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Coinbase S-1

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Re: Coinbase S-1

#521

Post by tablespoon »

thinkmassive wrote: post #501
RestlessMind wrote: post #472

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my lifetime, if I were to compare 3 numbers - no. of hours there was no electricity (X), no. of hours there was no mobile data coverage so that I could continue doing transactions without electricity (Y) and no. of hours Fedwie/ACH was down (Z) which prevented me from bank transfers, I'd say X and Y and at least 2 orders of magnitude bigger than Z. If Fed/ACH going down for a few hours bothers you a lot but electr…

My computers and network are powered by uninterruptible power supplies (UPS) which I highly recommend for every important system. I have a generator in case of extended outage, which I also highly recommend to everyone who is able to have one at home, regardless of whether you own a computer. I personally have fiber, cable, and LTE feeding my home gateway. This might seem like overkill to non-tech folks, but I recomm…

> This isn’t a claim that I have zero downtime at home. It’s only to say that if my Bitcoin node is offline then any hope of relying on fiat banking was abandoned much earlier.

Even if I had a setup like yours, I'd give up on bitcoin before "fiat banking." You can't buy gas for your generator with bitcoin.

Re: Coinbase S-1

#522

Post by cactus2093 »

uncletammy wrote: post #430
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…

> 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 system. At the time of writing this comment, if you want your BTC transaction confirmed in the next hour it would cost you ~ 10USD ( https://bitcoiner.live/ ) . What planet do you live on where you think a non-negligible percentage of people in ANY country, let alone a…

Why are you so set on digital cash? I completely agree, Bitcoin is a bad replacement for cash, just like gold bullion is.

10 dollars is a steep confirmation price but if you have a life savings of, say, the equivalent of a few hundred or thousand USD that you hold in cash and your local currency is rapidly inflating making it worthless, btc is an amazing life raft that you could put your money into. If you are able to migrate and get a high paying job and still have family somewhere far away in the world that you want to help, $10 fee is not that crazy to send them monthly payments that they could then trade for cash or food.

Then there are obviously the side chain solutions, lightning network, or even just using exchanges to transfer btc to altcoins with faster settling times and lower fees if you really do want digital cash.

Re: Coinbase S-1

#523

Post by overtonwhy »

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.

It's PayPal but your balance changes constantly by random amounts.

Re: Coinbase S-1

#524

Post by smoldesu »

hn8788 wrote: post #50

Created a coinbase account recently and found that there's no way to verify your identity if you have an expired ID. Because of covid, Maryland let expired drivers licenses still be valid for the forseeable future, but Coinbase automatically declines them.

I am in the same boat, and it's remarkably frustrating since I have a relatively large amount of assets in their service, assets I cannot withdraw without confirming my identity.

Re: Coinbase S-1

#525

Post by Robotbeat »

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #272
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.

> Many have forgotten why we used cryptocurrencies in the first place I think the speculators know exactly what they’re doing. They want a speculative instrument and they don’t want a currency that people spend (creating sell pressure), so thats what these services have evolved to provide. Bitcoin’s lack of fundamentals is the key to the narrative that it has unlimited upside. If you can remove all of the fundamental…

Gresham’s Law.

Re: Coinbase S-1

#526

Post by Robotbeat »

rglullis wrote: post #362
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…

Edited: I decided to delete my comment. I do think the hype deserves a dunk, but dunking doesn’t advance the conversation and is lazy.

Re: Coinbase S-1

#528

Post by dennis_jeeves »

cactus2093 wrote: post #522
uncletammy wrote: post #430

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 system. At the time of writing this comment, if you want your BTC transaction confirmed in the next hour it would cost you ~ 10USD ( https://bitcoiner.live/ ) . What planet do you live on where you think a non-negligible percentage of people in ANY country, let alone a…

Why are you so set on digital cash? I completely agree, Bitcoin is a bad replacement for cash, just like gold bullion is. 10 dollars is a steep confirmation price but if you have a life savings of, say, the equivalent of a few hundred or thousand USD that you hold in cash and your local currency is rapidly inflating making it worthless, btc is an amazing life raft that you could put your money into. If you are able t…

Can someone explain to me the technical reason as to why it costs $10, when it used to cost pennies (I think)?

Has the proportion of transactions gone up compared to the miners?

Re: Coinbase S-1

#529

Post by delaaxe »

uncletammy wrote: post #430
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…

> 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 system. At the time of writing this comment, if you want your BTC transaction confirmed in the next hour it would cost you ~ 10USD ( https://bitcoiner.live/ ) . What planet do you live on where you think a non-negligible percentage of people in ANY country, let alone a…

The whole point of his comment is that BTC is better viewed as store of value rather than a medium of exchange

Re: Coinbase S-1

#530

Post by tradri »

dennis_jeeves wrote: post #528
cactus2093 wrote: post #522

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why are you so set on digital cash? I completely agree, Bitcoin is a bad replacement for cash, just like gold bullion is. 10 dollars is a steep confirmation price but if you have a life savings of, say, the equivalent of a few hundred or thousand USD that you hold in cash and your local currency is rapidly inflating making it worthless, btc is an amazing life raft that you could put your money into. If you are able t…

Can someone explain to me the technical reason as to why it costs $10, when it used to cost pennies (I think)? Has the proportion of transactions gone up compared to the miners?

It's kinda hard to create a world-class transactions system when the philosophy is that the bottleneck should be a below-average computer and internet connection.
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