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You 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 blo
by spilk 11y ago
You 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.