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Introducing the Shift Card: Use Bitcoin where Visa is accepted
- T3RMINATED 11y agobitcoin is dead
- k2enemy 11y agoI couldn't find any mention on the website -- does it support one time numbers for online transactions? If not, I'd be very reluctant to use it. One breach and your bitcoin account is gone.
- ianhawes 11y agoYou'll have all the rights of a Visa cardholder, such as the ability to file a chargeback.
- noamsml 11y agoAre you sure? This is debit, not credit. I believe your rights with debit a fair bit weaker (might depend on issuer though).
- delinka 11y agoThe "debit" part of the name means that it draws from an account of liquid funds rather than a line of credit. You can still opt to have your purchase transactions run as if they were credit which does indeed give you VISA credit card protection.
- antaviana 11y agoNerver used bitcoin, but cannot you simply create another bitcoin account for petty cash VISA transactions and transfer funds when need be?
- cookiecaper 11y agoYou can, but ironically, transfers are not painless in Bitcoin. It can take over 60 minutes for a transaction to be "confirmed", meaning the network has verified that the coins you spent were rightfully yours to spend, and there needs to be a transaction fee attached so that miners are incentivized to check your transaction. Many bitcoin users prefer to generate a new incoming address for each transaction to improve privacy (Bitcoin is "anonymous" only insofar as your legal name is usually not directly attached to the transaction; in most other ways, it's more traceable than the alternatives).
- mynameisvlad 11y agoIf you have two Coinbase accounts, transfers are immediate (since Coinbase still owns the bitcoins, they just move them internally): https://support.coinbase.com/customer/en/portal/articles/1392055-why-can-t-i-see-my-transaction-in-the-blockchain-?t=531816 https://support.coinbase.com/customer/en/portal/articles/139...
- maxerickson 11y agoI love it, use your bitcoin without all the hassle of making a transaction on the blockchain.
- lucaspiller 11y agoWhat is we could buy things without having to deal with banks? I have an idea...
- seeingfurther 11y agoTaylor Shift chuckles
- Tortoise 11y ago"The default PIN is the last four digits of your registered mobile phone number. Please call Shift support at 800-897-0717 to reset your Shift Card pin." That's a terrible idea. This isn't a library card. You're PIN shouldn't be known by anyone who knows your phone number.
- hellofunk 11y agoWell, it does say "default" PIN. Still not good, but you can at least change it, presumably.
- TomGullen 11y agoThat's pretty horrendous. Should be inactive until you activate it, or randomly generated and displayed to you securely in some way.
- ShiftPayments 11y agoThe card actually is inactive until you activate it once it arrives
- celticninja 11y agobut if someone intercepts your mail, then they know your address and could possibly know your phone number. How secure is the activation process? Why dont you send the card and PIN out separately like a bank?
- nacs 11y ago> but if someone intercepts your mail, then they know your address and could possibly know your phone number. How secure is the activation process Every "normal" credit and debit card I've received in the mail has used this same procedure -- call a number on a removable sticker stuck to the card to activate it where the only verification is the phone number you're calling from (and caller ID is easily faked). How is this any worse than how every other card activates? And how do you propose they get around the mail interception problem? Have a courier deliver it to you and place it in your hand?
- celticninja 11y agowill be interesting to see if they can make this available internationally.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- esaym 11y agoI can't really find details on how this works. I assume the merchant still receives USD in the transaction along with the typical Visa card transaction fees. Which in that case, what is the point?
- redblacktree 11y agoTo be able to spend your bitcoin balance without a manual conversion and bank transfer?
- loceng 11y agoLikely a considerably higher exchange rate + fee ... but hey, who cares when the people spending the Bitcoin are only spending it when it's likely only much higher than they acquired it for..
- ISL 11y agoThat only works if someone else is buying the bitcoin at the current exchange rate. Coinbase gets its dollars from someone to give to the merchant.
- loceng 11y agoRight, however I'm sure they can float a fair amount, holding onto Bitcoin until it's at a certain value again. So long as the scheme keeps growing..
- conception 11y agoYou don't have to hold dollars to spend dollars, is the only thing I can think of.
- flatline 11y agoCoinbase holds the dollars for you. It's arguable to what extent bitcoin even factors in here after your initial deposit, since everything is under the control of Coinbase. You are effectively holding a note called "Coinbase bitcoin" that fluctuates in value compared to the dollar, and you get a spot exchange rate when you spend. This is not the way bitcoin was meant to be held and spent.
- luisrudge 11y agoSomeone please change the title to Anywhere IN US :)
- cjg 11y agoThe text says "at over 38 million merchants worldwide" which seems to imply that it isn't limited to the US in the sense in which you want to change the title.
- ShiftPayments 11y agoThe card works both in the US and at merchants that accept Visa abroad!
- celticninja 11y agobut is only available to US residents, of whom less than half own a passport, so the worldwide merchant aspect is applicable to the subset of the US population that hold bitcoin and a passport.
- eric_h 11y ago> but is only available to US residents Who live in one of 24 states. New Yorkers need not apply.
- celticninja 11y agoEven smaller, I commend their ability to offer new services but it should make it clear that this is a very limited offer.
- csense 11y ago> Anywhere in US Only in less than half of the US states (they use the number "24" prominently, which is still less than half, but include DC and PR, and CA is limited to 1000 users, so 21 is a more realistic number). [1] https://support.coinbase.com/customer/en/portal/articles/2228646-what-is-the-shift-card- https://support.coinbase.com/customer/en/portal/articles/222...
- TomGullen 11y agoDon't get the point of this. I'm assuming it's going to be a slightly more expensive way of buying things with a card? As supposed to me being charged in $, I'm assuming it exchanges some of my BTC balance for $ which is going to come at some cost.
- celticninja 11y agoI assume it uses up BTC to the value of the $ amount at coinbase exchange rates. Whether that is the best exchange rate or not is debatable but it probably the only way for them to be sure they dont take a hit due to volatility. Of course there could be some saving to the user as otherwise they may need to sell coins (paying fees to do so) then withdraw, again paying a further fee. So this is an immediate way to spend BTC with a merchant that does not accept BTC. This would be very useful for people who use bitwage to get paid in BTC.
- ewillbefull 11y agoYou can now use Bitcoin anywhere VISA is accepted, so long as coinbase doesn't close your account, ignore you and close all the tickets you open. Even if you painstakingly collect and compile sensitive documents for them to review, which was a gigantic waste of my time, thanks! I have for months encouraged everyone I know not to use coinbase and will continue to do so.
- csomar 11y agoThat's really weird. I moved money in the 6 figures in Coinbase and have uploaded no documents whatsoever. Never had a question from them. (except for sending big amounts, they ask you if it is for an exchange or wallet).
- lectrick 11y agoHow long ago was it? They've gotten increasingly onerous in the past year.
- csomar 11y agoVery recent. Like last month or so.
- kobayashi 11y agoAlmost equally bad.
- trevelyan 11y agoPerhaps we can quash the notion that financial privacy is "bad". Anyone who deals with international finance knows that KYC compliance is a joke and the required submission of sensitive personal documents to third-party companies is a major contributor to identity theft and fraud. Indeed, identity fraud is in many ways a product of policies that force companies to collect this data. Nor is there any sensible moral argument for why companies should impose burdensome and disproportionate identity checks on customers who value their financial privacy. It is unfortunate to see this sort of comment on a site devoted to entrepreneurship.
- jcfrei 11y ago"The Shift Card is a VISA debit card that currently allows Coinbase users in twenty-four states and territories (see list below) in the U.S. to spend bitcoin anywhere VISA is accepted." - So you have to live in one of the 24 states. And for California they only allow up to 1000 applicants...
- ceejayoz 11y agoI wonder how that works if you move into one of the other states.
- ck2 11y agoIf you wanted to use a visa card, why would even bother with bitcoin? Or vise-versa
- r-marques 11y agoIts just a simple way to spend your bitcoins with merchants that do not accept bitcoins
- bachmeier 11y agoNot only that, but there's a $10 issuance fee associated with this, and based on the announcement, there will be usage charges as well in the future. So it's Visa + fees. As opposed to the Visa I pull out of my wallet now and use without paying any fees.
- JoeAltmaier 11y agoWell, except for the 2% merchant fee of course (that's passed along to all of us in the price)
- aianus 11y agoYou could send your cousin in Somalia $200 in BTC and he could withdraw it in local currency at the ATM down the street from his house. Versus paying Western Union 8% for the same thing. (Probably not with this card specifically, but if there was a Somalian equivalent...)
- 11y ago
- r-marques 11y agoIf I understand correctly it exchanges some btc to dollars in order to pay the merchant. But this relies on 0-conf transactions, right?
- maxerickson 11y agoCoinbase is likely clearing the transactions internally. They have control over the coins in the wallet (I just went and checked, they call their multi sig product something else), so they don't need to trust the user.
- corndoge 11y agoProbably Shift verifies that the correct key on the blockchain (ie correct coinbase user) holds the correct amount of bitcoin, then fronts the USD and does the bitcoin transfer on the back end. Edit: downvotes don't tell me why I'm wrong, would appreciate counterexample, I don't see any docs on the Shift site, and there's no way in hell they're using zeroconf transactions at this scale, which means instant payments must come out of a USD account somewhere
- r-marques 11y agoso how does this relates to bitcoin?
- jacobr1 11y agoIt relies on you having a BTC wallet with coinbase - where coinbase controls the private key.
- r-marques 11y agoSo with coinbase you have no control over your private key? You can only spend your btc through coinbase?
- r-marques 11y agoIf this actually relies on 0-conf transactions and assuming that you have control over your private key in coinbase, I wonder how replace-by-fee can impact this.
- cbisnett 11y agoAccording to the Shift Payments FAQ you must reside in one of the following states to spend bitcoin via Coinbase: AL, AZ, CA, DE, DC, GA, ID, IA, KS, ME, MS, NE, NV, NJ, NC, ND, OK, PA, PR, SD, TX, VT, WA, WV [1] https://www.shiftpayments.com/faq https://www.shiftpayments.com/faq
- eric_h 11y agoCan't help but notice that NY is not in that list. Oh well.
- tobias2014 11y agoMaybe it is because of the BitLicense? See http://cointelegraph.com/news/115114/localbitcoins-stops-service-for-new-york-residents http://cointelegraph.com/news/115114/localbitcoins-stops-ser... for example.
- eric_h 11y agoYeah - New York regulatory rules are rather strict - our company (based in New York) briefly had and then lost the ability to use bitcoin on our site due to said regulations. (Or rather, the company we were working with withdrew their support for us).
- drcode 11y agoJust a reminder to Bitcoin newbies: This card looks like an OK product (still open questions about how much coinbase is gaming the ask/bid spread) but just realize that this card does NOT use Bitcoin, it uses "Coinbase Bitcoin"[1] which is Bitcoin for which the coinbase company is managing your private key: You only truly own Bitcoins if you own the private key for the account (users of MtGox learn this the hard way last year) I do think Coinbase also offers a safer multisig account where you own an independent key and no one, including Coinbase, can withdraw money without your permission (was it called "Coinbase Vault?") If you put the majority of your funds in that independent system (or just keep them off Coinbase entirely) and put money in peace-meal to load up your coinbase Visa card you will greatly reduce your exposure to third-party risks. [1] Reading the documents, it actually uses "Coinbase USD" which is the same difference.
- wmf 11y agoI don't see how a debit card could work any other way, since VISA is a pull-based system. If I have Bitcoin on my own computer and I swipe the card, how does the right amount of BTC get sucked out of my computer and exchanged?
- drcode 11y agoRight, I just want to warn people away from putting significant Bitcoin holdings directly into Coinbase to use this card without being educated on the risks.
- spilk 11y agoYou don't have bitcoin if you just have a balance in Coinbase, so this debit card really has no connection to Bitcoin at all. No transactions will reach the blockchain when you use this card.
- aianus 11y agoThat's silly, that's like saying you don't have USD if all you have is a USD-denominated deposit checking account at a bank.
- spilk 11y agoThat's absolutely true, though. You are trusting the bank (and the federal insurance backing it) that when you want to draw your balance that you can. It's no different when you have bitcoin in Coinbase. I just can't see a scenario where buying bitcoin with USD on Coinbase and then using a debit card to spend it in USD is better than spending USD in the first place. Unless you buy into the pyramid-scheme "it'll be $10000 any day now" nonsense, in which case you have no incentive to spend bitcoin anyways.
- aianus 11y ago99.9% of people would disagree with you that the balance they see in their Wells Fargo account is 'not actually USD'. In a way Coinbase BTC is closer to BTC than Wells Fargo USD is to USD because Coinbase doesn't operate a fractional reserve. > I just can't see a scenario where buying bitcoin with USD on Coinbase and then using a debit card to spend it in USD is better than spending USD in the first place. Sure, that would be silly. But imagine you're a rich Chinese kid in California whose parents own a sweatshop in Shenzhen. To easily get around capital controls they buy BTC in China and send it to your Coinbase account. You pay for your day-to-day USD expenses on this card. Use your imagination.
- DHJSH 11y ago" in twenty-four States "
- chatmasta 11y agoAny idea why only 24 states? Is coinbase following FINCEN regulations by filing as a money transmitter in each eligible state?
- adrianmacneil 11y agoYes, probably related to money transmission licensing (and various other state finance laws). See https://www.coinbase.com/legal/licenses https://www.coinbase.com/legal/licenses. There may also be some restrictions at the Shift end.
- chatmasta 11y agoThat's an interesting competitive advantage that coinbase has. Last I read on these laws, each license can cost ~$25k to procure. Many companies choose to "shoot first, ask questions later" and rollout their programs without acquiring a license in every state. For example Facebook only recently acquired money transmitter licenses (and may not even have one in every state), even though facebook credits / pay via facebook has been a feature for a long time. The cost of acquiring these licenses is competitively prohibitive to startups, and honestly, there's no reason why it should be state by state. Money transmitter licensing should definitely move to the federal level.
- DHJSH 11y agoI can get the same "privacy" and not be subject to arbitrary Bitcoin/Dollar price fluctuations by simply buying Visa debit "gift cards" for cash.
- trevelyan 11y agoAs someone who first bought bitcoin at 8 USD, I'm quite enamored of the price fluctuations. Considering that it will be heading into the four and five digits relatively soon, I'm not sure this is a negative.
- eximius 11y ago4 and 5 digits? Please
- DHJSH 11y agoGood for you! Many other people wouldn't want to be bothered by them. And since you're so sure it will go up from ~350 to 1000 soon, you shouldn't be wasting time here! You should be taking every penny you can get and buying bitcoins!
- trevelyan 11y agogood advice
- Mimu 11y agoPardon my lack of knowledge but wasn't the whole point of bitcoins being anonymous? How are you anonymous with a card connected to an account? I'm not trolling I really don't see what I'm missing.
- wnevets 11y agobecause bitcoin!!!
- fleitz 11y agoKinda, it's many things to many people, I think like VOIP it will serve as the infrastructure for banks but for individual consumers it will likely never take flight, just as we still use a lot of cell phone numbers that use VOIP infrastructure.
- __tmg 11y agoDecentralisation was (and still is) the point of Bitcoin; any additional perks (e.g. anonymity) are emergent. Here's a quote from the original paper: >Abstract. A purely peer-to-peer version of electronic cash would allow online payments to be sent directly from one party to another without going through a financial institution.
- simplemath 11y agoThe irony being of course is that Coinbase is literally a financial instution but given confirmation time inherent to the network, I don't see a way around doing something similar to what coinbase have done here (minus the egregious part where they hold your private key)
- zeroxfe 11y agoThe "whole point of bitcoins" is not anonymity. In fact, bitcoins aren't anonymous at all.
- 27182818284 11y ago>Pardon my lack of knowledge but wasn't the whole point of bitcoins being anonymous? It is about decentralization and trying to establish trust outside of the normal banks. An interesting possible example is in the Genesis block. Satoshi added the newspaper headline: The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks This serves the purpose of a sorta time stamp by using a newspaper headline, but a lot of people like myself think there was also a reason of choosing that headline in particular--we think that it was part of the motivation for the creation of bitcoin--something that would be decentralized and away from banks.
- AYBABTME 11y agoI'm curious what the exchange rate looks like when purchasing stuff that's not in USD. If the conversion is the same as that of Bitcoin<->USD, then it would make this card super useful for people who travel a lot. What I mean is, it'd be cool if the card would do: - Bitcoin<->CAD - Bitcoin<->EUR - Bitcoin<->BHT - Bitcoin<->HKD - Bitcoin<->AUD So that we wouldn't need to do: - Bitcoin<->USD<->CAD - Bitcoin<->USD<->EUR - Bitcoin<->USD<->BHT - Bitcoin<->USD<->HKD - Bitcoin<->USD<->AUD
- azinman2 11y agoNice idea!
- aggronn 11y agoThis might be the case for people who travel a lot and only hold money in bitcoin and not their native currency, but even then its worse then using USD. There are much better debit cards for travelers which don't charge foreign transaction fees or ATM fees (Schwab Investor Checking for example).
- AYBABTME 11y agoThe thing that sucks more is the unexpected and shitty conversion rate you get. I'm not too sure yet what's the best way to go about this, open bank accounts in all those countries and do your currency exchange yourself?
- Symbiote 11y agoFind a card using the MasterCard or VISA base rate, with no additional fee. As an example, I was charged CHF20.00 on 5 October, which the card statement says was converted at a rate of 1.4728 to a £13.58 charge on my account¹. XE.com has that day's average rate as 1.4785. There aren't going to be any other benefits to the card, but that's OK — I have another card for spending in pounds. The alternative is a pre-paid credit card. ¹ Halifax Clarity.
- elcct 11y ago
- songzme 11y agoif anyone wants to sign up for coinbase here's a referral link to start off with free $10 https://www.coinbase.com/join/songz https://www.coinbase.com/join/songz :)
- DennisP 11y agoI hope they'll provide a convenient tax document covering the capital gains for all these transactions, given the IRS ruling that even small transactions have to be reported that way.
- immad 11y agoThey do output an early tax document.
- felon 11y agoThough this isn't PERFECT, it's better than nothing. Just my opinion.
- baby 11y agoSeems like nobody understands how this can work, or why would they do that. Easy. You swipe your card, Coinbase pays with $, then Coinbase tries to sell enough of the bitcoins you have there to make it even (there might be a fee). So you need to have a bitcoin balance in Coinbase when you want to use this card. Now why would you do this? If you're asking yourself this question, there are high chances you are not the target of this product. There are a lot of people who made a lot of money in bitcoins, and who hold a LOT of bitcoins. This is going to be an easy way for them to spend it on a normal day-to-day basis.
- mikkom 11y ago> There are a lot of people who made a lot of money in bitcoins, and who hold a LOT of bitcoins. This is going to be an easy way for them to spend it on a normal day-to-day basis. It's a wonderful way to laundry your drug money!
- Eleopteryx 11y agoAs long as their business was conducted ethically, I have no problem with that means of obtaining bitcoins.
- aianus 11y agoYes, because loading cash that you can't account for on a debit card tied to your real identity is a great way to 'launder' money /s
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- ajarmst 11y agoIs it me, or does a requirement to provide your physical address ("Connect your Coinbase account, Order the card by providing your physical address and authorizing the $10 issuance fee") kind of miss some of the point about BitCoin?
- Uptrenda 11y agoI've always found it ironic how companies like Coinbase are indirectly contributing to their own destruction with every passing transaction that's not purely based around Bitcoin. This is of course: assuming that Bitcoin gets as big as a lot of people think it will. If it does: their increased focus on centralization and traditional fintech services (which is completely incompatible with the philosophy behind Bitcoin) is like shorting the entire currency on a long position, and will eventually be unsustainable. But I guess if they're right: all they're doing is profiting from the hype. If we look at what Bitcoin actually is, companies like Coinbase couldn't be further apart from what they're actually selling (philosophy, economics, and technologically) so I consider them nothing more than a bunch of hypocrites. I wonder what it's like working for a company that's so obviously full of shit? How would you reconcile the obvious contradictions in what you're doing every day? I guess it would be kind of like working at the ministry of truth and then getting paid directly in lies.
- colordrops 11y agoBitcoin is a protocol, not a philosophy. Can you explain how accepting Bitcoin through Visa transactions is a bad thing besides spreading FUD? Bitcoin is decentralized and Visa adoption doesn't change that. I'm not a fan of Coinbase but your argument is unfounded.
- mithaler 11y agoBy this logic, Coinbase basically can't win. If they do what they need to do to allow Bitcoin to become popular -- that is, make it as pleasant to use as a bank with credit and debit cards -- they essentially become a bank, thus earning the scorn of the Bitcoin community. But if they don't, Bitcoin remains a niche product that no one besides a few ideological supporters with axes to grind will ever use.
- zekevermillion 11y agoThis is a false dichotomy. Bitcoin is a useful protocol for other things besides consumer payments. It is also possible that even if Coinbase's value proposition is 99% as an exchange, there may still be some value to its users in providing a convenient device for extracting $ from their btc balances. Someday I could see Coinbase as a sort of wrapper around multi-currency wallets. Users may have btc, ltc, $, and various other digital assets which they (stupidly or not) wish to leave in one repository.
- Argentum01 11y agoMaybe I'm being naive, but I felt like bitcoin was going to free us from credit card companies. Wouldn't it be nice if almost-monopolies weren't able to raise prices on everything slightly in order to fund their rigged rewards programs?
- adrianmacneil 11y agoThat's the end game. I think this can be seen as the bitcoin industry following "Embrace, extend, and extinguish".
- privacy101 11y agoThe only times I tried to use Coinbase to buy Bitcoins, they stopped processing orders apparently because the Bitcoin value was fluctuating too much, so I never got my Bitcoins... and I never used them since then.
- wtsui 11y agoI used an early prototype of this card and the experience is awesome. Super simple, it just works. App is a nice companion when you want to see the transactions you've made. Congrats to the team on the launch!
- crabasa 11y agoHas anyone answered the basic question of why anyone would actually use Bitcoin as a medium of exchange when the value of Bitcoin, despite fluctuations, is designed to increase over time?
- brighton36 11y agoNo KYC/AML.
- gregmac 11y agoSo * you lose the psuedo-anonymity of Bitcoin (the card has your name on it). * It's a "debit" card, so it also has none of the protection of a normal credit card (eg: if someone steals my card or over-charges or whatever, my actual money is not touched). * It's not even real Bitcoin, it requires a Coinbase account (where, from what I understand, they manage your private key, so really own your bitcoins) What exactly is the target market for this? The people who have no credit cards, the bulk of their cash in bitcoin, and also don't care about privacy? I'm not into bitcoin, but even so, I am just not seeing the appeal.
- soared 11y agoHow else do you think this could possibly work? >you lose the psuedo-anonymity of Bitcoin (the card has your name on it) Nobody would ever allow anonymous card transactions. The security risks with that alone are ridiculous. > It's a "debit" card, so it also has none of the protection of a normal credit card (eg: if someone steals my card or over-charges or whatever, my actual money is not touched). Nope. Debit cards have protection, as does a coinbase account. >It's not even real Bitcoin, it requires a Coinbase account My credit card isn't even real money either! >where, from what I understand, they manage your private key, so really own your bitcoins Thats not how that works. Its a transition between traditional cards and to new forms of money like crypto-currency.
- ajarmst 11y ago"Its a transition between traditional cards and to new forms of money like crypto-currency" by removing all the distinguishing characteristics of crypto-currency, which I think is the OP's point.
- CPLX 11y ago> Nobody would ever allow anonymous card transactions. The security risks with that alone are ridiculous. Sure they would. The gift card and reloadable/prepaid debit card market is huge. In theory they try to avoid anonymous usage but in practice they don't.
- 650REDHAIR 11y ago
- soared 11y agoWhere was that thread about making financial bets based on how many negative comments were in a HN thread?
- mrb 11y agoOh wow I will sign up for one! I have been a Coinbase user since they started operating, and am currently in the middle of a year-long trip around the world so I have been looking for ways to minimize my international ATM withdrawal fees. My US bank (Wells Fargo) charge me a flat $5.00 fee per transaction, and my french bank (Crédit Agricole) charge me about $8.50 for the equivalent of a ~$220 withdrawal. I see that Shift has a flat fee of $3.50, so yay for beating old legacy banks! Though I am kind of sad to see that the Shift debit card has no chip. Cards with only a magnetic track are becoming increasingly difficult to use in countries other than the US. Also, it's worth noting that both Shift and Coinbase are YC companies.
- newman314 11y agoFWIW, there are credit cards with no foreign transaction fees.
- adrianmacneil 11y agoThis might be too late since you have already left, but check out Schwab bank - they offer free international ATM withdrawals, and will also refund any fees added by the ATM operator. I think it's mostly a loss leader for their brokerage business, but awesome for travelers.
- gesman 11y agoI just ordered one. Will report about usage, quirks and tricks.
- arbitrage314 11y agoWhenever I buy or sell bitcoins on Coinbase, I pay a lot both directly (via coinbase commission) and indirectly (via their super wide spreads). If I get this card, am I going to still get screwed, or will it suddenly be cheaper to transact?
- keynan 11y agoAnywhere visa is excepted, by which we mean ~half the U.S. because Americans have that much awareness of the rest of the world.
- madhancr 11y agoafter seeing this thread I login to my coinable account since I have check it in few months. Shocked to find my BTC balance to 0 although I had a few. emailed support this morning and so far no response.
- kang 11y agoYou still need a bank account. Beats the purpose imo.
- desireco42 11y agoNot super related to Shift Card, but I always thought big banks are terrible at customer service and how they treat their customers. Looking at complaints about CoinBase and how ShiftCard is setting pin based on phone number, you get a sense that this is all a bunch of amateurs and/or kids running the show. Or maybe handling transactions is really hard? Not sure what to think honestly.
- largehotcoffee 11y agoI cannot recommend Coinbase at all. I operate an adult comic book publisher and they shutdown our account without notice and gave no real reason for their action. All support tickets took 3 - 5 days to get a reply and it was always unhelpful. For a company like ours the whole appeal of Bitcoin is the anonymity, so our readers don't have to worry about buying lewd comics and having it show up on their statements. Coinbase tarnishes what Bitcoin stands for and they do not protect artists/publishers. Edit: For transparency here is my back and forth with their support (http://imgur.com/CHeAEPP http://imgur.com/CHeAEPP) and the link to one of our books on Amazon I shared (http://www.amazon.com/dp/1634420241/ http://www.amazon.com/dp/1634420241/ [NSFW]). Ironically I've been waiting on a reply from them for 22 days and counting. They have about $5,000 in our disabled account along with all our customer/order information that we can't access. Do not use Coinbase.
- FooNull 11y agoCan you recommend something better? Can anyone in this comment section recommend a better service? I'm an artist who wants to use bitcoins for nearly an identical reason. However, there have been two big limiting factors, which have prevented my supporters and artist peers from using bitcoin. 1) It isn't clear how they get money into and out of the system. - The artists don't want a bunch of 'bitcoins' that they don't know what to do with - The supporters don't own any bitcoins, and don't know where to get them. 2) They are afraid that bitcoin will crash and they will lose all their money. It's easy enough to dissuade the fears about the second point by 'cashing out' right away. But what are the best options out there to allow the average user to put their money into bitcoin, and to allow not-so-technical users to get money out of bitcoin and into their bank? Coinbase is the only service I've found to 'easily' do this, so far. Even at the cost of my anonymity. :(
- RightWingRabble 11y agoAm I the only one who misread this as 'Introducing the Shit card'? For a full two minutes, I thought this was a parody site mocking bitcoin.
- rbanffy 11y agoI guess someone will get some impressive mileage numbers.
- idibidiart 11y agoI've never used Bitcoin, although was mentioned by its original inventor on a research list once ;). I have met the founders at Coinbase, and their vibe was more like that of an SF startup that will do anything to "win" and "exit big" than a world change agent. Bitcoin needs the latter, not the former.
- 212d1d 11y agoWill this support Apple Pay?
- automathematics 11y agoDevil's advocate: Ive had little to no problem with Coinbase for a good 80%+ of my bitcoin usage. The only issue I had is my buy limit decreased suddenly because they added more security I had to verify for my identity and didn't notify me. Once I verified my ID it was instantly reinstated.
- gutigen 11y agohttps://xapo.com/ https://xapo.com/ offers prepaid card which works everywhere too and is not such corporate asshole like Coinbase.