5 ms·

Corporate fluff article on Forbes. Should just be renamed Big-Brotherbase, or Banned-for-Life-and-Won't-Tell-You-Whybase. Coinbase is famous for suddenly disa

Corporate fluff article on Forbes. Should just be renamed Big-Brotherbase, or Banned-for-Life-and-Won't-Tell-You-Whybase. Coinbase is famous for suddenly disabling accounts and refusing to give an explanation. At least a traditional bank will normally explain the circumstances. Got one of their arbitrary sucks-for-you letters last year. No way would I ever recommend them to anyone. In my case I'm a mining developer, so I have a huge digital currency profile. Coinbase is horrifically opaque and impossible to deal with if they flag you unlike most other organizations. E: I'll just lump some more examples of their corporate ineptitude. 1. Recently I asked them for a dump of trades and fees executed on their exchange for audit and record keeping purposes. All they had were records of deposits and withdrawls but none of the actual trades. So no cost-basis data and now a huge accounting headache. 2. When my personal account got locked, we separately had an application out for an institutional account. 4 months go by and suddenly I get emails saying "we're ready to proceed with your institutional account". Excuse me? Told them to fix my personal account first. Never heard back.

oblongx 7y ago
What did they do with your crypto, sell it and pay you out?
- optimiz3 7y ago
  Coinbase closed the account; they did allow all funds to be withdrawn. Fortunately there are tons of digital currency exchanges. Kraken, Gemini, Bittrex are all very viable alternatives that also comply with various regulations in the US.
shrimp_emoji 7y ago
Am I having Déjà vu? Does anyone else remember seeing a thread about Coinbase trying something ambitious/sanctimonious and then comments calling it fluff or handwaving it away, just like this, a year or more ago?
- c0nducktr 7y ago
  Coinbase didn't just start ripping people off within the last year. I ran into the same thing in 2015(ish).
dntbnmpls 7y ago
> Corporate fluff article on Forbes. Sometimes it's difficult to ascertain whether something in a magazine is a legitimate article or paid advertising. Or maybe it's self-serving enterprise by both sides. I scratch your back, you scratch mine. I always wonder, who decided on this article. Did coinbase call forbes to "commission" an article? Did the writer/forbes call coinbase? Did forbes have an online poll asking their readers for suggestions on an article topic?
- gruez 7y ago
  >Did coinbase call forbes to "commission" an article? Did the writer/forbes call coinbase? Well it's forbes, and based on the url you can tell it's written by one of their "contributors" (aka. glorified blogger).
- opportune 7y ago
  It’s pretty common for people at large companies to co-author or just write articles themselves that they then pass on to be published by magazines and such
- manigandham 7y ago
  Writers covering a sector will build up relationships with industry experts. Usually used for quotes and background, and sometimes they'll do features on specific companies or people. People can also pass stories to reporters for big news or pitch their own articles, although in this case this looks to be the former.
brian-armstrong 7y ago
Yikes, that sounds terrible. Hopefully the US can set legislation for this kind of thing. Having people get locked out of their crypto is no good.
- optimiz3 7y ago
  To be fair, I was able to withdraw my funds - when your account gets closed you get told to withdraw everything immediately and go away.
  - dajohnson89 7y ago
    How much advance notice were you given? What happens if you didnt check your email in time?
    - optimiz3 7y ago
      In my case I withdrew my funds the day I saw the notice as I wasn't going to wait to find out. To your point, withdrawl of funds where Coinbase is acting as a custodian is something I believe they have to honor due to being a MSB.
- prostoalex 7y ago
  My account was shut down for no apparent reason, but I was allowed to supply a "transfer out" address for my wallet.
- csomar 7y ago
  It's interesting you didn't address his two points: - Coinbase not having records of your trades (although it's operating from a highly regulated jurisdiction) - Coinbase not communicating why/how accounts are locked. > Having people get locked out of their crypto is no good. Funny thing is that crypto (Bitcoin) was made so that people could hold their own monies instead of relying on a third-party.
  - boring_twenties 7y ago
logicchains 7y ago
This is an example of regulatory capture. Regulations make it hard to start an exchange in the US, and hard for US citizens to use overseas exchanges, so they have no alternative to shitty exchanges with poor service. This is also why they get away with charging such outrageous fees: around 50bps, when non-US exchanges like Binance and Bitmex offer around 5-10bps.
- seibelj 7y ago
  Poloniex (non-US only sadly) only charges 9bps for their most expensive tier. Also has market-maker program for big traders.

oblongx 7y ago

What did they do with your crypto, sell it and pay you out?

optimiz3 7y ago
Coinbase closed the account; they did allow all funds to be withdrawn. Fortunately there are tons of digital currency exchanges. Kraken, Gemini, Bittrex are all very viable alternatives that also comply with various regulations in the US.

shrimp_emoji 7y ago

Am I having Déjà vu? Does anyone else remember seeing a thread about Coinbase trying something ambitious/sanctimonious and then comments calling it fluff or handwaving it away, just like this, a year or more ago?

c0nducktr 7y ago
Coinbase didn't just start ripping people off within the last year. I ran into the same thing in 2015(ish).

dntbnmpls 7y ago

> Corporate fluff article on Forbes. Sometimes it's difficult to ascertain whether something in a magazine is a legitimate article or paid advertising. Or maybe it's self-serving enterprise by both sides. I scratch your back, you scratch mine. I always wonder, who decided on this article. Did coinbase call forbes to "commission" an article? Did the writer/forbes call coinbase? Did forbes have an online poll asking their readers for suggestions on an article topic?

gruez 7y ago
>Did coinbase call forbes to "commission" an article? Did the writer/forbes call coinbase? Well it's forbes, and based on the url you can tell it's written by one of their "contributors" (aka. glorified blogger).
opportune 7y ago
It’s pretty common for people at large companies to co-author or just write articles themselves that they then pass on to be published by magazines and such
manigandham 7y ago
Writers covering a sector will build up relationships with industry experts. Usually used for quotes and background, and sometimes they'll do features on specific companies or people. People can also pass stories to reporters for big news or pitch their own articles, although in this case this looks to be the former.

brian-armstrong 7y ago

Yikes, that sounds terrible. Hopefully the US can set legislation for this kind of thing. Having people get locked out of their crypto is no good.

optimiz3 7y ago
To be fair, I was able to withdraw my funds - when your account gets closed you get told to withdraw everything immediately and go away.
- dajohnson89 7y ago
  How much advance notice were you given? What happens if you didnt check your email in time?
  - optimiz3 7y ago
    In my case I withdrew my funds the day I saw the notice as I wasn't going to wait to find out. To your point, withdrawl of funds where Coinbase is acting as a custodian is something I believe they have to honor due to being a MSB.
prostoalex 7y ago
My account was shut down for no apparent reason, but I was allowed to supply a "transfer out" address for my wallet.
csomar 7y ago
It's interesting you didn't address his two points: - Coinbase not having records of your trades (although it's operating from a highly regulated jurisdiction) - Coinbase not communicating why/how accounts are locked. > Having people get locked out of their crypto is no good. Funny thing is that crypto (Bitcoin) was made so that people could hold their own monies instead of relying on a third-party.
- boring_twenties 7y ago

logicchains 7y ago

This is an example of regulatory capture. Regulations make it hard to start an exchange in the US, and hard for US citizens to use overseas exchanges, so they have no alternative to shitty exchanges with poor service. This is also why they get away with charging such outrageous fees: around 50bps, when non-US exchanges like Binance and Bitmex offer around 5-10bps.

seibelj 7y ago
Poloniex (non-US only sadly) only charges 9bps for their most expensive tier. Also has market-maker program for big traders.