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Coinbase Crosses 650,000 Users

blog.coinbase.com

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Re: Coinbase Crosses 650,000 Users

#91

Post by willthames »

smtddr wrote: post #88
laumars wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But it's still not a currency, kind of like how "alternative medicine" isn't really medicine. All you're proving there is how educated people like ourselves don't take alternative medicines seriously (and for good reason too). However technically that example is actually countering your point since the "alternative" prefix just signifies another style of; such as "alternative music" is still music.

>>All you're proving there is how educated people like ourselves don't take alternative medicines seriously (and for good reason too). So I'm not going to argue one way or the other, I just want to be clear. You think the stuff listed in this link[1] is nonsense? Or what is your definition of alternative medicine? Anything that doesn't come from a first-world scientific study? 1. http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health…

"By definition Alternative Medicine has either not been proved to work, or been proved not to work. You know what they call alternative medicine that’s been proved to work? Medicine."

From Tim Minchin's excellent Storm.

Re: Coinbase Crosses 650,000 Users

#93

Post by smtddr »

minimax wrote: post #58

Do you actually have to wire up a bank account in order to create a coinbase account? How many coinbase accounts actually have any money in them?

No money is actually in the coinbase account. It only stores Bitcoin. If you sell bitcoin, the USD balance will immediate be ACH'ed directly to the bank info you have set up.[1] Otherwise, I guess you won't be able to use the sell feature(?). BTC-e.com is different; you can sell all your coins and have a USD balance[2].

You can create a Coinbase account without banking info. But after you've created it, I'm not sure what good it would be to you. I guess you could just use it to manage your bitcoins and have one place to check. But the real service coinbase provides is transforming BTC to USD and vice-versa. If you're not going to enter your banking info to use that feature, you might as well generate a pub/priv key at bitaddress.org and just make sure you don't lose the private key.

1. http://i.imgur.com/LMowl3F.png

2. http://i.imgur.com/3K1JPgR.png

Re: Coinbase Crosses 650,000 Users

#94

Post by venus »

sillysaurus2 wrote: post #83
wdewind wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ok educate me, because I really don't know (my grandmothers both lived in the US): what's wrong with Western Union or PayPal for this purpose? In many ways this simply moves the problem (overall complication) from a private sector solution much closer to a government solution because it means exchanging bitcoin for real currency will be intensely regulated and have its own fees associated with it. And maybe someday b…

what's wrong with Western Union? Speaking from experience: Western Union is awful . Absolutely horrible. They basically stole $50 from me after their representative typo'd a number and then didn't have the authority to fix it, and then I was asked to prove my transaction by faxing them a receipt which I hadn't kept, therefore losing my $50. Avoid them at all costs.

I am having difficulty picturing this situation.

The form you filled out when you sent the money had carbon copies, which are retained. If data from the form was mis-typed later, they should be able to check their copy, or you might be able to retrieve a copy from the outlet or receiver or something.

I assure you that no-one in WU is trying to steal $50 from you. Mistakes happen, but there is a paper trail, so if you really care, escalate. They operate under the supervision of your country's financial regulator, whom they are deathly afraid of, and are hardly going to risk their banking license pilfering fifty bucks.

Re: Coinbase Crosses 650,000 Users

#95

Post by sillysaurus2 »

venus wrote: post #94
sillysaurus2 wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

what's wrong with Western Union? Speaking from experience: Western Union is awful . Absolutely horrible. They basically stole $50 from me after their representative typo'd a number and then didn't have the authority to fix it, and then I was asked to prove my transaction by faxing them a receipt which I hadn't kept, therefore losing my $50. Avoid them at all costs.

I am having difficulty picturing this situation. The form you filled out when you sent the money had carbon copies, which are retained. If data from the form was mis-typed later, they should be able to check their copy, or you might be able to retrieve a copy from the outlet or receiver or something. I assure you that no-one in WU is trying to steal $50 from you. Mistakes happen, but there is a paper trail, so if you…

The $50 was not worth spending literally hours on the phone with them trying to get the issue resolved. The point is that bitcoin has real value as a painless money transfer mechanism.

Re: Coinbase Crosses 650,000 Users

#96

Post by venus »

sillysaurus2 wrote: post #95
venus wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am having difficulty picturing this situation. The form you filled out when you sent the money had carbon copies, which are retained. If data from the form was mis-typed later, they should be able to check their copy, or you might be able to retrieve a copy from the outlet or receiver or something. I assure you that no-one in WU is trying to steal $50 from you. Mistakes happen, but there is a paper trail, so if you…

The $50 was not worth spending literally hours on the phone with them trying to get the issue resolved. The point is that bitcoin has real value as a painless money transfer mechanism.

>Speaking from experience: Western Union is awful. Absolutely horrible. They basically stole $50 from me > Avoid them at all costs.

The point is that you wrote a very damning indictment of a company, accusing them of theft, and I pointed out they could probably fix your issue if you actually cared, even without the receipt. You then admitted you couldn't be bothered going through the process.

So what you wrote was basically a load of crap. But hey, bitcoin!

Re: Coinbase Crosses 650,000 Users

#97

Post by [deleted] »

cjensen wrote: post #21
d23 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Bitcoins have no intrinsic value Neither does gold, paper money, or diamonds. And yet they've remained valuable for a long time. What gives?

Gold and Diamonds have obvious intrinsic value. Paper money does too, but it's harder to demonstrate.

[deleted]

Re: Coinbase Crosses 650,000 Users

#98

Post by sillysaurus2 »

venus wrote: post #96
sillysaurus2 wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The $50 was not worth spending literally hours on the phone with them trying to get the issue resolved. The point is that bitcoin has real value as a painless money transfer mechanism.

>Speaking from experience: Western Union is awful. Absolutely horrible. They basically stole $50 from me > Avoid them at all costs. The point is that you wrote a very damning indictment of a company, accusing them of theft, and I pointed out they could probably fix your issue if you actually cared, even without the receipt. You then admitted you couldn't be bothered going through the process. So what you wrote was ba…

I was so goddamn pissed off that the phone rep, who could barely speak English, had typo'd my number, which I had been very, very careful to say slowly, and to repeat back to him twice, and then be asked to prove myself by faxing a physical piece of paper in order to get my money back, after a total time investment of > 3 hours, after taking into account driving to the store, waiting on hold, etc, that my mindset was very much "fuck this shit." So whatever you say, man. I didn't accuse them of theft. I accused them of being so excruciatingly awful that recovering the $50 was not worth spending more hours of my life dealing with phone reps who could not understand what I was saying.

Re: Coinbase Crosses 650,000 Users

#99

Post by maxerickson »

adrianwaj wrote: post #73
seiji wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

walked across the border with a thumbdrive of bitcoins/litecoins/??coins. What about walking across the border with the account credentials of a WoW character with a lot of gold? intranet of cryptocoins for budgeting and spending. Is there a way to make a "trusted bitcoin" for internal use only where you don't have to do all the computation? I guess at that point it could just be a centralized Excel spreadsheet for a…

You're not thinking too deeply. I think a company could use an intra-blockchain to run a micro-economy within it. Transactions take place that enable it to function. Also, there is an interface between intra and public blockchains. If your department wants pens, it must buy it internally from the Supplies department. At some point Supplies converts its intracoins to public cash or coins (with management approval^) to…

It would be insane for employees to accept payment in scrip without a promise of a fixed exchange rate. Even with such a promise it would not be especially sensible (because if the company implodes you lose your job and some of your savings...).

(I mean sure, you could trust that management with their total control of the scrip would not manipulate it to the advantage of management, but good luck with that)

Re: Coinbase Crosses 650,000 Users

#100

Post by venus »

sillysaurus2 wrote: post #98
venus wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Speaking from experience: Western Union is awful. Absolutely horrible. They basically stole $50 from me > Avoid them at all costs. The point is that you wrote a very damning indictment of a company, accusing them of theft, and I pointed out they could probably fix your issue if you actually cared, even without the receipt. You then admitted you couldn't be bothered going through the process. So what you wrote was ba…

I was so goddamn pissed off that the phone rep, who could barely speak English, had typo'd my number, which I had been very, very careful to say slowly, and to repeat back to him twice, and then be asked to prove myself by faxing a physical piece of paper in order to get my money back, after a total time investment of > 3 hours, after taking into account driving to the store, waiting on hold, etc, that my mindset was…

Fair enough. That does sound pretty annoying, I'd probably be pissed off myself! Anyway, your later comments put your original comment into better perspective, so thanks for replying.
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