Coinbase S-1 • Hacker News Board

Re: Coinbase S-1

#91

Post by WanderPanda » Thu, Feb 25, 2021, 1:36 PM UTC

fidrelity wrote: post #63

dabeeeenster wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't quite understand what the risk to coinbase is if Satoshi is alive/identified? Do they think he has a hack or something?!

If Satoshi is identified he might also still be alive. This means that Satoshi's BTC (~1mio.) are potentially liquid which would mean a gigantic influx of fresh bitcoins. It's quite plausible that any movement of these old wallets would crash the Bitcoin price for quite a while.

In the end 1mio btc is just a days swing, right? Should not change much in the long term

Re: Coinbase S-1

#92

Post by jcims » Thu, Feb 25, 2021, 1:36 PM UTC

fidrelity wrote: post #63

dabeeeenster wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't quite understand what the risk to coinbase is if Satoshi is alive/identified? Do they think he has a hack or something?!

If Satoshi is identified he might also still be alive. This means that Satoshi's BTC (~1mio.) are potentially liquid which would mean a gigantic influx of fresh bitcoins. It's quite plausible that any movement of these old wallets would crash the Bitcoin price for quite a while.

This seems strange to me. Relative to the doubling that has recently happened, why would 5% of the total number of bitcoins suddenly moving have any drastic impact on price?

Re: Coinbase S-1

#93

Post by jcims » Thu, Feb 25, 2021, 1:37 PM UTC

XorNot wrote: post #71

fidrelity wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If Satoshi is identified he might also still be alive. This means that Satoshi's BTC (~1mio.) are potentially liquid which would mean a gigantic influx of fresh bitcoins. It's quite plausible that any movement of these old wallets would crash the Bitcoin price for quite a while.

It's actually a lot worse then that: if anyone gets access to Satoshi's private wallets (i.e. via finding the keys printed out on paper in a personal effects safe or something) then those coins could move. There's no way to absolutely sure that the keys are gone and inaccessible permanently.

I'm a complete n00b so this is coming from a place of ignorance, why is that such a factor in the current price? Someone is sitting on $50B in a $1T market, who cares?

Re: Coinbase S-1

#94

Post by xadhominemx » Thu, Feb 25, 2021, 1:37 PM UTC

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.

> We have forgotten why we used cryptocurrencies in the first place. The original promise of cryptocurrency was to become independent from banks.

Who is “we”? Outside of criminal enterprises, no one has ever used Bitcoin for anything other than speculation and the occasional novelty purchase.

Re: Coinbase S-1

#95

Post by swiley » Thu, Feb 25, 2021, 1:37 PM UTC

pmurt7 wrote: post #23

I have tried to use Coinbase this past month to buy some ETH. Worst customer support I have ever seen in my life. Have a look at Reddit to see what's going on with this company: https://www.reddit.com/r/CoinBase/new/ It's not ok to brag about your business when many of your customers are in deep emotional stress because you mess with their money.

As a former customer of mtgox and someone who hung out in #bitcoin-otc on freenode half a decade ago: they're still better than most of the exchanges.

Re: Coinbase S-1

#96

Post by kolinko » Thu, Feb 25, 2021, 1:37 PM UTC

dd36 wrote: post #67

newbie578 wrote: post #6

I have no doubt that they have a good business model, and that they are positioned quite nicely in the market. It's just that these valuations are getting crazy.. Everyone is already pricing in like 10+ crazy years of growth. Not everyone can grow like Facebook did...

Agree. What’s the upside? How can Coinbase be valued at nearly that of large banks that process orders of magnitude more transactions and can actually earn money on balances? NYSE and NASDAQ are surely not valued at anywhere close to $100b. Does that mean Coinbase can acquire them? Bubbles are bizarre. EDIT: Yes, it is valued at more than ICE and NASDAQ combined with a fraction of the revenue and significant risk. Mo…

By „fraction” you mean a quarter of revenue - Coinbase having around 1B in revenue, Nasdaq having 4B in 2020.

Then, Coinbase grew 300% in the last year, Nasdaq just 33%.

It’s like asking how Amazon can be worth more than Barnes and Noble in 2004 (or what year that was).

Re: Coinbase S-1

#97

Post by a2tech » Thu, Feb 25, 2021, 1:37 PM UTC

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.

We hate the central banks! We're going to take away the power from them and the government! slight inconveniences, fraud happens We need a place to store our coin and help securely move it! recreates central banks with even less regulation and security Profit!

Re: Coinbase S-1

#98

Post by ketamine__ » Thu, Feb 25, 2021, 1:38 PM UTC

TedDoesntTalk wrote: post #65

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.

> We have forgotten why we used cryptocurrencies in the first place. The original promise of cryptocurrency was to become independent from banks. Lots of things evolve and change and their original intent is twisted. It’s ok. Life goes on.

How does that decentralized fiat on ramp look?

Re: Coinbase S-1

#99

Post by purple_ferret » Thu, Feb 25, 2021, 1:38 PM UTC

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.

Well Bitcoin was a huge failure in that regard. What it needed was inflation that scaled (to prevent hoarding), and ultimately, a way to obfuscate tracking. Imagine thinking knowing your dollar spend will be logged for all eternity is a more 'decentralized' alternative.

But as with many idealists, Satoshi and his crypto friends probably didn't think too hard about the problems outside their expertise.

Re: Coinbase S-1

#100

Post by rawtxapp » Thu, Feb 25, 2021, 1:39 PM UTC

waheoo wrote: post #77

rawtxapp wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's an exchange, as soon as you're done trading, you can and should withdraw your coins to your personal wallet.

This is such a trope. Do you pull your funds from interactive brokers after you're done trading? What about vanguard? 401k?

I'm not sure how you can pull stocks from an exchange once you're done trading.

Personally, I deposit coins into an exchange, do my trade and withdraw it as soon as possible. Not just because I think there's a risk they might get hacked, etc, I also don't want them to hold my funds later on for reason x,y,z.