Bitcoin Forum

We have all seen the news, about Coinbase being the first regulated and licensed US Bitcoin exchange.

People are devided into different groups, when this is discussed :

1. People who says, it's a huge move for Mass adoption.
2. People who says, it's a blow for Bitcoin/crypto currency privacy.
3. People who says, "Bring it on, it will open up new legitimate channels for new buyers"
4. People who says, "They bring nothing new, we need a decentralized exchange"

Where do you stand on this issue, and what do you think would be the 100% solution to all exchange issues, to prevent another MtGox fiasco?

I don't believe the "regulated and licensed" hype. At best, they're a licensed money-transfer operation. They don't even have a money transfer license in California.  Here's the official California list. (http://www.dbo.ca.gov/Licensees/money_transmitters/money_transmitters_directory.asp). All the other companies with payment systems are on there, from PayPal to Venmo. Not Coinbase. And no, the list isn't wrong; I called and checked. No Coinbase.

Good for Bitcoin.

Bad for trolls/bears.

Could the fact that they only announced yesterday, be the reason, why it's not updated on the official list? You should post this on reddit, or tweet it and try to get a correct answer.

The hype was spread on most mainstream media, so some people will have red faces, if this is not true.  :-[

good for bitcoin adoption and acceptance

Great news for adoption in the US, in my opinion
International expansion also worth watching

$75mn is a lot of money that will no doubt fuel adoption globally
Excited

You might want to add another group of people who say " TO THE MOON " .

Market is not agree with you. At least BitcoinWisdom says so.

I should have added bad for alt supporters too.

Price before rumor of Coinbase news:
$230

Price today:
$260

Price at the bottom: $152

We are on our way up. The bottom is in.

30$ difference is even below price dispersion. Looks like Coinbase had 0 (zero) effect. And this is actually good, because it could be worse. A lot of USA citizens now got a legitimate way to sell their bitcoins.

You could always sell your bitcoins via CoinBase in the US. You could also always buy.

But this allows investors and traders in the US to more easily get their money onto the exchange to do more day trading.

If it was possible to exchange bitcoins in the past then what does "Regulated & Licenced" mean? That they were doing it illegally?

They previously met the federal requirements. Now they are meeting state requirements which require millions of dollars and a lot of time to obtain.

Thank you for the info. At least now it became more clear to me.

I think its a good thing to have regulation.  1.) we can have decentralized exchanges if regulation is a problem 2.) we can make bitcoin 2.0 if its a problem

When it says regulated and licensed, I hope there is certain control put in place like for example, an audit taking place where they have to allow external accounts auditor to perform a check. For me that is fine and with that, hope to see all the other exchangers follow the same as well.

Well the investors, who wants to do everything by the book, will welcome this.

How do you explain to the tax collector, if you bought 200 Bitcoins at $10 on LocalBitcoin, from a guy on the street, and now you want to sell those Bitcoins for say $3000 on Coinbase.  :o

So for some, this will have no affect, but for the person, who runs a legitimate company or a personal investor, this will be welcomed.

The bigger investor, would possible have a more legitimate vehicle to enter the Bitcoin environment and it will give them a more secure environment to trade in.

1. This will be helpful for adoption.  It is another +1 for BTC and each time we get a plus, we get closer.  This will by no means be the tipping point.  We still need an "Amazon" level announcement for that.

2. It is not a blow at all.  People that are using Bitcoin for privacy can continue on using the same channels they were already using which wasn't Coinbase to begin with.

3. This is by far the strongest argument here.  Do you know that basically 95% of BTC volume is traded in China (Even Coinbase's coins are currently processed out of HongKong).  The exchanges aren't regulated and carry a definite risk of Goxxing us.  Few very rich people will be willing to buy 10's of millions of dollars on a Chinese exchange.  You are just about as likely to see that same person on the bad side of town shooting dice.  The just want touch it.  But with Coinbase and the future ETF from the Winklevii, the whole picture will change.  Coinbase will become the #1 exchange for volume and the ETF for futures.  Both will be in the US and both will be regulated.  Right now China is faking numbers, colluding, squeezing people out for a cheap buck, and just generally playing games.  And they can do so with no consequences because they are the market leader, but with these developments legit and honest operations will become the market leader which will to some extent force China to be honest too.

4. We also need a decentralized exchange, but look, the reason why we need a decentralized exchange is for "trust", but trust need not always be achieved through decentralization.  Until we get there, the level of trust by a regulated and insured Coinbase with best practices can allow people to feel safe.  This is the best 2nd case scenerio and the fears of getting Goxxed are gone except for people that keep their funds on shady exchanges.

To be a little more clear, they were previously legal on the federal level and on the state level of the one state they were operating out of, but not the other 49. 

Now they are legal in 25 states and so therefore are expanding functionality. 

It`s a good step in the overall adoption. I am not thinking on "huge" and "mass" now.

Negative signs as Mt Gox and Bitstamp are bed signs and they are in the memory for a long time. This is nature.

Ofcourse good for bitcoin, more recognition, more adoption, more fresh money coming in. With Gemini and the ETF it gets better.

As for 2 and 4: How is it a blow to privacy? It's not as long as no one forces you to use such exchange. Similarly, it doesn't stop anyone from creating/using decentralised exchange.

Don't know how could this be bad for bitcoin. I'm pretty happy that there are people trying to create a legit, safe and regulated businesses (Coinbase, Winklevoss) and that there are people (Amir Taaki, Cody Wilson) working on decentralised/anonymous solutions.

What you see that occurred with Coinbase was the first time that BTC experienced TOP down market flow, up to now it has all been about grassroots organizations and building a system up, well this time the big guys got together decided to adopt a favorite son of the CC world (coinbase) and give it their blessings.  The problem is they came far too late in the game, they came right on time to save Coinbase but not earlier enough to save the industry in the short term (1 year).   If they did this a year ago, when gox died, it would have saved the industry in the short term.

I've read a couple threads about coinbase and I'd like to clear up a couple reasonable misconceptions:

Coinbase and coinbase exchange are two different things, I don't know how the two are legally related as of yet but they are treating them as two separate entities.

Coinbase is not an exchange, however 'coinbase exchange' is an exchange, they use essentially the same name in order to build on the branding.

One of the things I've been advocating for a year now is the need for INSURANCE, to my pleasant surprise the exchange has some insurance.  And the coverage appears to guard against some of the things that occurred with Mt Gox and Moolah/mintpal -- internal thief.  Thereby raising the quality bar for the industry.

The more secure we make BTC (and the whole CC industry) the higher the value will go.  SAFETY AND SECURITY are the ONLY things keeping BTC value down.



On a totally separate note:
http://www.crowdfundingpr.org/10-cryptocurrency-communities-unite-form-powerful-crowdfunding-platform/

Some people are want the government out of it completely but theres not much chance when they have fingers in all pies.

What is up with people?
Why would one not be okay/happy about this? What needs to happen to satisfy your needs?
This is very tiring sometimes.
So having a regulated and licensed exchange which won't be shut down by the US government is a bad thing now? Sigh..

Very good! One million dollars soon.

Is trollbox available on Coinbase?

Agreed. There is room for decentralized exchanges/anonymous users, as well as licensed exchanges/government oversight/users who sacrifice anonymity for insurance. The two are not mutually exclusive, and I think Bitcoin can only grow with contributions from both sides, so this is one of many great breakthroughs to happen to bitcoin.

good.

I think it was a smart move on their part. Good for them seeing where Bitcoin is moving.

We need a decentralised exchange and one that does not give in to government regulation.

Anyone agreeing with #4 is an idiot simply because Coinbase is not an exchange in the way Cryptsy is an exchange. Coinbase lets you wire $ in and buy Bitcoin directly from your bank account, Cryptsy is where you can trade Bitcoins for other Cryptocurrencies.

With that being so, how the hell would a decentralized exchange allow you to wire $ from your bank account onto the exchange. Obviously banks wouldn't permit that, so it would never work, which means that exchanges like Coinbase are the ones likely to be the leading Cryptocurrency exchanges.

The Wall Street Journal and Time have picked up on the fact that Coinbase doesn't have all the money transmitter licenses they claim to have.

Time: (http://time.com/money/3682313/coinbase-bitcoin-exchange/) "Correction: A previous version of this article reported the Wall Street Journal’s claim that Coinbase had achieved regulatory approval in 24 states, including New York and California. That article has been updated to reflect that Coinbase is working to receive regulatory approval and this article has been updated to reflect that change."

anything that creates demand is positive though...

It's really good........for weeding out the people who should never of been involved in Bitcoin and those who understand regulation is why Bitcoin exists....ie to avoid it. Regulation simply mean the governmnt can take your currency that you simply wanted to use as an exchange of value between private individuals away or what most people understand as Tax. Some people will beg their masters to beat them more...it's a perverse psychology but it's true.

I agree with our noobie friend decentralized exchange is needed to prevent the greedy stealing as they please

you can still trade on unregulated offshore exchanges and receive the same exact bitcoins. 
a move for a united states based exchange is only an addition to the growing infrastructure, so a good thing in my book.

Today, the California Department of Business Oversight issued a warning on Coinbase: (http://www.dbo.ca.gov/Press/press_releases/2015/Statement_on_Coinbase_Exchange_Regulatory_Status_01-27-15.asp)

“Numerous press accounts about Coinbase’s Jan. 26 launch of Coinbase Exchange erroneously reported the Exchange has received regulatory approval from the State of California.  The California Department of Business Oversight has not decided whether to regulate virtual currency transactions, or the businesses that arrange such transactions, under the state’s Money Transmission Act.  California consumers should be aware Coinbase Exchange is not regulated or licensed by the State.”

So Coinbase is not a regulated exchange.

I am wondering how they operate. They are outlaw... Unlicensed Money Trasmitter

Currently thievery is the biggest tax in the CC industry, and that is followed by scams, and schemes.

Given that taxes are only charged on gains, and that losses are decuctible from the gains, seems to me most people would have no taxes owed anywhy.  For the whole year of 2014 BTC was one downward sloping line.

Based on that part in red, no one should put any money in any exchange that isn't licensed, insured, community certified, owner verified, and otherwise regulated.


On a totally separate note:
http://www.articlesbase.com/sleep-articles/the-einsteinium-foundation-awards-prize-to-science-researcher-7185107.html