Coinbase prepares to survive bitcoin halving & mass exodus

[Sark]

We now have a full house of exchanges that trade ether against fiat: Coinbase, Kraken, BTC-E, Bitfinex and Gemini.

Most importantly, we have an even fuller house of exchanges that trade ETH/BTC. And this pair is the most liquid.

This is *good* for crypto as a whole. In the unlikely event that Bitcoin does stagnate or fail, we have everything in place to move on from that kind of disaster. If for some reason Ethereum stagnates or fails, we can continue with on as well. Big money needs something to hedge against, and now they are getting it in the crypto world sans fiat. Religious wars aside, this is a positive for everyone and is IMO a necessary requirement for economies to start leaving behind the fiat world in bigger and bigger ways.

[mookid]

Bitcoin refusing to scale onchain bottom line is what's going to blow it up.  Also it's what is driving the value to Eth.

Armstrong is forward looking due to this.  The value of a chain is fungibility - offchain scaling ruins that.  A network that is refusing to increase capacity is worthless to investors.

I agree Eth is in a massive pump.  Partially because of what you said "If bitcoin doesn't increase in value before/at/soon after the halving - it will be considered a failure."

People are starting to wonder if that's going to happen and eth is exploding. 

Nobody believes any of you lying shill Eth scammers.  Ethereum verification costs are vastly higher than Bitcoin, which makes scaling more important for eth - yet Eth doesn't scale.  Don't give me your ridiculous lies about partitioning either with chains that can't interact with each other.  Since all recursive systems (PoS) are permissioned ledgers, it's the equivalent of Eth being an Amazon VM dealership, except instead of paying Amazon to supply you the hardware, you have to pay Vitalik for coins from his pyramid scheme (gas) + supply your own hardware too.

How wrong you are little Roach. So sad that you are incapable of seeing the facts.

[BellaBitBit]

A lot of naysayers on this thread.  What is wrong with Coinbase entering a market that would be good for its business?  I assume they are attempting to make a profit like anyone else.  It is clear that ETH and other alts are getting popular and are experiencing increased volume so they are preparing for that.  Many things happening in the coming weeks...btc halving, ETH rising, DAO, and Lisk.

[owm123]

Businesses tend to follow money. And now it seems that good money to be made are in eth.

[americanpegasus]

This alarm bell went off in my head as well. Why now?

Pretty simple to answer. Ethereum trading volumes are sky high, competitors such as Gemini are already trading it. You don't even have to consider anything about Bitcoin to see this makes sense for Coinbase to do, at least viewed short term.

smooth, personally I'm excited by it.  I have no dog in the Ethereum fight but this paves the way to eventual (and I'm talking way down the line, like 2017/2018) Monero adoption on Coinbase (or whateverthehell they are calling it by then).