), so it's irrelevant.

Re: Coinbase Commerce: merchants can accept multiple digital currencies

#58

Post by dimillian »

blunte wrote: post #49

The KYC/AML regulations require essentially 1:1 human effort for every new person who attempts to buy any practical amount of cryptocurrency (within the US and EU, and probably elsewhere). So the #1 problem is that people who want to buy some cryptocurrency cannot. They wait days or weeks to get verified. And the exchanges and money changers want to provide the virtual currency to the hungry customers, but they canno…

Verification is not done by humans, and it's instant.

Re: Coinbase Commerce: merchants can accept multiple digital currencies

#59

Post by tonyhb »

vosper wrote: post #51
blunte wrote: post #49

The KYC/AML regulations require essentially 1:1 human effort for every new person who attempts to buy any practical amount of cryptocurrency (within the US and EU, and probably elsewhere). So the #1 problem is that people who want to buy some cryptocurrency cannot. They wait days or weeks to get verified. And the exchanges and money changers want to provide the virtual currency to the hungry customers, but they canno…

I'm in this boat now - I've been a Coinbase customer for years, and then randomly they blocked my ability to withdraw my money (MY money, BTW) from the account. Nothing had changed about my account setup. Now they want me to go through the Photo ID process, but I don't have a US drivers license, only a permanent resident (green) card for ID. Which should be fine, after all it works as ID for literally everything else…

Each state has different laws regarding KYC, AML and money transmitter status. For example, in all states but California payroll companies are money transmitters.

It's annoying, but requiring a state-issued ID instead of a federal ID satisfies some of their legal requirements and makes the verification process much easier on their side.

Could they do this with a federal ID? Probably. It'd be a completely new verification process - not automated. They may need to request recent bills for proof of address, plus the necessary tooling to store/verify these.

It's the same reason you can't wander into a bank with a green card and be like "open an account". You need proof of address, state residency etc.

Re: Coinbase Commerce: merchants can accept multiple digital currencies

#60

Post by mancerayder »

vosper wrote: post #51
blunte wrote: post #49

The KYC/AML regulations require essentially 1:1 human effort for every new person who attempts to buy any practical amount of cryptocurrency (within the US and EU, and probably elsewhere). So the #1 problem is that people who want to buy some cryptocurrency cannot. They wait days or weeks to get verified. And the exchanges and money changers want to provide the virtual currency to the hungry customers, but they canno…

I'm in this boat now - I've been a Coinbase customer for years, and then randomly they blocked my ability to withdraw my money (MY money, BTW) from the account. Nothing had changed about my account setup. Now they want me to go through the Photo ID process, but I don't have a US drivers license, only a permanent resident (green) card for ID. Which should be fine, after all it works as ID for literally everything else…

The error of the ways of Coinbase seems to be allowing various transactions and money transfer activity, sometimes for lengths of time, on unverified accounts. Then, suddenly boom, there's a problem, and customer support is already backlogged.

Kind of like they opened the door to unlimited new subscribers and sobbed that they were overloaded. With some of the HN crowd playing the violin music of poor, fast-growing start-up (the "growing pains" cop out).

Naughty (greedy) Coinbase.

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