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You 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 pa

You 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 ago
That'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 ago
  How long ago was it? They've gotten increasingly onerous in the past year.
  - csomar 11y ago
    Very recent. Like last month or so.
- kobayashi 11y ago
  Almost equally bad.
  - trevelyan 11y ago
    Perhaps 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.
    - deleted 11y ago
      [deleted]
    - wdewind 11y ago
      I don't deal with international finance but I do deal with payments within the US and I have to say I really disagree with you on KYC. Our KYC process absolutely prevents fraud from happening, and because we are liable for any transactions we process I can't imagine operating without it.
      - steven2012 11y ago
        Lol absolutely prevents fraud from happening? That is impossible. KYC is more of a cover-your-ass requirement rather than fraud prevention. With millions of SSN and personal information being available after numerous breaches from health care, etc how exactly are you supposed to vett someone's identity over the Internet?
        stcredzero 11y ago
        > KYC is more of a cover-your-ass requirement rather than fraud prevention. Keister: Yours Covered.
        wdewind 11y ago
        I think you're misreading my use of the word absolutely. I was responding to the idea that KYC compliance is a joke. It is absolutely useful, that does not mean it prevents 100% of fraud absolutely. > With millions of SSN and personal information being available after numerous breaches from health care, etc how exactly are you supposed to vett someone's identity over the Internet? I can't really get into our entire KYC and fraud prevention process, but I'll just say there are many more ways to vet someone's identity then simply asking for their SSN.
        steven2012 11y ago
        KYC is a joke. If you have information external to KYC for fraud prevention, that's something altogether different from KYC. The KYC requirements themselves are a joke and provide nothing in terms of verifying identity.
  - csomar 11y ago
    Yes, I become suspicious at some point. and then it made a bit comfortable doing it, holding and using their services more.
- jerguismi 11y ago
  No, it is not weird at all. They have something like 3 million wallets, and ~100 employees. I would assume that different customers can have wildly different experience, just because there can be so many random variables.
  - tkinom 11y ago
    Maybe just me, I have difficult trust non-traditional payment vendors/system. Recently have to dispute a charge with paypal - an online vendors didn't ship the product I ordered with paypal. The paypal dispute process was hell. Lucky I used credit with paypal. One 3 minutes phone call with credit card company, problem was solved. After that kind of experience, it is much harder for me to trust other payment system. I have use this credit card for 20+ year. This is the first time I dispute the charge for not-false charge. Previous transaction with the same vendor/paypal went thru just fine. Like typical software development, most of the code are for error condition and exception handling. Error condition and exception handling are much harder for payment system. Unfortunately, for payment system, if it is that tough for normal user like me to gain trust with paypal, it will be impossible to convince me to put $ into a coin base account.
Retric 11y ago
Don't forget at a random exchange rate chosen by Coinbase.
- csomar 11y ago
  The exchange rate is almost identical through all exchanges. Have been studying the market for a while, the slippage between exchanges barely last more than 5 minutes.
  - iamsohungry 11y ago
    Apparently you didn't study it last week when Coinbase was $20-$50 different from BTC-E for 5 days.
    - c0nducktr 11y ago
      Are you sure BTC-E wasn't the outlier? That's what I've seen in the past.
      - donpdonp 11y ago
        I've been watching the spread between exchanges for a long time at https://cointhink.com/arbitrage/btc:usd https://cointhink.com/arbitrage/btc:usd and BTC-E is nearly always 'away' from the rest of the markets by 5% or more, and always less than the others. I assume there are significant hurdles to getting USD in or out of this Bulgarian exchange.
      - iamsohungry 11y ago
        I'm not sure it makes sense to talk about outliers when there are so few major exchanges.
    - comboy 11y ago
      Doesn't seem to be the case. Last 7 days: http://data.bitcoinity.org/markets/price/7d/USD?c=e&g=12&r=hour&t=l http://data.bitcoinity.org/markets/price/7d/USD?c=e&g=12&r=h... Live view: http://data.bitcoinity.org/markets/arbitrage/USD http://data.bitcoinity.org/markets/arbitrage/USD
um_ya 11y ago
Can confirm, was banned by Coinbase too.
- dsmithatx 11y ago
  Anyone banned, were you given a reason?
  - hueving 11y ago
    For donating to a Republican candidate.
    - blfr 11y ago
      Were you really banned after that or was this a joke?
  - grahamannett 11y ago
    I wasn't banned from coinbase but I had my instant max amount reduced to the lowest amount and had to wait 2-3 day's for a ticket and email correspondence for them to tell me that it was a mistake when migrating users (And as far as I know it had been like this for a week or two)? I wasn't doing anything illegal or account flagged and if my actual bank was making casual errors about my account (i.e. suddenly my ATM withdrawal limit is reduced to $100 per week) I'd be incredibly suspect about their practices/intentions.
draven 11y ago
What alternative do you point them to ? (just curious)
- joshmn 11y ago
  Not OP, but I think it's time we have some open-source, single-click install for some web-based app for managing a wallet. If you're using bitcoin, I'm assuming you can click something to install to Heroku.
  - yasth 11y ago
    Something like that just screams "eventual compromise and massive tears" though. Especially since most click to deploy solutions go on to pull from a lot of different remote servers, widening the attack surface.
    - deleted 11y ago
      [deleted]
adrianmacneil 11y ago
This might be a silly question, but did you use your Coinbase account to conduct any illegal transactions? The team there really cares about customer experience, so generally if they are ignoring you it's because your account has some connection to illegal/banned activity, which they can't disclose due to ridiculous financial laws.
- williamle8300 11y ago
  yuup
  - jessedhillon 11y ago
    Curious, why would you do that? Why wouldn't you transfer coins to a wallet you control and then conduct the transaction from there? Doing it from Coinbase throws away anonymity -- why not just buy your drugs with a Visa card then?
    - oxide 11y ago
      that's the recommended course of action, IIRC. personally, I prefer to do all my gray market drug purchases on the ol' regular internet with a prepaid debit card.
      - anon1mous 11y ago
        How do you get the prepaid card? Cameras are so cheap that practically every shop has them. Voice, face, body recognition are getting better by the week and can be run on all recordings.
- mirimir 11y ago
  What are some examples of "illegal transactions"? Under what jurisdiction? Arguably, anything is illegal somewhere, and is also legal somewhere else. Also, what do "conduct" and "some connection to" encompass? Are VPN services considered "illegal"? What about anonymous VPS rental? And what about gambling, in jurisdictions where it's legal? I get the sense that Coinbase is about as capricious as PayPal. And ought to be avoided for the same reasons.
lquist 11y ago
This aligns with what I would expect. I met the Coinbase founders and they were basically jerks.
- r00fus 11y ago
  In what way?
- luluki 11y ago
  Completely agree. Am surprised they made it through Jessica's Social Radar into YC.
exadeci 11y ago
https://www.coinjar.com/ https://www.coinjar.com/ does the job but only in Australia. It's weird there is NFC payments on banks and bitcoin credit card here for a while now but everywhere else it seems new.

csomar 11y ago

That'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 ago
How long ago was it? They've gotten increasingly onerous in the past year.
- csomar 11y ago
  Very recent. Like last month or so.
kobayashi 11y ago
Almost equally bad.
- trevelyan 11y ago
  Perhaps 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.
  - deleted 11y ago
    [deleted]
  - wdewind 11y ago
    I don't deal with international finance but I do deal with payments within the US and I have to say I really disagree with you on KYC. Our KYC process absolutely prevents fraud from happening, and because we are liable for any transactions we process I can't imagine operating without it.
    - steven2012 11y ago
      Lol absolutely prevents fraud from happening? That is impossible. KYC is more of a cover-your-ass requirement rather than fraud prevention. With millions of SSN and personal information being available after numerous breaches from health care, etc how exactly are you supposed to vett someone's identity over the Internet?
      - stcredzero 11y ago
        > KYC is more of a cover-your-ass requirement rather than fraud prevention. Keister: Yours Covered.
      - wdewind 11y ago
        I think you're misreading my use of the word absolutely. I was responding to the idea that KYC compliance is a joke. It is absolutely useful, that does not mean it prevents 100% of fraud absolutely. > With millions of SSN and personal information being available after numerous breaches from health care, etc how exactly are you supposed to vett someone's identity over the Internet? I can't really get into our entire KYC and fraud prevention process, but I'll just say there are many more ways to vet someone's identity then simply asking for their SSN.
        steven2012 11y ago
        KYC is a joke. If you have information external to KYC for fraud prevention, that's something altogether different from KYC. The KYC requirements themselves are a joke and provide nothing in terms of verifying identity.
- csomar 11y ago
  Yes, I become suspicious at some point. and then it made a bit comfortable doing it, holding and using their services more.
jerguismi 11y ago
No, it is not weird at all. They have something like 3 million wallets, and ~100 employees. I would assume that different customers can have wildly different experience, just because there can be so many random variables.
- tkinom 11y ago
  Maybe just me, I have difficult trust non-traditional payment vendors/system. Recently have to dispute a charge with paypal - an online vendors didn't ship the product I ordered with paypal. The paypal dispute process was hell. Lucky I used credit with paypal. One 3 minutes phone call with credit card company, problem was solved. After that kind of experience, it is much harder for me to trust other payment system. I have use this credit card for 20+ year. This is the first time I dispute the charge for not-false charge. Previous transaction with the same vendor/paypal went thru just fine. Like typical software development, most of the code are for error condition and exception handling. Error condition and exception handling are much harder for payment system. Unfortunately, for payment system, if it is that tough for normal user like me to gain trust with paypal, it will be impossible to convince me to put $ into a coin base account.

Retric 11y ago

Don't forget at a random exchange rate chosen by Coinbase.

csomar 11y ago
The exchange rate is almost identical through all exchanges. Have been studying the market for a while, the slippage between exchanges barely last more than 5 minutes.
- iamsohungry 11y ago
  Apparently you didn't study it last week when Coinbase was $20-$50 different from BTC-E for 5 days.
  - c0nducktr 11y ago
    Are you sure BTC-E wasn't the outlier? That's what I've seen in the past.
    - donpdonp 11y ago
      I've been watching the spread between exchanges for a long time at https://cointhink.com/arbitrage/btc:usd https://cointhink.com/arbitrage/btc:usd and BTC-E is nearly always 'away' from the rest of the markets by 5% or more, and always less than the others. I assume there are significant hurdles to getting USD in or out of this Bulgarian exchange.
    - iamsohungry 11y ago
      I'm not sure it makes sense to talk about outliers when there are so few major exchanges.
  - comboy 11y ago
    Doesn't seem to be the case. Last 7 days: http://data.bitcoinity.org/markets/price/7d/USD?c=e&g=12&r=hour&t=l http://data.bitcoinity.org/markets/price/7d/USD?c=e&g=12&r=h... Live view: http://data.bitcoinity.org/markets/arbitrage/USD http://data.bitcoinity.org/markets/arbitrage/USD

um_ya 11y ago

Can confirm, was banned by Coinbase too.

dsmithatx 11y ago
Anyone banned, were you given a reason?
- hueving 11y ago
  For donating to a Republican candidate.
  - blfr 11y ago
    Were you really banned after that or was this a joke?
- grahamannett 11y ago
  I wasn't banned from coinbase but I had my instant max amount reduced to the lowest amount and had to wait 2-3 day's for a ticket and email correspondence for them to tell me that it was a mistake when migrating users (And as far as I know it had been like this for a week or two)? I wasn't doing anything illegal or account flagged and if my actual bank was making casual errors about my account (i.e. suddenly my ATM withdrawal limit is reduced to $100 per week) I'd be incredibly suspect about their practices/intentions.

draven 11y ago

What alternative do you point them to ? (just curious)

joshmn 11y ago
Not OP, but I think it's time we have some open-source, single-click install for some web-based app for managing a wallet. If you're using bitcoin, I'm assuming you can click something to install to Heroku.
- yasth 11y ago
  Something like that just screams "eventual compromise and massive tears" though. Especially since most click to deploy solutions go on to pull from a lot of different remote servers, widening the attack surface.
  - deleted 11y ago
    [deleted]

adrianmacneil 11y ago

This might be a silly question, but did you use your Coinbase account to conduct any illegal transactions? The team there really cares about customer experience, so generally if they are ignoring you it's because your account has some connection to illegal/banned activity, which they can't disclose due to ridiculous financial laws.

williamle8300 11y ago
yuup
- jessedhillon 11y ago
  Curious, why would you do that? Why wouldn't you transfer coins to a wallet you control and then conduct the transaction from there? Doing it from Coinbase throws away anonymity -- why not just buy your drugs with a Visa card then?
  - oxide 11y ago
    that's the recommended course of action, IIRC. personally, I prefer to do all my gray market drug purchases on the ol' regular internet with a prepaid debit card.
    - anon1mous 11y ago
      How do you get the prepaid card? Cameras are so cheap that practically every shop has them. Voice, face, body recognition are getting better by the week and can be run on all recordings.
mirimir 11y ago
What are some examples of "illegal transactions"? Under what jurisdiction? Arguably, anything is illegal somewhere, and is also legal somewhere else. Also, what do "conduct" and "some connection to" encompass? Are VPN services considered "illegal"? What about anonymous VPS rental? And what about gambling, in jurisdictions where it's legal? I get the sense that Coinbase is about as capricious as PayPal. And ought to be avoided for the same reasons.

lquist 11y ago

This aligns with what I would expect. I met the Coinbase founders and they were basically jerks.

r00fus 11y ago
In what way?
luluki 11y ago
Completely agree. Am surprised they made it through Jessica's Social Radar into YC.

exadeci 11y ago

https://www.coinjar.com/ https://www.coinjar.com/ does the job but only in Australia. It's weird there is NFC payments on banks and bitcoin credit card here for a while now but everywhere else it seems new.