Coinbase the most anti-Bitcoin organisation. Make #DeleteCoinbase great again

[fillippone]

We knew it would have happened sooner or later.
#deletecoinbase was a trend last year for a reason.
That is what just happened:

Coinbase wants to sell blockchain analysis software to the IRS and DEA a year after its Neutrino

• Public records show that Coinbase wants to sell blockchain analytics software to the U.S. government
• Records indicate that the awards have not been made as of yet
• Both the DEA and IRS have expressed interest in awarding contracts to Coinbase for an analytics platform called Coinbase Analytics
• The developments come a year after Coinbase’s controversial purchase of intelligence firm Neutrino, and Neutrino is mentioned in the IRS documentation

Jameson Lopp pointed out correctly Bitcoin is already moving forward to make their heuristic techniques obsolete:

This is no surprise, our distrust in you is strengthened, we will make your analytics software obsolete

https://twitter.com/lopp/status/1269009773778939910?s=20


Bitcoin has all the technology now (coinjoins, payjoins, mixers, whirlpool etc...) to make their analysis more difficult.
The user has the obligation to usa all those means to improve their privacy and the one of all the other users.
Don't let them succeed in their plan to leverage their Neutrino acquisition, pursuing their plan of trading our privacy with their business model.


On this subject, there is a wonderful treatise by my fellow italian bitcoiner Giacomo Zucco:


A Treatise On Bitcoin And Privacy Part 1: A Match Made In The Whitepaper

How one’s focus can shift in just two weeks! While today everybody in the Bitcoin space seems more concerned with price fluctuations in response to the global financial panic (understandably so), it’s important to remember perennial issues that never go away, like the importance of maintaining your privacy when you transact in bitcoin. Throughout this month especially, we’ve been hearing reports of KYC/AML-compliant exchanges freezing user accounts due to suspected use of CoinJoin software (more on that later), followed by yet another case of a famous and respected early Bitcoin proponent promoting his new illiquid altcoin as something that “will replace Bitcoin, which isn’t private enough!”

If you want to take a short break from global pandemics, financial meltdowns and price volatility, here’s an attempt at analyzing claims, facts and context of this latest “Bitcoin drama.” To begin with, in Part 1 of this two-part series, we’ll start by looking at the fundamental relationship between Bitcoin and privacy by going back to the beginning with the whitepaper. Then, in Part 2, we’ll focus on some the ways that Bitcoin privacy is being maintained and improved upon — and strike down a few “red herrings.”

A Treatise On Bitcoin And Privacy Part 2: Don’t Be Misled By Red Herrings

In Part One of this treatise, we examined the fundamental relationship between Bitcoin and privacy by going back to the beginning with the whitepaper. In spite of some excellent privacy preserving options  that have been available to users since those early days, we seem to have taken a few wrong turns. But to fix it, in order to make Bitcoin’s privacy “great again,” we must be able to distinguish between real privacy and red herrings that can only lead us further off the path.

I strongly recommend this reading, explaining why privacy is important for all of us.

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[gentlemand]

No one should be remotely surprised. The moment you enter Coinbase you're dropped straight onto the corporate cock from a great height and start rotating at speeds of up to 3000 rpm. They are the epitome of wannabe establishment, and wannabes are that much keener to get in The Man's good graces.

All users should plan accordingly.

[figmentofmyass]

an interesting interpol report on wasabi wallet popped up in that jameson lopp thread: https://www.tbstat.com/wp/uploads/2020/06/Europol-Wasabi-Wallet-Report.pdf

key takeaways: wasabi coinjoins are easy to recognize but cannot be de-mixed unless you make a mistake like re-consolidating outputs afterwards. "suspects who avoid major slip-ups have a very high probability of staying undetected"

No one should be remotely surprised. The moment you enter Coinbase you're dropped straight onto the corporate cock from a great height and start rotating at speeds of up to 3000 rpm. They are the epitome of wannabe establishment, and wannabes are that much keener to get in The Man's good graces.

All users should plan accordingly.

do you think coinbase is angling to integrate their own user data into their analytics software? i assume that would violate various privacy laws.

i find this all depressing but also unsurprising. coinbase has been establishing a finger in every pie---wallet, exchange, merchants, custody, OTC, etc---while bowing to regulators at every turn. why not blockchain analysis too?

[gentlemand]

do you think coinbase is angling to integrate their own user data into their analytics software? i assume that would violate various privacy laws.

i find this all depressing but also unsurprising. coinbase has been establishing a finger in every pie---wallet, exchange, merchants, custody, OTC, etc---while bowing to regulators at every turn. why not blockchain analysis too?

I've no idea where one's privacy stands for things like this. It's not as if you have a great deal with Google.

I'll guess many people believe Coinbase's aspiration is the most sweeping choke hold possible on every aspect of the scene until they become a one stop shop for authorities, from asset seizures to surveillance with one handy phone call. And they might be right.

[salamat700]

No one should be remotely surprised. The moment you enter Coinbase you're dropped straight onto the corporate cock from a great height and start rotating at speeds of up to 3000 rpm. They are the epitome of wannabe establishment, and wannabes are that much keener to get in The Man's good graces.

All users should plan accordingly.

I am sure the whole cryptocurrency industry is alarmed and sad with this development. However, this is quite understandable as Coinbase is just another greedy corporation whose main and foremost concern is profit and they are so willing to cooperate with the government, so they can continue operating in USA without any skirmishes and legal frictions.  Maybe we should start to evaluate now if we really need the services offered by Coinbase and if we can get the same with other platforms.  I am not into Coinbase, by the way.

[pooya87]

this is not new, Coinbase has been working with the government agencies for a very long time now. wasn't they also the reason why they caught a couple of people involved in silkroad, etc.? in any case centralized services including exchanges will always be bad for bitcoin whether they are actively working on violating users' privacy like Coinbase or not.

by the way your title sounds like the "deletecoinbase" is the organization rather than "coinbase"

do you think coinbase is angling to integrate their own user data into their analytics software? i assume that would violate various privacy laws.

i don't think "privacy laws" even exist when it comes to US government. they have placed many loopholes in their law over the years that they easily violate anything they like.

[Last of the V8s]

Another excellent thorn in their side is journo @J9Roem. Here she castigates Armstrong with aplomb

I would sooner congratulate the Party for driving the adoption of telescreens in '1984' than Coinbase for "helping mainstream adoption of bitcoin."
Sucking people into a financial panopticon that represents the opposite of all principles we claim to hold is not worthy of praise.

Brian recently virtue-signaled about how he cares about black lives. How many black lives & families were destroyed through the DEA's multi-decade War on Drugs? How many non-violent offenders will be thrown in prison when Coinbase helps deanonymize them?

Worth a follow and a trawl through her work to keep abreast of this and many foul depths.

[davis196]

I hope that the true Bitcoin Core community will leave Coinbase and delete their accounts.
Let's spread that message across social media and crypto forums,so more people with Coinbase accounts know what's coming.If you are a Coinbase user,you have to verify identity,all your transactions will get tracked and the all mighty Coinbase can block the cryptocurrencies in your account anytime and for any reason.Coinbase is basically the cryptocurrency version of Paypal.

[fillippone]

an interesting interpol report on wasabi wallet popped up in that jameson lopp thread: https://www.tbstat.com/wp/uploads/2020/06/Europol-Wasabi-Wallet-Report.pdf

key takeaways: wasabi coinjoins are easy to recognize but cannot be de-mixed unless you make a mistake like re-consolidating outputs afterwards. "suspects who avoid major slip-ups have a very high probability of staying undetected"

As stated in the linked treatise I linked in OP, the instrument to improve our privacy are already out there. We should use them every time we have the possibility to, not only to increase our privacy, but also to increase everyone else's.

<...>
i find this all depressing but also unsurprising. coinbase has been establishing a finger in every pie---wallet, exchange, merchants, custody, OTC, etc---while bowing to regulators at every turn. why not blockchain analysis too?

Don't forget one of their subtler trick: the EARN program. You are basically just given a few satoshi for free. This is to make sure you can do errors with them, like sending to your main stash account so they can trace you and link your all cripto assets, eventually selling this information to your government. It's a proper corporate-wide deliberated dust attack.

I hope that the true Bitcoin Core community will leave Coinbase and delete their accounts.
<...>

Time to make #deletecoinbase gret again!

[Mbitr]

Just woken up and read through this thread , not what I wanted to read first thing on a Saturday morning .
Seriously thanks for this OP and others, it’s reminded me to delete my Coinbase account. I’ve only had one experience with them and never again!
All of this news does not surprise me and hope fully when I delete the account, all my data will be removed ??
Thanks for the heads up OP .

[DoubleEdgeEX]

From a business perspective, tho work with the FED and the IRS is a great move. Coinbase will get over those few hundred that close their account because of that news. They want to get bigger and that just works with public collaborations. Maybe Brian Armstrong even considers a Kelly Loeffler move and go politics. Eventually you see that people work for themselves and not for the community

[hatshepsut93]

an interesting interpol report on wasabi wallet popped up in that jameson lopp thread: https://www.tbstat.com/wp/uploads/2020/06/Europol-Wasabi-Wallet-Report.pdf

key takeaways: wasabi coinjoins are easy to recognize but cannot be de-mixed unless you make a mistake like re-consolidating outputs afterwards. "suspects who avoid major slip-ups have a very high probability of staying undetected"

In the future most exchanges will very likely be in bed with the government, and if we won't have 100% fungibility, there will be "dirty" and "clean" coins, judging by what we see with wasabi coinjoins right now. Maybe this will ensure that Bitcoin won't get banned, because it's weak privacy was the one thing that stopped it from being banned so far. 

[AB de Royse777]

It's been long time they started this mess and I did not have 2nd thought to cancel my account with them after. However it's sad to see a lot of people especially newbies are still using them not knowing the risk they are taking.

I wonder how many of you who made comments here are still with coinbase ?

[gentlemand]

I wonder how many of you who made comments here are still with coinbase ?

I have put £10 through my Coinbase account since its inception so I'm sure they're pleased with the little corporate robot I am. Treat them as radioactive and you'll be fine.

Every centralised service will end up like this eventually. The difference is that most yield to it with some reluctance rather than running towards it like they are.

[WatchMaker]

CoinBase is a bitch!
As they say, once a bitch always a bitch.
I never trusted CoinBase. We all know they are working with IRS and 3 letter agency.

I'm only using CoinBase to earn referral commissions.
In terms of privacy, I always prefer Samourai Wallet coinjoin - it's by far better than Wasabi.

[qiwoman2]

It has its good and its bad and maybe ugly traits, but on another note Coinbase is bringing in a lot more mainstream folks through it being where it is, more buyers into Bitcoin ad the whole digital asset class market, can only be a good thing for the rest of us long term yes? So while it may have conceded in some ways, it is bringing something to the table as well.  I don't really use Coinbase that much but as the Bitcoin Market is growing, so are regulations coming in some areas whether we like it or not.

[AB de Royse777]

I'm only using CoinBase to earn referral commissions.

I am not judging you but I would never do that. Clearly you do not trust them but promoting them just because to earn some nuts. Instead you need to do an anti coinbase campaign to aware newbies without bothering about that small commission.

[LFC_Bitcoin]

Coinbase is too simple to use for the noobs so I don’t think they’re ever going to get truly boycotted en masse.
Brian Armstrong is an asshole but assholes rule the world.

[noormcs5]

Just woken up and read through this thread , not what I wanted to read first thing on a Saturday morning .
Seriously thanks for this OP and others, it’s reminded me to delete my Coinbase account. I’ve only had one experience with them and never again!
All of this news does not surprise me and hope fully when I delete the account, all my data will be removed ??
Thanks for the heads up OP .

If you have done the KYC at coinbase, that data may remain with them even if you delete your account from there. I was already fed up with coinbase because every time bitcoin pumped the coinbase site goes offline. However OP has revealed some new facts which will further discourage everyone to use the centralized service.

[Lucius]

Coinbase is too simple to use for the noobs so I don’t think they’re ever going to get truly boycotted en masse.
Brian Armstrong is an asshole but assholes rule the world.

I couldn’t say it better myself either, exactly the way things are realistically set up. Those masses you mention have no clear sense of decentralization or of protecting their privacy, therefore, they will continue to use Coinbase no matter what anyone does about their data. I personally have never had an account there, and I really don’t need to open one, luckily I have local exchange offices that allow me to buy or sell crypto without worrying too much about privacy.

When it comes to the USA, no one should be surprised that the authorities want to penetrate all companies, especially those dealing with finance. The fight against terror, which intensified after the attack in NY, actually gave the authorities complete control over literally everything. Someone correct me if I’m wrong, but is there any privacy in the USA at all?

In fact, I am more concerned about what has been happening in the background since 2013 (by Snowden), because we know for sure that even then there were tools that analyzed and identified users on Bitcoin blockchain.