Bitcoin Forum

Economy => Service Discussion => Topic started by: Rob768 on August 29, 2012, 07:12:44 PM



Title: Coinbase - Become an Investor - Good Investment?
Post by: Rob768 on August 29, 2012, 07:12:44 PM
Have you guys seen that Coinbase is actually accepting equity investments from crowdfunding.  It's listed on TheFundersclub.  What do you guys think?  Is Coinbase a solid investment?  What are the positives and negatives?  Do you use Coinbase currently?  Why or why not?  By the way here is a link to it posted on the Crowd Funding Forum.....

http://crowdfundingforum.com/showthread.php/618-Coinbase

Opinions are appreciated!
Rob


Title: Re: Coinbase - Become an Investor - Good Investment?
Post by: WikileaksDude on August 29, 2012, 07:44:42 PM
I think coinbase will have a bright future..

Lets see here:

Recent Investors:

Y Combinator (including Andreessen Horowitz, SV Angel, Yuri Milner, and General Catalyst), Alexis Ohanian, Greg Kidd, Garry Tan, and Harj Taggar.


What will I get when I invest?

Ownership in units of a fund set up for investment in Coinbase (see Investment Terms for details)
Membership in FundersClub Investor Club - network of FundersClub investors that get special invitations and early access to deals, invitations to private events with FundersClub investors and founders, membership gifts and other benefits
Thank you video from CEO
Inclusion on “Insider investor distribution list” to keep you in the loop when we hit certain milestones and also to ask for targeted help and advice (e.g., if we are looking for a new employee or connection, would love your help!)
Connect with Brian on Linked In

----


Title: Re: Coinbase - Become an Investor - Good Investment?
Post by: kiba on August 29, 2012, 07:50:10 PM
Investing in coinbase is also betting that bitcoin is going to take off. It's a double bet.


Title: Re: Coinbase - Become an Investor - Good Investment?
Post by: elux on August 29, 2012, 07:52:08 PM
Very interesting. How many percent of the company does the full $250K represent in stock?


Title: Re: Coinbase - Become an Investor - Good Investment?
Post by: jimbobway on August 29, 2012, 07:54:17 PM
Brian made a bold claim on the Huff Po live show that an African country will adopt bitcoin in 5 to 10 years.  I wonder if there are plans in his company to make this happen.


Title: Re: Coinbase - Become an Investor - Good Investment?
Post by: kiba on August 29, 2012, 08:05:41 PM
Brian made a bold claim on the Huff Po live show that an African country will adopt bitcoin in 5 to 10 years.  I wonder if there are plans in his company to make this happen.

I thought he said a country will adopt bitcoin within 5 years.

The only question is: which country would be so bold as to adopt bitcoin as their official currency?


Title: Re: Coinbase - Become an Investor - Good Investment?
Post by: jimbobway on August 29, 2012, 08:11:34 PM
Brian made a bold claim on the Huff Po live show that an African country will adopt bitcoin in 5 to 10 years.  I wonder if there are plans in his company to make this happen.

I thought he said a country will adopt bitcoin within 5 years.

The only question is: which country would be so bold as to adopt bitcoin as their official currency?

Maybe not the boldest country but the country with the most inflation.


Title: Re: Coinbase - Become an Investor - Good Investment?
Post by: Severian on August 29, 2012, 08:15:53 PM
Very interesting. How many percent of the company does the full $250K represent in stock?

If you find an answer, please post here. I couldn't find the info either.


Title: Re: Coinbase - Become an Investor - Good Investment?
Post by: Timbo925 on August 29, 2012, 08:27:47 PM
Brian made a bold claim on the Huff Po live show that an African country will adopt bitcoin in 5 to 10 years.  I wonder if there are plans in his company to make this happen.

I just want to point out this kind of thing already happens in Africa. (sort of)
In lands like Zimbabwe where the coin just keep deflating because the government keeps printing money. The people almost stop using the national currency. They use pre-paid cellphone credit. So in stead op paying cash, they send pre-paid credit to the other persons cell phone. The pre-paid currency is in $ so it doesn't deflate and their money is safe this way.

If you see this, I see a place for bitcoin in this system. The only problem is you still need an internet connected phone to do this. If this problem gets solved, I see it as a possibility a country would adopt this currency (as a secondary currency used by the people).

-Timbo925


Title: Re: Coinbase - Become an Investor - Good Investment?
Post by: dissipate on August 29, 2012, 08:50:52 PM
Looks like this is being done through thefundersclub.com.

From their 'How It Works' page https://thefundersclub.com/site/howitworks/:

Quote
Who can invest in FundersClub funds?
Accredited US investors can invest in FundersClub funds. Accredited investors are defined as individuals with greater than $200,000 of annual income (or $300,000 combined income with a spouse) or investors with $1 million or greater personal net worth, not including their primary residence. Entities in which all of the equity owners fall within the “individual” qualifications, as well as trusts with total assets greater than $5 million whose purchase is directed by a person with knowledge and experience in financial and business matters that such person is capable of evaluating the merits and risks of the prospective investment may also invest. All potential investors will need to complete an investor qualification questionnaire, which will be part of the legal documents you will need to sign, before any investment request is accepted.

So you have to be fairly wealthy to invest. Lame lame lame. :(


Title: Re: Coinbase - Become an Investor - Good Investment?
Post by: crazy_rabbit on August 29, 2012, 09:34:19 PM
Looks like this is being done through thefundersclub.com.

From their 'How It Works' page https://thefundersclub.com/site/howitworks/:

Quote
Who can invest in FundersClub funds?
Accredited US investors can invest in FundersClub funds. Accredited investors are defined as individuals with greater than $200,000 of annual income (or $300,000 combined income with a spouse) or investors with $1 million or greater personal net worth, not including their primary residence. Entities in which all of the equity owners fall within the “individual” qualifications, as well as trusts with total assets greater than $5 million whose purchase is directed by a person with knowledge and experience in financial and business matters that such person is capable of evaluating the merits and risks of the prospective investment may also invest. All potential investors will need to complete an investor qualification questionnaire, which will be part of the legal documents you will need to sign, before any investment request is accepted.

So you have to be fairly wealthy to invest. Lame lame lame. :(

Either fairly wealthy or married and wealthy. Not nice. I would be more supportive if coinbase reached out to the community more.


Title: Re: Coinbase - Become an Investor - Good Investment?
Post by: Melbustus on August 29, 2012, 09:58:50 PM
Looks like this is being done through thefundersclub.com.

From their 'How It Works' page https://thefundersclub.com/site/howitworks/:

Quote
Who can invest in FundersClub funds?
Accredited US investors can invest in FundersClub funds. Accredited investors are defined as individuals with greater than $200,000 of annual income (or $300,000 combined income with a spouse) or investors with $1 million or greater personal net worth, not including their primary residence. Entities in which all of the equity owners fall within the “individual” qualifications, as well as trusts with total assets greater than $5 million whose purchase is directed by a person with knowledge and experience in financial and business matters that such person is capable of evaluating the merits and risks of the prospective investment may also invest. All potential investors will need to complete an investor qualification questionnaire, which will be part of the legal documents you will need to sign, before any investment request is accepted.

So you have to be fairly wealthy to invest. Lame lame lame. :(

Either fairly wealthy or married and wealthy. Not nice. I would be more supportive if coinbase reached out to the community more.


I don't know much about coinbase (yet), but the investor restrictions are due to SEC regs. The JOBS act passed this spring actually opens up these restrictions considerably, allowing for true equity crowd-funding in the US. The SEC will probably have their regs revised sometime mid next year.


Title: Re: Coinbase - Become an Investor - Good Investment?
Post by: DeathAndTaxes on August 29, 2012, 10:04:20 PM
Looks like this is being done through thefundersclub.com.

...

So you have to be fairly wealthy to invest. Lame lame lame. :(

The good news is US securities laws will change in "January 2013 ? don't quote me on the date " and will allow crowd funding by investors who are not "accredited" (i.e. us normal shlubs).  Probably the only decent piece of legislation Obama has passed.


Title: Re: Coinbase - Become an Investor - Good Investment?
Post by: Melbustus on August 29, 2012, 10:12:53 PM
Yeah, lots of Kickstarter-like sites, but for actual equity, are springing up (will launch when the regs go into effect next year). I predict kind-of a wild-west of crowd-equity-funding for a couple years. Startups should have much easier access to seed capital, until enough un-diligent people/investors get burned sufficiently to yield a bunch of irritating negative press. So there'll be a big pull-back, etc, but long-term, I'm optimistic that this will really help good teams with good ideas get funding quicker and easier than now.


Title: Re: Coinbase - Become an Investor - Good Investment?
Post by: labestiol on August 29, 2012, 10:35:53 PM
I agree that it's probably a good investment, and I also would like to see projects like that grow.
But don't you think investing in BTC is better at this point ?
If coinbase take off, then btc will also take off. The opposite is not necessarily true

Thoughts ?


Title: Re: Coinbase - Become an Investor - Good Investment?
Post by: Steve on August 30, 2012, 01:20:50 AM
In a way, buying bitcoins is an investment in all bitcoin related companies.  You'll stand to benefit if any one or several of them are successful.


Title: Re: Coinbase - Become an Investor - Good Investment?
Post by: dissipate on August 30, 2012, 02:57:30 AM
In a way, buying bitcoins is an investment in all bitcoin related companies.  You'll stand to benefit if any one or several of them are successful.

So why are you involved with bit-pay? You could have just bought up a bunch of BTC instead. Are you doing charity work for the rest of us?  ;D


Title: Re: Coinbase - Become an Investor - Good Investment?
Post by: kiba on August 30, 2012, 02:59:31 AM
In a way, buying bitcoins is an investment in all bitcoin related companies.  You'll stand to benefit if any one or several of them are successful.

So why are you involved with bit-pay? You could have just bought up a bunch of BTC instead. Are you doing charity work for the rest of us?  ;D

Because you need an ecosystem for bitcoin to be successful. You can't just buy bitcoin and expect the ecosystem to grow.


Title: Re: Coinbase - Become an Investor - Good Investment?
Post by: paraipan on August 30, 2012, 03:17:40 AM
...

Because you need an ecosystem for bitcoin to be successful. You can't just buy bitcoin and expect the ecosystem to grow.

Yes you can, investing in bitcoin means putting trust in it which in exchange raises trust levels in other individuals, who build an ecosystem around it.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=103075.msg1130677#msg1130677

When you save money, you produce but do not consume. That's great. You deposit but do not withdraw, loaning everyone else use of the benefits of your labor. Deferred consumption should be rewarded as it's a form of investment.



Title: Re: Coinbase - Become an Investor - Good Investment?
Post by: kiba on August 30, 2012, 03:39:44 AM
Yes you can, investing in bitcoin means putting trust in it which in exchange raises trust levels in other individuals, who build an ecosystem around it.



And somebody still have to build their niches.


Title: Re: Coinbase - Become an Investor - Good Investment?
Post by: Rob768 on August 30, 2012, 01:32:52 PM
After reading the documents about coinbase on thefundersclub it appears that their valuation for this funding is $5 million.  So they are giving away 5% equity for $250k.  Not positive on this.  Not a securities lawyer :)


Title: Re: Coinbase - Become an Investor - Good Investment?
Post by: maxme on August 30, 2012, 01:55:36 PM
Can someone explain this: https://thefundersclub.com/download/legal/39/ ?

Quote
- Convertible note converting to Preferred Stock upon first Qualified Equity Financing at the price per share of the financing round with a maximum pre-money valuation of $10M

- If more favorable terms are offered to subsequent note holders, the fund may elect to receive those terms

-Converts at a $5M pre-money valuation to Series AA Preferred Stock if no Qualified Equity Financing occurs within 2 years of note, w/weighted average anti-dilution and 1x liquidation preference

-Converts at lesser of $5M or fair market value to Preferred Stock if Change of Control or IPO occurs within 2 years of note without a Qualified Equity Financing, or the note may be paid off at fund’s option


Title: Re: Coinbase - Become an Investor - Good Investment?
Post by: Steve on August 30, 2012, 02:43:24 PM
In a way, buying bitcoins is an investment in all bitcoin related companies.  You'll stand to benefit if any one or several of them are successful.

So why are you involved with bit-pay? You could have just bought up a bunch of BTC instead. Are you doing charity work for the rest of us?  ;D
I didn't say not to invest in specific companies you might think will be successful...just commenting on the nature of buying and holding bitcoin.  The infrastructure around bitcoin (that individuals and businesses create) will increase the value of bitcoin itself.  Likewise, the increasing value of bitcoin helps those businesses finance themselves (assuming the businesses have themselves invested in bitcoin).  Clearly, if everyone just bought bitcoin and then sat on their ass, bitcoin wouldn't end up being nearly as valuable.  But, just buying and holding bitcoin does help bitcoin businesses.  You are deferring consumption and allocating capital to the bitcoin ecosystem.


Title: Re: Coinbase - Become an Investor - Good Investment?
Post by: paulie_w on August 30, 2012, 04:16:24 PM
tell me again why we want to have more hosted wallet sites? it just seems like an incredible target for hacking.

actually, have any exchanges escaped hacking yet?


Title: Re: Coinbase - Become an Investor - Good Investment?
Post by: dissipate on August 30, 2012, 05:40:16 PM
In a way, buying bitcoins is an investment in all bitcoin related companies.  You'll stand to benefit if any one or several of them are successful.

So why are you involved with bit-pay? You could have just bought up a bunch of BTC instead. Are you doing charity work for the rest of us?  ;D
I didn't say not to invest in specific companies you might think will be successful...just commenting on the nature of buying and holding bitcoin.  The infrastructure around bitcoin (that individuals and businesses create) will increase the value of bitcoin itself.  Likewise, the increasing value of bitcoin helps those businesses finance themselves (assuming the businesses have themselves invested in bitcoin).  Clearly, if everyone just bought bitcoin and then sat on their ass, bitcoin wouldn't end up being nearly as valuable.  But, just buying and holding bitcoin does help bitcoin businesses.  You are deferring consumption and allocating capital to the bitcoin ecosystem.

A company that has a significant amount of money invested in Bitcoin directly is crazy. Bitcoin can lose half of its value in an hour. That's not something you can build a business on...


Title: Re: Coinbase - Become an Investor - Good Investment?
Post by: mc_lovin on August 30, 2012, 07:21:22 PM
Why don't they accept bitcoin donations?


Title: Re: Coinbase - Become an Investor - Good Investment?
Post by: Rob768 on August 31, 2012, 03:06:16 PM
Bitcoin currently is a bit confusing to those normal internet users who aren't savy with the latest tech news.  I think something like coinbase will help in alleviating that confusion.  Its modeled after paypal but doesn't charge any transaction fees.  Should catch on well. 


Title: Re: Coinbase - Become an Investor - Good Investment?
Post by: crazy_rabbit on August 31, 2012, 03:27:06 PM
Bitcoin currently is a bit confusing to those normal internet users who aren't savy with the latest tech news.  I think something like coinbase will help in alleviating that confusion.  Its modeled after paypal but doesn't charge any transaction fees.  Should catch on well. 

"Its modeled after paypal but doesn't charge any transaction fees."

Um, are you describing Coinbase or Bitcoin because all coinbase offers at the moment is another ewallet service. And we don't know how secure it is either.


Title: Re: Coinbase - Become an Investor - Good Investment?
Post by: Rob768 on August 31, 2012, 06:23:31 PM
Coinbase.  Yes it's a wallet service.  Seems pretty simple though and has silcon valley backers.  I'm sure security is one of their top prioroties


Title: Re: Coinbase - Become an Investor - Good Investment?
Post by: Steve on August 31, 2012, 07:33:19 PM
In a way, buying bitcoins is an investment in all bitcoin related companies.  You'll stand to benefit if any one or several of them are successful.

So why are you involved with bit-pay? You could have just bought up a bunch of BTC instead. Are you doing charity work for the rest of us?  ;D
I didn't say not to invest in specific companies you might think will be successful...just commenting on the nature of buying and holding bitcoin.  The infrastructure around bitcoin (that individuals and businesses create) will increase the value of bitcoin itself.  Likewise, the increasing value of bitcoin helps those businesses finance themselves (assuming the businesses have themselves invested in bitcoin).  Clearly, if everyone just bought bitcoin and then sat on their ass, bitcoin wouldn't end up being nearly as valuable.  But, just buying and holding bitcoin does help bitcoin businesses.  You are deferring consumption and allocating capital to the bitcoin ecosystem.

A company that has a significant amount of money invested in Bitcoin directly is crazy. Bitcoin can lose half of its value in an hour. That's not something you can build a business on...
Any Bitcoin business that isn't investing in Bitcoin is crazy, if not schizophrenic.  A Bitcoin business is investing in Bitcoin by definition.  If Bitcoin doesn't succeed, neither will the business.  Now, certainly prudent investing is advisable.  The value of Bitcoin is volatile and risky, so any investment should be regarded as such.


Title: Re: Coinbase - Become an Investor - Good Investment?
Post by: 556j on August 31, 2012, 08:52:04 PM
I think it's a bad investment.  Some good points in the reddit thread

http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/z19z8/coinbase_a_paypal_for_bitcoin_is_looking_for_250k/


Title: Re: Coinbase - Become an Investor - Good Investment?
Post by: Rob768 on September 01, 2012, 10:52:50 PM
Which particular points are you referring to?


Title: Re: Coinbase - Become an Investor - Good Investment?
Post by: piuk on September 02, 2012, 02:54:12 PM
I have some shares in coinbase.com available for sale. PM me if interested.


Title: Re: Coinbase - Become an Investor - Good Investment?
Post by: Rob768 on September 03, 2012, 02:26:23 PM
How many shares?  How did you come by them?  I will pm you now


Title: Re: Coinbase - Become an Investor - Good Investment?
Post by: provenceday on September 05, 2014, 09:13:28 AM
nice investment!

anybody still hold their shares?

 ;D