Bitcoin Forum

Hi all,

Up until now, I have been using Dwolla + CampBX to  buy bitcoin, but recently I heard of coinbase which cuts out the middle step (dwolla).  The fee is a bit higher (1%+$0.15 vs 0.55%+$0.25) but I understand it will also be slightly quicker than Dwolla + CampBX.

Anyone heard anything good/bad/ugly about coinbase?  I know their limits are relatively low, but how about their exchange rates?  It doesn't seem to be published and I don't want to create an account just to see what their rates are.  Anything else I should know about them?

Thanks,
-WU

I have been using Coinbase for almost a month now. I have only bought bitcoins. Their price seems to follow MtGox though I have seen it diverge. The biggest negative is that you have to wait 5 days to receive your bitcoins. Still, I usually prefer it to BTC-e because getting USD into BTC-e is difficult and expensive.

5 days!!!???  What's the point of that then?  Dwolla only takes about 3 days, 4 at the most and I've a couple of transactions that take 2 days!

Why would you pay more for a service that is slower?

I've always seen it as a balance between speed and cost.  The faster you get your bitcoins, the more a service can charge, but I was not aware that coinbase took 5 days to fun your account...

It is a little different. There is no waiting for your funds to be transferred to the exchange. In my case, I want to buy coins at the current price rather than the price in 4 days. I don't mind waiting for the coins.

http://bitcoinmagazine.com/coinbase-instant-purchases-delayed-support/

Hope your not a serious trader or investor, or 100 cin daily limit will surely be a problem.

Got a different reply from support today, but still no raised sell limit.

Are there extra costs associated with the instant option?  I would assume there has got to be some difference with the instant option vs the "standard" option of waiting 5 days other than the timeline right?

Yeah exactly. I just bought 1 BTC through my verified account and it was instantly added to my account.

Also, last few days, I've seen the price of BTC on MtGox to be higher than Coinbase. I don't have an account on MtGox though, but looks like an arbitrage opportunity? (I did this calculation taking the fees at Coinbase of course).

It's only an opportunity if you can get money in and out of MtGox.

Touche. I assume getting USD out of Gox is still an issue?

I think Coinbase is now the best option for casual users in the U.S. and it's where I send people who are new to Bitcoin to get started. Now that they are doing instant purchases it is even more useful, but it's definitely not a system built for traders.

Their "instant" purchase don't work. My transaction was pending for 24 hours, and then finally cancelled due to "high risk". Even though I'm 2lvl verified.

They are in the U.S. therefore not recommended for foreigners. As foreigner I have very limited rights in the U.S. For example, there is absolute no bank secrecy for foreigners. I'm sure that Gox never gives my data to anybody. In Japan I have the same basic rights as in my home country (Germany).

Coinbase instead have to send everything to the secret services for non-us citizen. That sucks. If Coinbase is registered with the FINCen and have its residence in the U.S. the NSA can get my complete data including all access codes at any time. I do not have to hide anything but for me that is not a serious procedure. I feel very bad with it, so I don't trade with U.S. companies. I did not invested in bitcoins to bring the government closer to my money. If the Yanks go crazy again, you shall see a nasty surprise with Coinbase, Coinlab or whatever they are called. They are all in the U.S. and people like Snowden can access your account whenever they want.  :-\

I tried using CampBX but stopped b/c anytime there is the slightest market volatility the site freezes up and becomes unusable. I have been using Coinbase for several months now. I think it is one of the easiest ways to both buy BTC for USD and sell BTC for USD. I am verified and buys and sells are instantaneous. Right now Coinbase does not let you set limit prices for buys and sells (e.g. I want to buy 5 BTC when the prices = 70, or sell 5 BTC when the price = 100), you can only instantaneously buy or sell at the current price.  I mostly use it to buy BTC then I will put that BTC either in a secure wallet for saving, or I will transfer it to a site more set up for trading. When I am feeling shaky about the price or need more fiat for some reason or another, I transfer BTC back to Coinbase to cash out. I'm glad to pay the slightly higher fee for the added liquidity. Price of BTC on Coinbase is generally slightly higher the Bitstamp and lower than Mt.Gox.

If you do start using Coinbase please consider using my referral link  - https://coinbase.com/?r=5154f64395f72f1c7c000060#.UeqOygFCyCQ.twitter


Let me know if you have anymore questions, I'd be happy to help.

coinbase user for about six months now. ya it was kinda dumb at first they almost never had coins and they would tell you to come back later to try to buy coins. and the wait time was bad so i used them and bitinstant for my coin purchases. now its way smooth. you can just buy 50 or sell 50 in any given day. its not for traders its to get your bank account linked realy. so now that im verified i can buy not ten but 50 per day and its instant. then i take the 50 coins over to bitstamp and traid back and forth on that exchange. also coinbase now uses an average of the exchanges to get its price for btc. so ya its mostly between gox and bitstamp since those are the only two relevant exchanges.

Coinbase made my client, a newcomer to Bitcoin, wait a week for his coins only to deny him due to "high risk." His account is with a major bank and he's been conducting business online for years with no problems.

I didn't get paid and he received a bad first impression of Bitcoin. I am unimpressed by Coinbase, to say the least.

They have finally increased my limits, though with little communication.

A solid company for sure, questionable bureaucracy - i think a little too much as well.

Coinbase didn't make your client do anything, the wait is standard for their service...Everyone who uses the service has this buffer time. Until they released the "Instant Buy" for Level 2 verified customers recently, this was their standard protocol and they didn't hide it.

Coinbase has openly responded about their fraud system and how the "High Risk" transactions are processed, they do not have a perfect system yet. If you were hired to consult or refer this client, it sounds like in this case you should be a bit more unimpressed in your ability than Coinbase's service.

I really don't like Coinbase :D

I noticed that the exchange rate for sales of BTC is getting further and further from the MT Gox average ... and added 1% to this it's becoming a rip off to use coinbase. I sell ~60BTC a week and I'm starting to notice. Thoughts / suggestions?

coinbase offers so much, I like the merchant stuff :D

The issue here is... do you trust gox to send the usd?

If you are trading 60 BTC a week, then it is a mistake to consider a mtgox average price as an "official" price. If coinbase doesn't have the best price, that doesn't mean it is a "rip off". I trade where ever I can get the best price at the time, and frequently that has been coinbase.

The fact is, he was made to wait and this waiting period was imposed by Coinbase. It's their standard operating procedure, sure.

You misunderstand the situation and blame the victim. This "high risk" cancellation was arbitrary and ridiculous, as a long-established businessman my client is the exact opposite of high risk. No one likes to be tainted by such suspicions, so Coinbase really need to refine their anti-fraud system. I for one will likely steer clear of them in future due to this experience.

I appreciate you trying to clarify the situation, but I haven't misunderstood. Coinbase is a startup with a small amount of people trying to do some really large things. They are creating a trading/merchant platform for BTC from scratch and having been about a year old, they are guaranteed to run into problems.

What am I saying here is that, as a consultant, it is your duty to be well versed in the companies and services you recommend to your clients. It is, after all, what you are being paid for. Even one search on Google about the "high-risk" issue would have brought up multiple results about this issue, including an official blog post by Coinbase covering why it's happening.

Anyway, in the end poop happens and it can get the best of us sometimes. Such is life. Hope things can be revived with the client and things can improve. If not, on to the next! Take care.