PSA: Coinbase declines services to Tor users.

[superbd]

Was at a bar sharing a pizza with a friend one night. This friend of mine has had interest in starting to get into bitcoin. I was handed $100 and asked to purchase bitcoin for him. Later on I then place the order for the amount of 0.2 bitcoin from CoinBase. I have purchased bitcoin from CoinBase many times in the past with no probems. Though this time was different. With CoinBase one has to wait a week for an order to be fufilled. It was a week later when my friend was expecting his bitcoin to arrive, is when I found the nasty gram in my inbox from CoinBase. CoinBase notified me that my transaction was cancelled. The email read "Unfortunately, we have decided to cancel this order because it appears to be high risk. We do not send out any bitcoins on high risk transactions," This made no sense to me, as it was only $100 worth of bitcoin I was purchasing and had a good history with CoinBase. And so I asked CoinBase why my transaction was cancelled. Their reply was that my order was cancelled because I was a Tor user. I found this frustrating, offending. It was bad enough that I had to wait a week just for the order to be fufilled, only to have that order blocked by CoinBase on the last day of the waiting period with no explanation why. On top of that I had to explain to my friend that his order was delayed. I was also offended that I was considered "high risk" or "suspicous" just for merely being a Tor user. This is why I am never doing business with CoinBase again, unless they can reverse their stance on Tor and privacy enhancing technologies.

[Beyonce]

Yeah it's a shame but some websites or bitcoin services wont let you use it. I guess a lot of people will try abuse it.

[wasserman99]

I don't understand the point of using TOR to access coinbase if you are buying bitcoin with coinbase. You do realize that you needed to verify your identity prior to them processing your first purchase or sale of bitcoin, right?

The only reason why I can imagine someone wanting to use TOR to access coinbase is if you are either using a stolen identity or a hacked account to purchase the bitcoin.

The fact that they have confirmed your identity and are withdrawing money from your bank account makes it more or less pointless to use TOR.

[Stifler]

I don't understand the point of using TOR to access coinbase if you are buying bitcoin with coinbase. You do realize that you needed to verify your identity prior to them processing your first purchase or sale of bitcoin, right?

The only reason why I can imagine someone wanting to use TOR to access coinbase is if you are either using a stolen identity or a hacked account to purchase the bitcoin.

Not neccesarily. Some people just want to remain anonymous, though obviously some criminals also want this. I don't think you can sign up to btc-e through tor either.

[btcm4n14c]

coinbase is like the paypal of bitcoin. they close accounts that play at casinos, now this, do NOT use coinbase .. they SUCK !