Understanding Coinbase Fee

[stoneIsland]

I'm trying to do dollar averaging investing in bitcoin via coinbase. I'm trying to invest in $100 each time. Following is example buy screen I see:

0.00702399 BTC     --------- $99
Coinbase Fee ---------------- $1
Payment Method Fee -------- $0
Total -------------------------- $100

One thing I'm missing here is bitcoin transaction fee for putting the transaction into blockchain. How come it doesn't show? If they do charge, the fee will certainly eat a big trunk of my $100 investment. Or actually coinbase i holding the coin on my behalf?

Appreciate any advise here.

[krishnapramod]

Coinbase is a custodial wallet (you wouldn't have access to private keys) cum cryptocurrency exchange. You bought $100 worth of Bitcoin, including Coinbase fee, payment method fee and they hold your Bitcoin on their hosted wallet, there is no transaction fees involved. You would have to pay the network transaction fees only if you are moving your Bitcoin off of their wallet to another. For investing purpose using a wallet where you have access to your private keys is highly recommended. If you do make regular Bitcoin transactions moving them to a Segwit supported wallet would be better.

In general, Coinbase does not charge a fee to use our Hosted Digital Currency Wallet service. Transfers of virtual currency to an address off the Coinbase platform may incur network transaction fees, such as bitcoin miner’s fees, which Coinbase may pass through to you. Any such transfer fees will be disclosed to you at the time of the transaction.

https://support.coinbase.com/customer/portal/articles/2109597-buy-sell-bank-transfer-fees

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2657620.0

[stoneIsland]

Thanks krishnapramod for you explanation. Did not realize effectively coinbase was keeping my coin. What if they got hacked?

Looks like once I invest large enough amount I need to move the coin to my own private wallet. Given the current blockchain transaction cost it's not economical to do so for small bitcoin amount.

[carlfebz2]

Thanks krishnapramod for you explanation. Did not realize effectively coinbase was keeping my coin. What if they got hacked?

Looks like once I invest large enough amount I need to move the coin to my own private wallet. Given the current blockchain transaction cost it's not economical to do so for small bitcoin amount.

If they got hacked then its time to say goodbye to your coins since you don't really have an access to it knowing that coinbase is an exchange not totally an independent wallet which you do possess your own private keys.This is the risk involve on storing up your bitcoin into these 3rd wallet parties. Its always been good and advisable to store it on wallet which you do have the possession of your keys just like on Electrum. Transactions speaking that $100 of yours will surely be decreased some serious amount since transferring bitcoin into another btc address or wallet will really need to or obliged to pay up fees.

[stoneIsland]

If they got hacked then its time to say goodbye to your coins since you don't really have an access to it knowing that coinbase is an exchange not totally an independent wallet which you do possess your own private keys.This is the risk involve on storing up your bitcoin into these 3rd wallet parties. Its always been good and advisable to store it on wallet which you do have the possession of your keys just like on Electrum. Transactions speaking that $100 of yours will surely be decreased some serious amount since transferring bitcoin into another btc address or wallet will really need to or obliged to pay up fees.

I'm trying to do dollar averaging daily investing since the volatility of bitcoin is too high. I want to invest for long term but wanted to make sure average price I bought is not too high. I'm hoping to invest more when the price is low and less when the price is high. Another way is to invest monthly but my feeling is doing daily will be better than monthly given the daily move is so big. Haven't done any back test though.

Assuming lightening network is available I suppose I can do daily dollar averaging investing easily?

[CyberKuro]

Thanks krishnapramod for you explanation. Did not realize effectively coinbase was keeping my coin. What if they got hacked?

Looks like once I invest large enough amount I need to move the coin to my own private wallet. Given the current blockchain transaction cost it's not economical to do so for small bitcoin amount.

Yes, please do this if you want to add more securities to your bitcoin as you have planned to invest in bitcoin for a long-term, the best wallet in the market id Ledger Nano S (https://www.ledgerwallet.com/products/ledger-nano-s) as you can keep bitcoin out of the online network, it's extremely secure, just keep it in the safe place. If you want a free wallet, you can install electrum wallet on your desktop or download it to your smartphone.
Because once an exchange gets hacked than everyone who has coins in the exchange are in loss.