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Like this company as a customer and admire them as an entrepreneur. They are smartly run. But, it does bug me a bit that "traditional money" is once again co-o

Like this company as a customer and admire them as an entrepreneur. They are smartly run. But, it does bug me a bit that "traditional money" is once again co-opting and effectively centralizing what was supposed to be a democratizing, de-centralized paradigm shift.

wpietri 9y ago
Primates gonna prime. In many ways, Bitcoin was a technological solution to a social problem. But the primate dominance dynamic is, like most things that predate humanity, pretty baked in. It's hard enough to fight that when you're explicitly working against it, as with the origin of the various western democracies. Doing it as a technological bank shot is even trickier.
- unclebucknasty 9y ago
  >Doing it as a technological bank shot is even trickier OTOH, if ever you're going to end-run the money-changers, it'd be by supplanting their money with something that can't be controlled/centralized.
  - wpietri 9y ago
    Alas, I don't think they are end-runnable. Their whole business is end-running whatever system exists so as to maximize their own profits. And they're very good at it; their rake has quadrupled since WW II: https://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2011/12/10/number-of-the-week-finances-share-of-economy-continues-to-grow/ https://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2011/12/10/number-of-the-wee...
    - unclebucknasty 9y ago
      No doubt it's tough, but I tend to think anything human-made can be changed/un-made by humans.
      - wpietri 9y ago
        Oh, agreed. I definitely think we should keep financiers and rentiers on a much tighter leash. I just think we have to do it explicitly and politically.
wellboy 9y ago
Why do admire them so much. They are one of the worst exchanges when it comes to customer support and there are massive complaints about them holding vast amounts of money of customers hostage? Then comes insider trading during the BCH launch in addition. Coinbase isn't well liked in the crypto community and numerous questionable practices definitely can quickly backfire.
- unclebucknasty 9y ago
  I've had a good experience as a customer. On the business side, they've navigated a difficult landscape and gone from zero to printing money in virtually no time. It's hard not to admire that if you're an entrepreneur. I'll caveat that by saying that if they've managed it via shady practices, then it is not admirable. However, I have only heard rumblings here or there (admittedly, I am not hyper-plugged into the crypto community). But, given the volume they are said to be doing, issues seem far from widespread, relatively speaking. I may be biased though: I've built and run a business where I've bent over backwards to go well beyond what could be reasonably expected at significant expense to the business, only to have a relative handful of unreasonable people impugn our company and even my personal integrity. It's a constant and these people tend to be very vocal, whereas the hordes of satisfied customers tend to quietly say thank you. So, I tend to filter for that. As for customer support, their growth was meteoric and I'd expect there to be scaling pains. Customer support in particular is difficult to calibrate from the outset because needs are uneven and also tend to spike around policy changes, etc. You eventually pick up on patterns, learn to identify and develop support for oft-asked questions, etc. Then, you have to hire, develop and communicate processes, etc. Unlike with scaling other processes, the timeline for this is very visible to customers since they are typically waiting on the other end for a response.

wpietri 9y ago

Primates gonna prime. In many ways, Bitcoin was a technological solution to a social problem. But the primate dominance dynamic is, like most things that predate humanity, pretty baked in. It's hard enough to fight that when you're explicitly working against it, as with the origin of the various western democracies. Doing it as a technological bank shot is even trickier.

unclebucknasty 9y ago
>Doing it as a technological bank shot is even trickier OTOH, if ever you're going to end-run the money-changers, it'd be by supplanting their money with something that can't be controlled/centralized.
- wpietri 9y ago
  Alas, I don't think they are end-runnable. Their whole business is end-running whatever system exists so as to maximize their own profits. And they're very good at it; their rake has quadrupled since WW II: https://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2011/12/10/number-of-the-week-finances-share-of-economy-continues-to-grow/ https://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2011/12/10/number-of-the-wee...
  - unclebucknasty 9y ago
    No doubt it's tough, but I tend to think anything human-made can be changed/un-made by humans.
    - wpietri 9y ago
      Oh, agreed. I definitely think we should keep financiers and rentiers on a much tighter leash. I just think we have to do it explicitly and politically.

wellboy 9y ago

Why do admire them so much. They are one of the worst exchanges when it comes to customer support and there are massive complaints about them holding vast amounts of money of customers hostage? Then comes insider trading during the BCH launch in addition. Coinbase isn't well liked in the crypto community and numerous questionable practices definitely can quickly backfire.

unclebucknasty 9y ago
I've had a good experience as a customer. On the business side, they've navigated a difficult landscape and gone from zero to printing money in virtually no time. It's hard not to admire that if you're an entrepreneur. I'll caveat that by saying that if they've managed it via shady practices, then it is not admirable. However, I have only heard rumblings here or there (admittedly, I am not hyper-plugged into the crypto community). But, given the volume they are said to be doing, issues seem far from widespread, relatively speaking. I may be biased though: I've built and run a business where I've bent over backwards to go well beyond what could be reasonably expected at significant expense to the business, only to have a relative handful of unreasonable people impugn our company and even my personal integrity. It's a constant and these people tend to be very vocal, whereas the hordes of satisfied customers tend to quietly say thank you. So, I tend to filter for that. As for customer support, their growth was meteoric and I'd expect there to be scaling pains. Customer support in particular is difficult to calibrate from the outset because needs are uneven and also tend to spike around policy changes, etc. You eventually pick up on patterns, learn to identify and develop support for oft-asked questions, etc. Then, you have to hire, develop and communicate processes, etc. Unlike with scaling other processes, the timeline for this is very visible to customers since they are typically waiting on the other end for a response.