10 ms·

Coinbase’s philosophy on account removal and content moderation

95 points by jbegley 5y ago

throwaway22032 5y ago
My wallet's philosophy on account removal and content moderation:
spamizbad 5y ago
Sounds like they aren’t willing to go to bat for you if one of their “partners” (not just AppStore and payment processors, but also cloud service providers) pressure them. Very easy out to censor anything.
- MrStonedOne 5y ago
  They said they disable that content or that user, in relation to that partner, so it seems like if they get told by apple that your nft violate ios guidelines, you may find your nfts stop showing up on the ios app when searching. I don't see how they have any other choice, and only having the walled garden effect the walled garden is more than a lot of other platforms are willing to do.
cypherpunks01 5y ago
It seems the real philosophical meat (or tofu, for vegetarians) behind this post is in the linked article: "Section 230: Mend It, Don’t End It" https://medium.com/craft-ventures/section-230-mend-it-dont-end-it-e33799a43a5f https://medium.com/craft-ventures/section-230-mend-it-dont-e... Which calls for corrections to the "liability shield" for platforms that host user-generated content, such that they remain shielded if they limit user-generated speech in line with First Amendment principles. The pitch is that 1A principles are more uniform and well-understood, as compared with each companies' own views on what constitutes "objectionable content".
- tandymodel100 5y ago
  [dead]
- pavlov 5y ago
  The American constitution is a vaguely worded 18th century document whose interpretation depends entirely on the whims of nine political appointees. A liability shield isn’t much of a shield if every content moderation decision is potential liability under the extremely murky standard of American constitutionality.
  - ramesh31 5y ago
    >The American constitution is a vaguely worded 18th century document whose interpretation depends entirely on the whims of nine political appointees. Feature, not a bug. The concept of living law is one of the most important contributions of english common law to humanity.
    - Barrin92 5y ago
      If living law is what you're concerned about then I think Brtain's tradition of parliamentary sovereignty is as close as you can get to it. The constitution and the court system with its legalistic approach if anything contradict living law, which is precisely law not by means of constitutions, statutes or courts.
    - joshuamorton 5y ago
      Keep in mind that this is entirely antithetical to the modern conservative approach to constitutional scholarship ("originalism").
  - sk5t 5y ago
    Spot on, the history of horrible decisions (Dred Scott, Kelo v New London, Citizens United, Wickard v Filburn) the weight of some of which still burdens us should be evidence enough of a dangerously broken system. One need not even wander into the impossibly cloudy question of what "shall not be infringed" means.
- closeparen 5y ago
  This would preclude HN, which is moderated on much stricter than first amendment grounds.
  - TulliusCicero 5y ago
    Virtually everywhere is moderated more strictly because in most contexts to do otherwise is silly or even insane. E.g. pretty much any communication medium will (try to) ban spammers, even if 'spamming' is legal.
- schoen 5y ago
  I'm not sure how Brian Armstrong chose those particular five articles to link to at the end of this post, but I don't think that Coinbase meant to say that those articles reflect its own preferred position on speech or intermediary liability, as all five take somewhat different positions, which may even conflict with each other. So I don't think this is a subtle way of revealing Coinbase's new position on §230 reform or something. I suspect it's a bit more like "hey, in case you haven't noticed, intermediaries' role is a pretty hot debate lately, as indicated by this range of views about it". (Thanks for the tofu!)
ramesh31 5y ago
Discover all the joys of centralized banking, but with none of the pesky regulatory oversight or possibility of legal recourse!
- arcticbull 5y ago
  The future is now.
- RedXIII 5y ago
  or overdraft fees
  - spicybright 5y ago
    I'll take overdraft fees in exchange for secure money storage.
  - worstestes 5y ago
    Just with more daily hacks
emersonrsantos 5y ago
They could have a philosophy of serving their customers. If you are an international customer you have ZERO support despite being able to sign up, make transfers and trading. I don't recommend Coinbase to anyone outside the US.
kingcharles 5y ago
I just had my bank account terminated by Block (Square) because it was easier to boot their customer than deal with my support request which was outside of their pre-written script. Their ToS of course allows them to terminate an account at any time for no reason. Their support staff keep saying that I violated the ToS, but they can't specify which one because of course they have no option in their system for someone who was terminated for NO violation of their ToS.
- tomschlick 5y ago
  I would say your next step is a complaint here: https://www.consumerfinance.gov/complaint/ https://www.consumerfinance.gov/complaint/ Generally those get treated seriously by financial entities.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
  - imroot 5y ago
    I had 40K+ taken from me by US Bank after a payday in 2020. Writing the CFPB basically generated a response that "We're returning your money to the processors who send you money" from US Bank. Guess who never reached out to me to ask why my bank was returning transactions? My employers. When I called them to ask what had happened, their "Fraud Research & Gap Analysis" VP was shocked that this only caused a mild inconvenience to me (mainly because I split my payroll between a bank and a local credit union) and then pressed me to get the name of my credit union.
    - aspenmayer 5y ago
      > When I called them to ask what had happened But what happened?? The suspense!
      - imroot 5y ago
        Simple: They closed my accounts, which, is something that they can do in the terms and conditions that you agree to when you sign up for an account. They did not disclose to me where the money in my checking account went to, because, according to them, they did not have to. I realize that 40K isn't a lot to some folks on here, but, it was the money that I had set aside to go and do a fun project after COVID-19 had subsided (here we are, two years later): if the bank does something with your money that it doesn't have to a.) disclose what they did with it, and b.) be judge, jury, and executioner with it, I'm not sure a lot of folks would really appreciate that. In the end, I was out 40K-ish, a few hours of my time, and a reply from the CFPB that didn't really solve my issue. I can make more money. I can't make more time.
deftnerd 5y ago
This seems disingenuous to me, but my personal experience with Coinbase colors my opinion. I had my Coinbase accounts canceled more than 5 years ago. Despite my merchant account with them processing over 1MM USD a year in BTC, they refused to tell me why they terminated my merchant and personal account. At the time, I was buying physical giftcards in bulk from official wholesale distributors for 90c on the dollar, scanning and OCR'ing the redemption codes, and was selling those for the BTC equivalent of $1.05 on the dollar. At the time, some of those merchants had their own plans for digital giftcard distribution and said they didn't want to be associated with cryptocurrencies. I ignored their pressure because I was staying true to the law in regards to various resale doctrines. I suspect some of the larger merchants pressured their financial partners to represent them and put pressure on Coinbase. I didn't mind writing my own bespoke payment processing system to replace them, but the loss of an easy USD <-> BTC gateway did make life quite a bit harder. Since my move to NY, it's been even more difficult because there are few companies that are allowed to operate here.
- pavel_lishin 5y ago
  What's an example of an official wholesale distributor of gift cards? Because the description 100% sounds like you were buying stolen gift cards in bulk.
  - 0xy 5y ago
    The sources are rarely stolen. I used to work in this area for a large e-commerce company and generally what happened is a retail partner would have a sale on gift cards (15% off or something like this), and organized people who did this for a living would buy up multiple thousands in discounted gift cards, often chaining other discounts to get up to 20-25% off. In our case, the arbitrage operators would try to extract the money themselves by using gift cards to buy goods that retain value well (Apple products, gaming consoles etc) to resell. The company is taking a hit, but it's often not outright theft. Technically, they're just savvy customers. As for this case, it sounds like he's buying from genuine wholesale distributors who get gift cards from below face value anyway. Retail outlets would never agree to sell gift cards without clipping the ticket, therefore they aren't paying $100 for the $100 gift card they sell you.
Animats 5y ago
Coinbase has a social network. Why would a money exchange have a social network? To help with pumping crypto. "We want to help self-empower the community with easy-to-use sharing tools making it simpler and more fun to share information on your portfolio allocations or key crypto topics such as emerging new assets," said Coinbase."[1] Yes, they actually said that. [1] https://decrypt.co/85906/coinbase-social-media https://decrypt.co/85906/coinbase-social-media
- xyzzy_plugh 5y ago
  Is this so weird? In the context of crypto it certainly reads as predatory. But let's look at Trading View for example. A social network built around trading software. They already have tight integrations with a few brokers, what if they did their own orders? I'm no fan of Coinbase but this is a weak argument.
  - skybrian 5y ago
    From a user perspective it seems like a bad idea to talk about finance and do trades using an account at single company? I wouldn't want my bank account connected to my Reddit account, or any other social media account. It seems excessively centralized?
    - beaned 5y ago
      This is all probably prep for their NFT platform, which will be instagram-like in social structure, but also allow for metamask-like (i.e. decentralized) logins. [0] [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFYOe1Btf8A https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFYOe1Btf8A
      - skybrian 5y ago
        Yeah, no, this is like a bank deciding they should become ebay. Just because trades happen on a blockchain doesn't mean they should do it.
technofiend 5y ago
After trying to recover a Kraken account opened when the service debuted, I can tell you they're no better. I'm skeptical there will ever be a killer financial app for Blockchain but if there is, despite how much people despise banks, I would still trust them over the current crop of vendors.
- ignoramous 5y ago
  > I'm skeptical there will ever be a killer financial app for Blockchain Not an expert, but I think, stable coins (including government-issued digital currency) and global payment rails built on top of it are going to be that killer financial app. And their proliferation the catalyst behind mainstream adoption of trading real-world commodities and assets on "defi" platforms.
vmception 5y ago
I’d give this a 95% well done. I think it is odd for Coinbase to actually have any carvout for a guiding principle levied globally. This seems at odds with their prior stance, but with the user generated content in their NFT marketplace it looks like they expect to have an issue. They literally probably are preparing a campaign with a bunch of divisive characters that exude opposing messages.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
paulpauper 5y ago
i don't understand. coinbase does not host content. it is a trading/exchange platform.
- vmception 5y ago
  they will when they’re NFT marketplace launches.
- thaumasiotes 5y ago
  > coinbase does not host content. it is a trading/exchange platform. So is AirBnb, but they have a content policy. It applies to any content you post anywhere.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
jbkiv 5y ago
I am falling off my chair. There is something fishy going on here, or wacko. Or I just don't get it.
smokey_circles 5y ago
My house, my rules. Not censorship, not a violation of free speech. Americans are such a fragile, precious people. Second they feel slighted it becomes this stupid parade. Meanwhile, your civil liberties and rights are being stripped by the people telling you bullshit like Facebook is the one treading on you. You just can't write narratives like this
- nervlord 5y ago
ur-whale 5y ago
lol, grandstanding from the company that will terminate your account because they track where your coins go and what you do with it after you've withdrawn them from your coinbase account.
concinds 5y ago
I'm puzzled for 2 reasons: 1. The vast majority of account terminations for individual (not public-facing) services by financial platforms is linked to KYC, AML, and other risks; banks don't wait for the government to tell them to shut down an account, they do so preemptively if they detect "suspicious behavior". There's plenty of stories of people with "unusual transactions" (e.g. freelancers who receive a few thousand £/$ in deposit) and get suspended by Revolut, with support that refuses to talk to them, because Revolut wants to cover their ass and ban people proactively even without hard evidence of fraud. You probably know someone who's been banned from a bank for "suspicious behavior" who don't even know why they were banned. Anyone who hung out around Bitcoin subreddits a few years ago has heard stories of this happening with Coinbase. The risk for Coinbase users isn't politically-motivated bans, it's bans for "no reason in particular". 2. They link to Cloudflare's famous "Why We Terminated Daily Stormer" article as further readings; but Coinbase terminated Daily Stormer months earlier than Cloudflare, for (presumably) an infrastructure, non-public-facing product. Presumably Daily Stormer didn't violate US laws. Here, they claim to only terminate private-facing infrastructure for illegal activity, so this marketing post about their "philosophy" doesn't seem to match their behavior.
- avionicsguy 5y ago
  I'm not puzzled. Coinbase is great as long as you stay in crypto it's the fiat to crypto that causes concern. I'm about/in the process of cancelling/closing all my accounts. Why? In the TOS they (Coinbase) state your crypto will always be your crypto. You are free to withdraw at any time. That's BS. Not only was I told to FO by coinbase support but they said any further contact would result in the exact same answer (FO). That said, I had a large ( like 2k usd) deposit (in ETH so no fiat) so I wasn't giving up. Was about to post on Reddit, or elsewhere but they finally unfroze my account after a month. Most people in crypto don't use Coinbase except maybe the whales because there are incentives for whales. Smaller players get screwed.
- polski-g 5y ago
  Cloudflare banned Daily Stormer because their IPO manager said they'd drop them if they didn't.
joelbondurant0 5y ago
hrdwdmrbl 5y ago
I got banned for mixer use. Is using a mixer illegal?
- capableweb 5y ago
  No, Coinbase is a company that makes its own decisions, has nothing to do with laws. No obligation that they have to accept anyone.
steipete 5y ago
lol they blocked my account without any reason given. Sure. Do what you preach.
wilde 5y ago
There’s something deeply funny to me about the world’s largest vendor of unregistered securities claiming to base their decisions on the rule of law.
pyuser583 5y ago
It sounds like they don’t have a good understanding of the First Amendment. * The first amendment does not consider “hate speech” to be fighting words. * The first amendment does protect falsehoods. The case mentioned from the 1970s was recently overruled. The exceptions to the first amendment they mentioned are narrower than they are portraying them as. It’s fine to use the first amendment as “inspiration” or a starting point. But please create your own list of exceptions. Those exceptions are the point where you can be imprisoned, not kicked off a platform.

95 points by jbegley 5y ago

throwaway22032 5y ago

My wallet's philosophy on account removal and content moderation:

Sounds like they aren’t willing to go to bat for you if one of their “partners” (not just AppStore and payment processors, but also cloud service providers) pressure them. Very easy out to censor anything.

MrStonedOne 5y ago
They said they disable that content or that user, in relation to that partner, so it seems like if they get told by apple that your nft violate ios guidelines, you may find your nfts stop showing up on the ios app when searching. I don't see how they have any other choice, and only having the walled garden effect the walled garden is more than a lot of other platforms are willing to do.

cypherpunks01 5y ago

It seems the real philosophical meat (or tofu, for vegetarians) behind this post is in the linked article: "Section 230: Mend It, Don’t End It" https://medium.com/craft-ventures/section-230-mend-it-dont-end-it-e33799a43a5f https://medium.com/craft-ventures/section-230-mend-it-dont-e... Which calls for corrections to the "liability shield" for platforms that host user-generated content, such that they remain shielded if they limit user-generated speech in line with First Amendment principles. The pitch is that 1A principles are more uniform and well-understood, as compared with each companies' own views on what constitutes "objectionable content".

tandymodel100 5y ago
[dead]
pavlov 5y ago
The American constitution is a vaguely worded 18th century document whose interpretation depends entirely on the whims of nine political appointees. A liability shield isn’t much of a shield if every content moderation decision is potential liability under the extremely murky standard of American constitutionality.
- ramesh31 5y ago
  >The American constitution is a vaguely worded 18th century document whose interpretation depends entirely on the whims of nine political appointees. Feature, not a bug. The concept of living law is one of the most important contributions of english common law to humanity.
  - Barrin92 5y ago
    If living law is what you're concerned about then I think Brtain's tradition of parliamentary sovereignty is as close as you can get to it. The constitution and the court system with its legalistic approach if anything contradict living law, which is precisely law not by means of constitutions, statutes or courts.
  - joshuamorton 5y ago
    Keep in mind that this is entirely antithetical to the modern conservative approach to constitutional scholarship ("originalism").
- sk5t 5y ago
  Spot on, the history of horrible decisions (Dred Scott, Kelo v New London, Citizens United, Wickard v Filburn) the weight of some of which still burdens us should be evidence enough of a dangerously broken system. One need not even wander into the impossibly cloudy question of what "shall not be infringed" means.
closeparen 5y ago
This would preclude HN, which is moderated on much stricter than first amendment grounds.
- TulliusCicero 5y ago
  Virtually everywhere is moderated more strictly because in most contexts to do otherwise is silly or even insane. E.g. pretty much any communication medium will (try to) ban spammers, even if 'spamming' is legal.
schoen 5y ago
I'm not sure how Brian Armstrong chose those particular five articles to link to at the end of this post, but I don't think that Coinbase meant to say that those articles reflect its own preferred position on speech or intermediary liability, as all five take somewhat different positions, which may even conflict with each other. So I don't think this is a subtle way of revealing Coinbase's new position on §230 reform or something. I suspect it's a bit more like "hey, in case you haven't noticed, intermediaries' role is a pretty hot debate lately, as indicated by this range of views about it". (Thanks for the tofu!)

ramesh31 5y ago

Discover all the joys of centralized banking, but with none of the pesky regulatory oversight or possibility of legal recourse!

arcticbull 5y ago
The future is now.
RedXIII 5y ago
or overdraft fees
- spicybright 5y ago
  I'll take overdraft fees in exchange for secure money storage.
- worstestes 5y ago
  Just with more daily hacks

emersonrsantos 5y ago

They could have a philosophy of serving their customers. If you are an international customer you have ZERO support despite being able to sign up, make transfers and trading. I don't recommend Coinbase to anyone outside the US.

kingcharles 5y ago

I just had my bank account terminated by Block (Square) because it was easier to boot their customer than deal with my support request which was outside of their pre-written script. Their ToS of course allows them to terminate an account at any time for no reason. Their support staff keep saying that I violated the ToS, but they can't specify which one because of course they have no option in their system for someone who was terminated for NO violation of their ToS.

tomschlick 5y ago
I would say your next step is a complaint here: https://www.consumerfinance.gov/complaint/ https://www.consumerfinance.gov/complaint/ Generally those get treated seriously by financial entities.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- imroot 5y ago
  I had 40K+ taken from me by US Bank after a payday in 2020. Writing the CFPB basically generated a response that "We're returning your money to the processors who send you money" from US Bank. Guess who never reached out to me to ask why my bank was returning transactions? My employers. When I called them to ask what had happened, their "Fraud Research & Gap Analysis" VP was shocked that this only caused a mild inconvenience to me (mainly because I split my payroll between a bank and a local credit union) and then pressed me to get the name of my credit union.
  - aspenmayer 5y ago
    > When I called them to ask what had happened But what happened?? The suspense!
    - imroot 5y ago
      Simple: They closed my accounts, which, is something that they can do in the terms and conditions that you agree to when you sign up for an account. They did not disclose to me where the money in my checking account went to, because, according to them, they did not have to. I realize that 40K isn't a lot to some folks on here, but, it was the money that I had set aside to go and do a fun project after COVID-19 had subsided (here we are, two years later): if the bank does something with your money that it doesn't have to a.) disclose what they did with it, and b.) be judge, jury, and executioner with it, I'm not sure a lot of folks would really appreciate that. In the end, I was out 40K-ish, a few hours of my time, and a reply from the CFPB that didn't really solve my issue. I can make more money. I can't make more time.

deftnerd 5y ago

This seems disingenuous to me, but my personal experience with Coinbase colors my opinion. I had my Coinbase accounts canceled more than 5 years ago. Despite my merchant account with them processing over 1MM USD a year in BTC, they refused to tell me why they terminated my merchant and personal account. At the time, I was buying physical giftcards in bulk from official wholesale distributors for 90c on the dollar, scanning and OCR'ing the redemption codes, and was selling those for the BTC equivalent of $1.05 on the dollar. At the time, some of those merchants had their own plans for digital giftcard distribution and said they didn't want to be associated with cryptocurrencies. I ignored their pressure because I was staying true to the law in regards to various resale doctrines. I suspect some of the larger merchants pressured their financial partners to represent them and put pressure on Coinbase. I didn't mind writing my own bespoke payment processing system to replace them, but the loss of an easy USD <-> BTC gateway did make life quite a bit harder. Since my move to NY, it's been even more difficult because there are few companies that are allowed to operate here.

pavel_lishin 5y ago
What's an example of an official wholesale distributor of gift cards? Because the description 100% sounds like you were buying stolen gift cards in bulk.
- 0xy 5y ago
  The sources are rarely stolen. I used to work in this area for a large e-commerce company and generally what happened is a retail partner would have a sale on gift cards (15% off or something like this), and organized people who did this for a living would buy up multiple thousands in discounted gift cards, often chaining other discounts to get up to 20-25% off. In our case, the arbitrage operators would try to extract the money themselves by using gift cards to buy goods that retain value well (Apple products, gaming consoles etc) to resell. The company is taking a hit, but it's often not outright theft. Technically, they're just savvy customers. As for this case, it sounds like he's buying from genuine wholesale distributors who get gift cards from below face value anyway. Retail outlets would never agree to sell gift cards without clipping the ticket, therefore they aren't paying $100 for the $100 gift card they sell you.

Animats 5y ago

Coinbase has a social network. Why would a money exchange have a social network? To help with pumping crypto. "We want to help self-empower the community with easy-to-use sharing tools making it simpler and more fun to share information on your portfolio allocations or key crypto topics such as emerging new assets," said Coinbase."[1] Yes, they actually said that. [1] https://decrypt.co/85906/coinbase-social-media https://decrypt.co/85906/coinbase-social-media

xyzzy_plugh 5y ago
Is this so weird? In the context of crypto it certainly reads as predatory. But let's look at Trading View for example. A social network built around trading software. They already have tight integrations with a few brokers, what if they did their own orders? I'm no fan of Coinbase but this is a weak argument.
- skybrian 5y ago
  From a user perspective it seems like a bad idea to talk about finance and do trades using an account at single company? I wouldn't want my bank account connected to my Reddit account, or any other social media account. It seems excessively centralized?
  - beaned 5y ago
    This is all probably prep for their NFT platform, which will be instagram-like in social structure, but also allow for metamask-like (i.e. decentralized) logins. [0] [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFYOe1Btf8A https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFYOe1Btf8A
    - skybrian 5y ago
      Yeah, no, this is like a bank deciding they should become ebay. Just because trades happen on a blockchain doesn't mean they should do it.

technofiend 5y ago

After trying to recover a Kraken account opened when the service debuted, I can tell you they're no better. I'm skeptical there will ever be a killer financial app for Blockchain but if there is, despite how much people despise banks, I would still trust them over the current crop of vendors.

ignoramous 5y ago
> I'm skeptical there will ever be a killer financial app for Blockchain Not an expert, but I think, stable coins (including government-issued digital currency) and global payment rails built on top of it are going to be that killer financial app. And their proliferation the catalyst behind mainstream adoption of trading real-world commodities and assets on "defi" platforms.

vmception 5y ago

I’d give this a 95% well done. I think it is odd for Coinbase to actually have any carvout for a guiding principle levied globally. This seems at odds with their prior stance, but with the user generated content in their NFT marketplace it looks like they expect to have an issue. They literally probably are preparing a campaign with a bunch of divisive characters that exude opposing messages.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

paulpauper 5y ago

i don't understand. coinbase does not host content. it is a trading/exchange platform.

vmception 5y ago
they will when they’re NFT marketplace launches.
thaumasiotes 5y ago
> coinbase does not host content. it is a trading/exchange platform. So is AirBnb, but they have a content policy. It applies to any content you post anywhere.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

jbkiv 5y ago

I am falling off my chair. There is something fishy going on here, or wacko. Or I just don't get it.

smokey_circles 5y ago

My house, my rules. Not censorship, not a violation of free speech. Americans are such a fragile, precious people. Second they feel slighted it becomes this stupid parade. Meanwhile, your civil liberties and rights are being stripped by the people telling you bullshit like Facebook is the one treading on you. You just can't write narratives like this

nervlord 5y ago

ur-whale 5y ago

lol, grandstanding from the company that will terminate your account because they track where your coins go and what you do with it after you've withdrawn them from your coinbase account.

concinds 5y ago

I'm puzzled for 2 reasons: 1. The vast majority of account terminations for individual (not public-facing) services by financial platforms is linked to KYC, AML, and other risks; banks don't wait for the government to tell them to shut down an account, they do so preemptively if they detect "suspicious behavior". There's plenty of stories of people with "unusual transactions" (e.g. freelancers who receive a few thousand £/$ in deposit) and get suspended by Revolut, with support that refuses to talk to them, because Revolut wants to cover their ass and ban people proactively even without hard evidence of fraud. You probably know someone who's been banned from a bank for "suspicious behavior" who don't even know why they were banned. Anyone who hung out around Bitcoin subreddits a few years ago has heard stories of this happening with Coinbase. The risk for Coinbase users isn't politically-motivated bans, it's bans for "no reason in particular". 2. They link to Cloudflare's famous "Why We Terminated Daily Stormer" article as further readings; but Coinbase terminated Daily Stormer months earlier than Cloudflare, for (presumably) an infrastructure, non-public-facing product. Presumably Daily Stormer didn't violate US laws. Here, they claim to only terminate private-facing infrastructure for illegal activity, so this marketing post about their "philosophy" doesn't seem to match their behavior.

avionicsguy 5y ago
I'm not puzzled. Coinbase is great as long as you stay in crypto it's the fiat to crypto that causes concern. I'm about/in the process of cancelling/closing all my accounts. Why? In the TOS they (Coinbase) state your crypto will always be your crypto. You are free to withdraw at any time. That's BS. Not only was I told to FO by coinbase support but they said any further contact would result in the exact same answer (FO). That said, I had a large ( like 2k usd) deposit (in ETH so no fiat) so I wasn't giving up. Was about to post on Reddit, or elsewhere but they finally unfroze my account after a month. Most people in crypto don't use Coinbase except maybe the whales because there are incentives for whales. Smaller players get screwed.
polski-g 5y ago
Cloudflare banned Daily Stormer because their IPO manager said they'd drop them if they didn't.

joelbondurant0 5y ago

hrdwdmrbl 5y ago

I got banned for mixer use. Is using a mixer illegal?

capableweb 5y ago
No, Coinbase is a company that makes its own decisions, has nothing to do with laws. No obligation that they have to accept anyone.

steipete 5y ago

lol they blocked my account without any reason given. Sure. Do what you preach.

wilde 5y ago

There’s something deeply funny to me about the world’s largest vendor of unregistered securities claiming to base their decisions on the rule of law.

pyuser583 5y ago

It sounds like they don’t have a good understanding of the First Amendment. * The first amendment does not consider “hate speech” to be fighting words. * The first amendment does protect falsehoods. The case mentioned from the 1970s was recently overruled. The exceptions to the first amendment they mentioned are narrower than they are portraying them as. It’s fine to use the first amendment as “inspiration” or a starting point. But please create your own list of exceptions. Those exceptions are the point where you can be imprisoned, not kicked off a platform.