Coinbase, the Final Death Blow?

[lukestokes]

You've seen this, right? http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1bh3s9/coinbase_to_service_more_purchases/

Sounds to me like they are doing what they can to allow people to buy more coins. Makes sense from a business standpoint.

[1714127264]

1714127264

[BitcoinTate]

time it right based on what?  i cant just click until it goes through anymore

Their is an auto buy script you can execute floating around here somewhere that will do it for you. Can't remember which thread its in.

I know there is a script, but can't use it on my work computer. It is bad enough trying for weeks just to try to buy any and then have this new information to top it off. I really really tried to give them the benefit of the doubt, but it has been too long now. I have put up with the pending transactions not going though thus having bitpay invoices expire, merely sending money to my other wallet taking days, strange balances appearing and disappearing..all that I have tolerated but the annoyances are really adding up. I really was hoping they would pull through, but just take a look at their Facebook comments lately.

Looks like it was written for Linux, is that what you tried it on?

[BTC Books]

Need a new site to buy BTC directly from my bank... and LTC too lol.   cant justify $20 wire fees for the small time coining i do

Yes.  I liked Coinbase.  I bought a fair number of coin when they started up - you could actually buy on the dips.

But you can't buy any any more.  And there's no way I commit to some unknown price in five days from now.

Now I'm spoiled of course.  As you say:  "Need a new site to buy BTC directly from my bank".  That is so convenient; but frustrating and crazy-making without the liquidity to back it up.

[Aozora21]

what are other good options? i dont mind waiting a few days to get money into an account like mtgox.. but i dont want to have to spend $20 in wire xfer fees because i honestly buy like 1 or 2 coins at a time as fiat is available. not to mention to some random person in another country.. i think bitcoin is sketchy enough without that.

[BitcoinTate]

what are other good options? i dont mind waiting a few days to get money into an account like mtgox.. but i dont want to have to spend $20 in wire xfer fees because i honestly buy like 1 or 2 coins at a time as fiat is available.

Dwolla -> Gox.... 25 cents for anything over $10. Just have to get verified by both Gox and Dwolla.

[BitcoinTate]

what are other good options? i dont mind waiting a few days to get money into an account like mtgox.. but i dont want to have to spend $20 in wire xfer fees because i honestly buy like 1 or 2 coins at a time as fiat is available. not to mention to some random person in another country.. i think bitcoin is sketchy enough without that.

I have also heard people recommend Bitfloor recently...  I have never used them and I know they have had issues in the past with security.

[BTC Books]

what are other good options? i dont mind waiting a few days to get money into an account like mtgox.. but i dont want to have to spend $20 in wire xfer fees because i honestly buy like 1 or 2 coins at a time as fiat is available.

Dwolla -> Gox.... 25 cents for anything over $10. Just have to get verified by both Gox and Dwolla.

Dwolla doesn't get a dime of mine, after Tradehill.  I won't deal with companies like that.

My understanding is that the CoinLab/Gox spinoff might work like Coinbase.  We'll see.

Right this second though, all the options kind of suck.

[just1nmc]

You've seen this, right? http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1bh3s9/coinbase_to_service_more_purchases/

Sounds to me like they are doing what they can to allow people to buy more coins. Makes sense from a business standpoint.

Yes, read this. People are over-reacting and not reading what Coinbase is saying. There is nothing negative about it.

This is an additional, and OPTIONAL feature they are trying. There is still the normal 24-hour rolling limit, where you can buy bitcoins for the current price. If they have reached the limit for the day, you have the option to put in an order, and receive the coins at the price when more funds arrive. If you don't want to do this, you can just cancel your order.

[BitcoinTate]

You've seen this, right? http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1bh3s9/coinbase_to_service_more_purchases/

Sounds to me like they are doing what they can to allow people to buy more coins. Makes sense from a business standpoint.

Yes, read this. People are over-reacting and not reading what Coinbase is saying. There is nothing negative about it.

This is an additional, and OPTIONAL feature they are trying. There is still the normal 24-hour rolling limit, where you can buy bitcoins for the current price. If they have reached the limit for the day, you have the option to put in an order, and receive the coins at the price when more funds arrive. If you don't want to do this, you can just cancel your order.

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+1

[BTC Books]

You've seen this, right? http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1bh3s9/coinbase_to_service_more_purchases/

Sounds to me like they are doing what they can to allow people to buy more coins. Makes sense from a business standpoint.

Yes, read this. People are over-reacting and not reading what Coinbase is saying. There is nothing negative about it.

This is an additional, and OPTIONAL feature they are trying. There is still the normal 24-hour rolling limit, where you can buy bitcoins for the current price. If they have reached the limit for the day, you have the option to put in an order, and receive the coins at the price when more funds arrive. If you don't want to do this, you can just cancel your order.

Yes, yes.  But five days?  Who cares.

Here's the thing about lost confidence though - it may be more the lack of transparency than the lack of liquidity....

TELL US.

Tell us how many coins you have to sell.
Tell us when you get them.
Tell us when you're out - up front on the first page of the site.

Then maybe this new, optional feature might have some value - and inspire some confidence.

The back end of the Coinbase model - committing to a price at point-of-sale and getting the money directly from your bank account - is brilliant.  The implementation leaves considerable to be desired.

[Aozora21]

You've seen this, right? http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1bh3s9/coinbase_to_service_more_purchases/

Sounds to me like they are doing what they can to allow people to buy more coins. Makes sense from a business standpoint.

Yes, read this. People are over-reacting and not reading what Coinbase is saying. There is nothing negative about it.

This is an additional, and OPTIONAL feature they are trying. There is still the normal 24-hour rolling limit, where you can buy bitcoins for the current price. If they have reached the limit for the day, you have the option to put in an order, and receive the coins at the price when more funds arrive. If you don't want to do this, you can just cancel your order.

It isnt optional though.. you cant click buy without agreeing that you may get a 5 day delay  whereas before you could just click until it went through right there.    im not sure if the auto-buy thing helps it become more optional or not

[bozak]

Overall, I've been very happy with Coinbase.  The lack of buy side liquidity hurts those who have no other way to buy, but in the long run it is not a big deal.  However, they could simply tighten the buy/sell spread so that they could match more orders and entice more people to sell.  It is actually a very good opportunity to gain market share for Coinbase.  All Coinbase has to do is eliminate the buy/sell spread for short while, gain more sell side orders (not that much of a stretch considering Coinbase does not have the tiny $ transfer limits in place at Gox), then they match order flow instead of relying on filling orders from Gox (I'm not positive they do this, but it seems really likely considering they typically match the Gox buy and sell bids).  Coinbase already has pretty high volume, if they went this route they could become very serious competition for Gox in a very short period of time.  Transform from intermediary to exchange in one fell swoop. 

[justusranvier]

I have also heard people recommend Bitfloor recently...  I have never used them and I know they have had issues in the past with security.

Since it's been so hard to buy with Coinbase I've been using Bitfloor.

I'm not too worried about their past security problems because I don't let them hold my funds longer than necessary. I deposit cash at BoA, buy bitcoins as soon as the deposit is credited to my account and immediately withdraw those bitcoins to my own wallet.

[MPOE-PR]

No, it will slowly crawl deeper and deeper into the scwamp.

[louisBSAS]

Overall, I've been very happy with Coinbase.  The lack of buy side liquidity hurts those who have no other way to buy, but in the long run it is not a big deal.  However, they could simply tighten the buy/sell spread so that they could match more orders and entice more people to sell.  It is actually a very good opportunity to gain market share for Coinbase.  All Coinbase has to do is eliminate the buy/sell spread for short while, gain more sell side orders (not that much of a stretch considering Coinbase does not have the tiny $ transfer limits in place at Gox), then they match order flow instead of relying on filling orders from Gox (I'm not positive they do this, but it seems really likely considering they typically match the Gox buy and sell bids).  Coinbase already has pretty high volume, if they went this route they could become very serious competition for Gox in a very short period of time.  Transform from intermediary to exchange in one fell swoop. 

I just verified my Coinbase account and am hoping to buy bitcoins in less than 3-4 weeks (which has been the case with Bitinstant lately)  At least Coinbase tells you "We've exceeded our normal buy limits for today" instead of taking your money and giving you the coins weeks later.  You have the choice to buy in the future (not great, but all are having liquidity problems right now).   If 3000 orders were started on Bitinstant TODAY, then 3000 people would be out of luck until they get their funding back up to par (not a good business model).   Can't stand having my money in 'Limbo' for 3 weeks at a time.  I am also waiting for Gox verification.  Seems the cheapest method out there.

[glitch003]

time it right based on what?  i cant just click until it goes through anymore

Their is an auto buy script you can execute floating around here somewhere that will do it for you. Can't remember which thread its in.

I know there is a script, but can't use it on my work computer. It is bad enough trying for weeks just to try to buy any and then have this new information to top it off. I really really tried to give them the benefit of the doubt, but it has been too long now. I have put up with the pending transactions not going though thus having bitpay invoices expire, merely sending money to my other wallet taking days, strange balances appearing and disappearing..all that I have tolerated but the annoyances are really adding up. I really was hoping they would pull through, but just take a look at their Facebook comments lately.

Looks like it was written for Linux, is that what you tried it on?

It's a node.js program, and since javascript is an interpreted language, it's multiplatform.  It does require that the user understand how to install and run node.js however.

Anyway, it seems like the GP's issue is that they can't use it on their work computer.  I would invest in a bitcoin VPS (they start at like $3 a month) and install node.js on there.