Coinbase: The Heart of the Bitcoin Frenzy
nytimes.com
Coinbase: The Heart of the Bitcoin Frenzy
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Re: Coinbase: The Heart of the Bitcoin Frenzy
#2Coinbase seems to be the quintessential "sell shovels during a gold rush" company. Definitely provides a good case study about how to create a successful business during new industry booms.
Re: Coinbase: The Heart of the Bitcoin Frenzy
#3(Coinbase: YC S12)
Re: Coinbase: The Heart of the Bitcoin Frenzy
#4Coinbase has a key difference from traditional brokers such as Charles Schwab, Scottrade, etc.
It doesn't charge a flat fee for buy/sell crypto currency, but a 2-3% fee based on the transaction value.
So even though I'm sure they've been making cash hand over fist this past 12 months, it makes any sort of future prediction extremely difficult. They not only have to predict customer growth (which leads to transaction volume), but also the price of those cryptocurrencies. It's akin to calculate position from nothing but a accelerometer, and that double integral would be quite a bit of margin of error.
But in the end it may not even matter, as far as revenue growth and even profit wise I'm sure they are doing absolutely amazingly.
Hell, I wouldn't even be surprised if Coinbase has higher daily revenue (definitely more profitable) than Uber at this point.
Re: Coinbase: The Heart of the Bitcoin Frenzy
#5Coinbase has a key difference from traditional brokers such as Charles Schwab, Scottrade, etc. It doesn't charge a flat fee for buy/sell crypto currency, but a 2-3% fee based on the transaction value. So even though I'm sure they've been making cash hand over fist this past 12 months, it makes any sort of future prediction extremely difficult. They not only have to predict customer growth (which leads to transaction…
> it makes any sort of future prediction extremely difficult.
People will always buy $100 worth or whatever regardless of what percentage of a bitcoin that gets them.
Re: Coinbase: The Heart of the Bitcoin Frenzy
#6I have recommended Coinbase to many people. But, a few days ago, I had a double charge on my bank account from them and have learned since that their customer support is essentially non-existent. It’s been 8 days with no response by e-mail, their posted phone number results in a busy signal, and the alternate numbers I found posted on forums go straight to hold music before hanging up after a couple of minutes. I filed a fraud report with my bank.
Re: Coinbase: The Heart of the Bitcoin Frenzy
#7Coinbase seems to be the quintessential "sell shovels during a gold rush" company. Definitely provides a good case study about how to create a successful business during new industry booms.
The giant balance up top is an incredible FOMO machine. In the best findom/gamification, you can increase your "score" simply by giving them more money. The volatility makes the game more difficult to predict than most free-to-play games, but the daily graphs going up so fast make it hard to resist.
Re: Coinbase: The Heart of the Bitcoin Frenzy
#8I have recommended Coinbase to many people. But, a few days ago, I had a double charge on my bank account from them and have learned since that their customer support is essentially non-existent. It’s been 8 days with no response by e-mail, their posted phone number results in a busy signal, and the alternate numbers I found posted on forums go straight to hold music before hanging up after a couple of minutes. I fil…
I had a similar experience as well. Tried to call support and they had a prerecorded message telling you to go away, you're fucked, unless you're calling about an account takeover.
It reminds me of the time Washington DC had a baby earthquake and verizon's network promptly fell over. When it flops under non apocalyptic loads, you get a dark glimpse of the inevitable catastrophe when the big one rolls around.
When (not if) the next bank run occurs, you'd better hope you can get yours via the vanilla coinbase UI, because you will be all on your own. (FWIW I have money in coinbase after this experience, but only an amount that would not cause me to need therapy were it to catch on fire)
Re: Coinbase: The Heart of the Bitcoin Frenzy
#9Coinbase has a key difference from traditional brokers such as Charles Schwab, Scottrade, etc. It doesn't charge a flat fee for buy/sell crypto currency, but a 2-3% fee based on the transaction value. So even though I'm sure they've been making cash hand over fist this past 12 months, it makes any sort of future prediction extremely difficult. They not only have to predict customer growth (which leads to transaction…
Experimenting with the low-end shows a $0.99 floor on their fee.
Re: Coinbase: The Heart of the Bitcoin Frenzy
#10I have recommended Coinbase to many people. But, a few days ago, I had a double charge on my bank account from them and have learned since that their customer support is essentially non-existent. It’s been 8 days with no response by e-mail, their posted phone number results in a busy signal, and the alternate numbers I found posted on forums go straight to hold music before hanging up after a couple of minutes. I fil…
Their customer service was great in the early days, but has most definitely gotten worse since its gotten so popular. I think they simply can't find enough people.