5 ms·

A Rare Look Inside Coinbase, One of Bitcoin's Fastest Growing Companies

36 points by aboutus 11y ago

zzalpha 11y ago
Shame, this could've been interesting, but instead reads like a marketing pitch. Of course, I probably shouldn't be surprised. ZapChain is, themselves, a company delivering services for the bitcoin community, so they are incentivized to put a positive spin on any major players in the space (since any good bitcoin press is good for them) in order to make the whole market look more mature and vibrant. Gotta shake off the Mt. Gox stink somehow... :)
- aboutus 11y ago
  If anything, the rise of Bitcoin thus far has certainly been interesting! As for Coinbase, their heft and resources will certainly help mainstream this new decentralized money system.
- mhluongo 11y ago
  Eh, there are a ton of news organization in the space that don't put a positive spin on bitcoin companies. Coinfire has been focused on the Garza stuff, Two Bit Idiot broke the Gox story... not sure why you'd think ZapChain is any different.
notsony 11y ago
> Nick Tomaino, who dropped out of Yale to join Coinbase, was awesome enough to set aside an entire day to answer our questions. So drop out of Yale to do business development at Coinbase? Miss the chance to forge strong personal relationships which could last for decades? Relinquish the opportunity to learn and research for 3-4 years and instead "hustle" with the risk of being pink-slipped every Monday morning? Perhaps the right decision for Nick but I would personally have stayed at Yale.
- smeyer 11y ago
  From a peak at LinkedIn it looks like he dropped out of Yale business school not Yale undergrad, so he's not giving up "3-4 years of learning and research" but more like just the second year out of a two year MBA program for a good business opportunity. I wouldn't judge this choice particularly negatively.
- ntomaino 11y ago
  To each his own. In my mind, spending another 60K to "figure out what I want to do" was the riskier decision than joining a company I believe in. IMO "forging strong personal relationships that could last for decades" does not require you to go to an Ivy League school. Really just requires an internet conection these days.
serve_yay 11y ago
Yeah, "one of".
- aboutus 11y ago
  Others being BitPay: http://bitpay.com http://bitpay.com, Intuit (Quickbook Bitcoin Payments): http://intuitlabs.com/bitcoin.html http://intuitlabs.com/bitcoin.html, Winklevoss twins (who reportedly own 1% of all bitcoins), Quadriga CX: http://quadrigacx.com http://quadrigacx.com, and I'd keep an eye on Coinkite: http://coinkite.com http://coinkite.com in Canada.
Animats 11y ago
From the article: "The information in this post was collected exclusively from the bitcoin community on ZapChain, and Nick Tomaino from Coinbase." The article would be a lot better if they'd been to Coinbase's HQ. If they can find it. The Market St. address in San Francisco is a mail drop for a service that opens paper mail, scans it, and emails it. The Bluxome St. address is someone's condo.
- superuser2 11y ago
  An armed assault on Coinbase HQ while staff are present would be a nearly foolproof way to instantly, irreversibly, untraceably obtain a few hundred million dollars of BTC. Its physical security requirements would be orders of magnitude beyond any other SV startups, even greater than the largest banks (because banks can retroactively reverse transfers and call the police when you try to deposit suitcases of stolen cash). We're talking Federal Government-level security or better, because even US military facilities in the U.S. assume their threats are enemy states, which would have to get through the Navy and Air Force first. We're talking something much closer to an onsite, 24x7 paramilitary force than a guy at a desk in the lobby. Keeping a low profile would be a good place to start. Hopefully there are other controls - cold storage can only be accessed by a quorum of people which never under any circumstances exists in one location, etc. Expecting to ever see inside of Coinbase's HQ is entirely unreasonable, IMO.
  - krupan 11y ago
    Untraceably? Surely there are at least a couple security cameras in their office.
    - beaner 11y ago
      And also this thing called the blockchain.
  - MichaelGG 11y ago
    If you're thinking that way, then an attacker could also just kidnap/torture relatives of key people. That's far lower key than an assault on an office building with cameras, silent alarms, etc.

36 points by aboutus 11y ago

Shame, this could've been interesting, but instead reads like a marketing pitch. Of course, I probably shouldn't be surprised. ZapChain is, themselves, a company delivering services for the bitcoin community, so they are incentivized to put a positive spin on any major players in the space (since any good bitcoin press is good for them) in order to make the whole market look more mature and vibrant. Gotta shake off the Mt. Gox stink somehow... :)

aboutus 11y ago
If anything, the rise of Bitcoin thus far has certainly been interesting! As for Coinbase, their heft and resources will certainly help mainstream this new decentralized money system.
mhluongo 11y ago
Eh, there are a ton of news organization in the space that don't put a positive spin on bitcoin companies. Coinfire has been focused on the Garza stuff, Two Bit Idiot broke the Gox story... not sure why you'd think ZapChain is any different.

notsony 11y ago

> Nick Tomaino, who dropped out of Yale to join Coinbase, was awesome enough to set aside an entire day to answer our questions. So drop out of Yale to do business development at Coinbase? Miss the chance to forge strong personal relationships which could last for decades? Relinquish the opportunity to learn and research for 3-4 years and instead "hustle" with the risk of being pink-slipped every Monday morning? Perhaps the right decision for Nick but I would personally have stayed at Yale.

smeyer 11y ago
From a peak at LinkedIn it looks like he dropped out of Yale business school not Yale undergrad, so he's not giving up "3-4 years of learning and research" but more like just the second year out of a two year MBA program for a good business opportunity. I wouldn't judge this choice particularly negatively.
ntomaino 11y ago
To each his own. In my mind, spending another 60K to "figure out what I want to do" was the riskier decision than joining a company I believe in. IMO "forging strong personal relationships that could last for decades" does not require you to go to an Ivy League school. Really just requires an internet conection these days.

serve_yay 11y ago

Yeah, "one of".

aboutus 11y ago
Others being BitPay: http://bitpay.com http://bitpay.com, Intuit (Quickbook Bitcoin Payments): http://intuitlabs.com/bitcoin.html http://intuitlabs.com/bitcoin.html, Winklevoss twins (who reportedly own 1% of all bitcoins), Quadriga CX: http://quadrigacx.com http://quadrigacx.com, and I'd keep an eye on Coinkite: http://coinkite.com http://coinkite.com in Canada.

Animats 11y ago

From the article: "The information in this post was collected exclusively from the bitcoin community on ZapChain, and Nick Tomaino from Coinbase." The article would be a lot better if they'd been to Coinbase's HQ. If they can find it. The Market St. address in San Francisco is a mail drop for a service that opens paper mail, scans it, and emails it. The Bluxome St. address is someone's condo.

superuser2 11y ago
An armed assault on Coinbase HQ while staff are present would be a nearly foolproof way to instantly, irreversibly, untraceably obtain a few hundred million dollars of BTC. Its physical security requirements would be orders of magnitude beyond any other SV startups, even greater than the largest banks (because banks can retroactively reverse transfers and call the police when you try to deposit suitcases of stolen cash). We're talking Federal Government-level security or better, because even US military facilities in the U.S. assume their threats are enemy states, which would have to get through the Navy and Air Force first. We're talking something much closer to an onsite, 24x7 paramilitary force than a guy at a desk in the lobby. Keeping a low profile would be a good place to start. Hopefully there are other controls - cold storage can only be accessed by a quorum of people which never under any circumstances exists in one location, etc. Expecting to ever see inside of Coinbase's HQ is entirely unreasonable, IMO.
- krupan 11y ago
  Untraceably? Surely there are at least a couple security cameras in their office.
  - beaner 11y ago
    And also this thing called the blockchain.
- MichaelGG 11y ago
  If you're thinking that way, then an attacker could also just kidnap/torture relatives of key people. That's far lower key than an assault on an office building with cameras, silent alarms, etc.