Bitcoin Forum

I use coinbase as a personal wallet.It cost nothing for transactions. Is it safe? someone told me to use blockchain instead of coinbase.but it cut a fee for every transaction.

It's not really the safest wallet neither is blockchain. Since coinbase is a exchange and all the bitcoin is stored on their servers any problem or hack of the servers you will lose your bitcoin there have been some previous incidents with coinbase and I wouldn't recommend it. For small transactions like <0.001 it's fine using coinbase but wouldn't recommend it to store high amounts. Best is using a desktop wallet for everyday use,  I usually use Electrum it's easy to understand and has good security.

I am new to bitcoin and have been looking around for a good wallet  site where i can also trade bitcoin. I am not easily convinced about the online currency. Is coinbase is really safe enough for me to hook my credit card onto for instant transaction. For all we know, i have the power to search the the information about it, I did and found many answers. But if your a user of coinbase, is it really good? Is it safe? What's your experience about coinbase?

if your privacy means nothing to you then use Coinbase and don't complain if later one in the future IRS came to your home knocking at your door asking why didn't you pay your taxes when you were using bitcoin and here are your records from your Coinbase account and here is big ass fine we are demanding because you evaded paying taxes.

Coinbase is decent enough, one of the larger exchanges and it requires some id verification if you are using fiat to deposit and withdraw.  If you are a gambler you would be best off using another wallet as they tend to ban account that receive or send funds to gambling sites.

I am from such a country where online wallet not regulated.Coinbase is free of cost and confirm the transaction within a minute.I am happy to use it. If any  other problem have let me know.

It could get regulated in the future, doesn't matter which country you are from. They will have everything on record if you continue to use Coinbase.
Plus, I've read multiple stories of them freezing or terminating accounts of people, so I personally wouldn't trust them.

The fees you pay when using other wallets are just part of Bitcoin and it's not that much, I'd rather pay them than trusting Coinbase (or any other online wallet) with my coins.

There are hundreds of thousands of users,they should make their site tight and they had a good reputation so I think it's safe to use their wallet,but if you are dealing with huge amount electrum is very much preferable,it's one of the safest wallet ..

I think it is safe, coinbase is the first wallet i had, and up until now i got no issue of using it, so for me it is a pretty safe wallet and it got a good security, there were few times that the user claims coinbase hold their withdrawal and recently there was a rumour said that coinbase is going to be inspected by IRS, so coinbase reputation is a bit tainted due to the rumour but i still believe in coinbase

any suggestion which site i can be used for it?

me too bro.

Anything that is not gambling or anything illegal. Even so, they reserve the rights to edit their terms of service and can suspend your account even if nothing is wrong with it.

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Blockchain.info is no better than Coinbase and is actually a lot worse.

Coinbase does have a significantly better track record as compared to Blockchain.info and that is the reason why you should ABSOLUTELY avoid using Blockchain.info AT ALL. They are not competent enough to test their software for any bugs before releasing it to the public.

That being said, Coinbase controls your private keys and thus controls and records EVERY of your transaction. Your privacy is now compromised. Sure, they are trustable. But the fact that they can track all your transactions defeats the purpose of Bitcoin. Try using a desktop wallet like Electrum. I am sure they can provide equal or even more security as compared to coinbase.

Do you care about having your account blocked, privacy compromised or paying a small fee (eg. 0.0004BTC) for every transactions?

All online wallets are not very recommendable as they don't give you the private keys . If you don't have the private keys, it means the wallet is not yours as you have no full control of it . They can freeze/terminate your account , The hackers might hack their site or even run away with your money .

The miners fee is a very low fee that you won't even notice . Its better to pay that little amount just to be sure that your money is safe right?

coinbase has been around for quite some time now that makes it trusted enough for small amounts and if you are really so desperate about a couple of cents of transaction fees then yeah go for it.

but i don't really like it because it lacks security and doesn't matter how much they say it is safe, they will never guarantee you if you are hacked or their system is completely hacked.

If you are interested in meticulously accounting then yes.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1590009.0

Your right about any online wallet service. I would add that hacks are not the real problem. Employee theft is responsible for most of the exchange/wallet service losses. The lure of easy money has a very strong appeal.

Mainstreaming Bitcoin use is a trap. Wallet services are necessary for average users to make Bitcoin easy to use. Wallet services are inherently dangerous because they have no government fraud protection, insurance and are subject to employee "hacking". So what do we tell people? Online wallets are ok because we want more users or online wallets are awful because they're risky?

It`s safe,unless you use it for gambling or some illegal activities.

Coinbase sometimes blocks accounts used for gambling purposes.

It's online wallet so it's not the safest in the world but for smaller amounts and smaller transactions it's just fine. You can't avoid the risk completely, it's always there. They are present a long time on the Bitcoin scene and so far there haven't been any mayor issues. Good advice is to have another wallet, not online, as a back up.

using coinbase is not problem until you dont use it for gambling as they dont allow gamblers to use coinbase account and if found they will ban the account. But it is recommended to use desktop wallet like electrum which will give you full security and hold of address with private key and you dont have any risk of using to gambling or any other place.

As what others said already, coinbase is not safe if you are storing huge amount of funds there, its an exchanger site and also have wallet address service that don't have any fee in any transaction you've made and that was a very questionable one there, a business will run and become succesfull only if there users are paying there fee to them and this company is different from them. And coinbase have so many incidents that many complaning because of locking of there accounts there with a huge amount in it. So if I were you dude, blockchain is much better than coinbase if you are referring to web wallets only but much better if you're using desktop wallets to secure your funds.

Coinbase will close/block your account for stupid reasons... if they even suspect that you using it against something that are stipulated in their

ToS. They are a centralized service and you have to adhere to strict KYC/AML regulations to use it. Blockchain.info has no such requirements..

you just signup and use it. Yes, Blockchain.info had some issues before, but they were sorted out quickly.  ;D Your safest bet.. buy a Trezor

hardware wallet.

The bottom-line is, use Coinbase if you are new and doing less amount of transactions. Find a better one when you have a big amount and do many transactions in small time.  :)

Yes,Transaction of currencies into your Coinbase account is FREE.Mainly Coinbase is a digital asset exchange company but most of people using it as a wallet so there might be some restrictions as Coinbase is not only used as of transferring,storing digital currency but also secure online platform for buying, selling.You should bear in mind that you may ban at any time if coinbase suspect you as a gambling attempt or such as many issue.

I suggest you create another bitcoin wallet as soon as you can.There are a number of bitcoin software that will process your transactions and create new bitcoin accounts for you.Surely a little bit fee may be cut off for every transaction.Blockchain should be better.

Coinbase is safe wallet if you don't use it on gambling or casino sites.
Coinbase don't gives you private keys, so you don't have full control of your coins. This is why blokchain.info is better wallet.
But I think you can use coinbase for your daily needs to save transaction fees. But don't keep big amounts there. It's better to use desktop wallet as main place to keep coins.

It is after all an exchange first.
So would you really rely on them as a wallet for your whole bitcoin collection.
I think not.
Do not trust exchanges. Hasn't anyone learned from Cryptsy/Bitfinex? ::)

OP is just talking with the transactions and not as a safe wallet so obviously the answer is yes, Coinbase is safe for doing transactions. Some replies are pointing to the characteristic of Coinbase itself lol.

For storing coins purposes or people will use this as main wallet then that is not a wise thing to do and the answer is obvious. Im using this exchange wallet for services or transactions only but not to the point that I will make this as my primary wallet. As of now I didn't have a problem using this exchange when doing transactions.

Coinbase wallets are attached to an exchange so they are one in the same; if that exchange goes down then the wallet that has your coins in it does as well..
As far as I see it.

That's where most people go wrong. Online wallets are great for day-to-day transactions(small amounts), especially one where they pay for your transaction fees, but actually using it as your main wallet/storing all your coins in it is a big No. That would be like handing control/ownership of all your coins to a third-party.
I personally use a desktop wallet(Electrum) and mobile wallet(Mycelium) for storing most of my coins. I do use Coinbase as well since the "free" thing is great but only for small amounts, and the only funds I put there are ones I could somehow afford to loose. (Just in case since one never knows.)

Yea,I understand. thanks.

Indeed its a good online wallets but the fact that they have so much rules make them also pretty bad in my eyes..

What are the rules made bad coinbase in your eyes?

I used coinbase more than 9 months, but until now never got problems. I very like use coinbase because have vault wallet for save and send with big amount and full secure.

i never yet used vault

Just don't use coinbase, trust me, there is good a reason many people here recommend to not use it.

It seems that is a fact and even me I don't want to suggest using coinbase I just don't know why. Even though I used coinbase for sometime but I didn't used it for a long time because I find blockchain is way better with coinbase. And once I've read a bad feed back about coinbase here in forum then it make me think that coinbase is a must be stayed away wallet.

I use coinpayments wallet because i must use it to invest in revenue share sites so i use it and feees are only 0.0001 btc and you need only to type code from email and write username and password to lign what is good for me.

Coinbase is a safe online wallet and it doesnt really require some fees on each transaction you would made but the thing you would really bother off is when the transfer would be longer to confirm when you are sending money to another wallet and also coinbase is strict regarding on using it on gambling sites they will froze you account. Blockchain is commonly used it do have fees but it wont really hurt you. Use the wallet that really suits you.

thanks

Yeah but for everyday transactions with small amounts it's less painful.It's 2016,people should stop using online wallets especially of the 3rd party exchanges.

Blockchain.info is just a web wallet while coinbase is an exchange.

Coinbase is really safe for bitcoin transfers and we should not be worry about and regarding to the fee its really true that they dont charge for the transaction fee compare to other wallets thats why i like to use it since im not in a hurry on waiting for confirmations.Just dont use it on gambling

One question: Electrum wallet is free or not?

Coinbase is not a wallet at all but some of people use it as a personal wallet even me use this.Yes it should be safe if you can use it by maintaining some rules and regulation.Most important those are you didn't made any transaction which are gambling related.

Coinbase is very legit - just be sure to tumble your BTC if you're planning on using them for anything that might fall into the grey area - they'll close your account for sure there

Before i experience of pending transaction from coinbase but it fix in few weeks.. like other said it is still risky o stay our bitcoin for too long in that web wallet because they are just giving a free service which is why they are giving it for free service.. but any way you transacting a small amount so if you lose there it is not a big problem.. i refer to use electrum instead of you want for better safe place if you are holding large amount of bitcoin.

Online wallets are all risky since we dont posses the private keys and if the online wallet crashes then say goodbye totally on our bitcoins.Regarding on coinbase i could say that they are safe for transactions and they do charge free in every transfer you made unlike on blockchain and other web wallets.

I'd love to say it's safe, but Mt. Gox, Cryptsy, and all the rest say otherwise about keeping coins on exchanges.  You just never know.

For more than 4 months of using coinbase I've never encountered a problem, every clear cookies or move the other computer always asked verification code that sent via mobile phones, I think coinbase is very safe.

as long as there are no guarantees of course we have to be vigilant, I suggest to split it into multiple wallet so that more secure. just as in real life, we should keep our money in some places or bank.