Coinbase expansion into Europe

[Torque]

http://www.coindesk.com/coinbase-launches-bitcoin-buying-selling-13-european-countries/

To me, this is the biggest bitcoin news so far this year.  Why?  Precisely because the "masses" need an easy, reliable way to actually buy bitcoin, without worrying whether or not the broker/exchange is in full compliance with local KYC/AML laws and has good relationships with local banks.  This is how we pull in the other 95%.

My first experience with buying bitcoin was through Coinbase as it was the safest of options here, and I'm sure many others outside the U.S. will find their service user-friendly and reliable.  They also go to near ridiculous levels to secure their private keys in offline cold storage (beyond what most exchanges do) and are fully insured.

[minerpumpkin]

Well, Europe has some decent exchanges already, but every new and legit way of buying Bitcoins is a very good thing for both - the people and also Bitcoin. Great to see another company expanding outside the US!

[Wilhelm]

I live in central Europe and we already have many reliable and easy ways to buy Bitcoin.
Of course it's good that a company like Coinbase is expanding but it's not like Europe is suddenly able to buy Bitcoin.

[Gimmelfarb]

i'm not a huge fan of Coinbase.... had a transaction reversed due to being a "risky" customer.... of course the market went in their favor that time. expansion into europe--okay, that's good i guess. but i couldn't recommend them to anybody.

[Chef Ramsay]

I've had nothing but great experiences dealing w/ coinbase here in the US. After bitinstant went bust, there wasn't exactly an easy way of accumulating coins and coinbase filled the void. They've always delivered on time and there were never any surprises that pissed me off. They even allow you to set up a vault if you choose to. The downside is that they are regulated by the govt and theoretically could be froze which would bite.

[ThatDGuy]

I've had nothing but great experiences dealing w/ coinbase here in the US. After bitinstant went bust, there wasn't exactly an easy way of accumulating coins and coinbase filled the void. They've always delivered on time and there were never any surprises that pissed me off. They even allow you to set up a vault if you choose to. The downside is that they are regulated by the govt and theoretically could be froze which would bite.

I'll agree with this one - have been using Coinbase for purchasing for a long time now and nothing but excellent so far.

[An amorous cow-herder]

Wow, this is really cool.

Finally Coinbase is coming to Europe. Lets hope lots people and merchants will use Coinbase.
And the great thing, if both the buyer and merchant are on coinbase they dont even use a blockchain transfer and you can safe on the blockchain fees as well (those might actually increase in time. And faster than having to wait for several verifications.
Probably you would only need to use the block chain for transaction where the merchant uses a different payment processor.
But then again, if they get a monopoly they could use internal transfers for basicly everything.
Come to think of it, it would be basicly like PayPal. Just cheaper because its based on Bitcoin ...
and, uhmm, doesnt use bitcoin internaly to avoid fees and have faster transaction.
Hmm, but well, if you can skip that billion dollar mining industry you would safe a lot energy. Yeah, green, save the planet and things ...

Hmm, yeah, this is cool. Right?

[exocytosis]

This is how we pull in the other 95%.

It's more like "the other 99.99%", really. And they won't get pulled in by this. They'll see the Ponzi for what it is.

[Wilhelm]

Wow, this is really cool.

Finally Coinbase is coming to Europe. Lets hope lots people and merchants will use Coinbase.
And the great thing, if both the buyer and merchant are on coinbase they dont even use a blockchain transfer and you can safe on the blockchain fees as well (those might actually increase in time. And faster than having to wait for several verifications.
Probably you would only need to use the block chain for transaction where the merchant uses a different payment processor.
But then again, if they get a monopoly they could use internal transfers for basicly everything.
Come to think of it, it would be basicly like PayPal. Just cheaper because its based on Bitcoin ...
and, uhmm, doesnt use bitcoin internaly to avoid fees and have faster transaction.
Hmm, but well, if you can skip that billion dollar mining industry you would safe a lot energy. Yeah, green, save the planet and things ...

Hmm, yeah, this is cool. Right?

Yes let's centralize Bitcoin through Coinbase and stop mining :')

[tex99]

How does the buying process work? I heard they ran out of bitcoins to sell a while back or something.

[minerpumpkin]

Wow, this is really cool.

Finally Coinbase is coming to Europe. Lets hope lots people and merchants will use Coinbase.
And the great thing, if both the buyer and merchant are on coinbase they dont even use a blockchain transfer and you can safe on the blockchain fees as well (those might actually increase in time. And faster than having to wait for several verifications.
Probably you would only need to use the block chain for transaction where the merchant uses a different payment processor.
But then again, if they get a monopoly they could use internal transfers for basicly everything.
Come to think of it, it would be basicly like PayPal. Just cheaper because its based on Bitcoin ...
and, uhmm, doesnt use bitcoin internaly to avoid fees and have faster transaction.
Hmm, but well, if you can skip that billion dollar mining industry you would safe a lot energy. Yeah, green, save the planet and things ...

Hmm, yeah, this is cool. Right?

So we're not basically praising a centralized solution for eliminating the caveats of our beloved Bitcoin technology? I guess we're doing something wrong here, then... Also, it is transaction fees. Blockchain fees sounds like blockchain.info gets a piece of the cake

[maker88]

i'm not a huge fan of Coinbase.... had a transaction reversed due to being a "risky" customer.... of course the market went in their favor that time. expansion into europe--okay, that's good i guess. but i couldn't recommend them to anybody.

did you send them a message? because their fraud prevention bot is not perfect, they recognize this and will give you your coins at the price you originally tried to buy them at, even weeks later,at prices hundreds of dollars higher. i tried to buy some last year at 134, got denied. sent an email, because price had already gone up quite a bit, so i was out about $500 profit. they gave me the coins at 134, when it was trading on exchange around 190 if i remember right, and white listed my account, so ill never have the problem again. there was only one guy doing all tech support and customer support back then, for the whole company, and he still handled my problem within a few days. AND i was being a complete douche to them, very upset over potentially lost money. they still helped.

[Sophie.Greek]

Well, Europe has some decent exchanges already, but every new and legit way of buying Bitcoins is a very good thing for both - the people and also Bitcoin. Great to see another company expanding outside the US!

it should be, and Europe and North America as a whole, no one would choose only one.

[lyth0s]

Wow, this is really cool.

Finally Coinbase is coming to Europe. Lets hope lots people and merchants will use Coinbase.
And the great thing, if both the buyer and merchant are on coinbase they dont even use a blockchain transfer and you can safe on the blockchain fees as well (those might actually increase in time. And faster than having to wait for several verifications.
Probably you would only need to use the block chain for transaction where the merchant uses a different payment processor.
But then again, if they get a monopoly they could use internal transfers for basicly everything.
Come to think of it, it would be basicly like PayPal. Just cheaper because its based on Bitcoin ...
and, uhmm, doesnt use bitcoin internaly to avoid fees and have faster transaction.
Hmm, but well, if you can skip that billion dollar mining industry you would safe a lot energy. Yeah, green, save the planet and things ...

Hmm, yeah, this is cool. Right?

So we're not basically praising a centralized solution for eliminating the caveats of our beloved Bitcoin technology? I guess we're doing something wrong here, then... Also, it is transaction fees. Blockchain fees sounds like blockchain.info gets a piece of the cake

Bitcoin itself is decentralized. But I personally have no problems with newbies using a centralized (and easy) method of getting their first bitcoins. I remember back in 2012 I couldn't get anyone to sell me bitcoins for shit due to having no rep on the OTC. Having a few centralized places for newbies to get their bitcoins is good as it takes the risk away from having to deal with individuals online, especially since no one in their right mind would take paypal for bitcoins, that means they typically have to work even harder to get ahold of them (IE Moneypaks or Western Union)

[Pkuwag]

Bitpay seems to have long into Europe.

[Wilhelm]

Wow, this is really cool.

Finally Coinbase is coming to Europe. Lets hope lots people and merchants will use Coinbase.
And the great thing, if both the buyer and merchant are on coinbase they dont even use a blockchain transfer and you can safe on the blockchain fees as well (those might actually increase in time. And faster than having to wait for several verifications.
Probably you would only need to use the block chain for transaction where the merchant uses a different payment processor.
But then again, if they get a monopoly they could use internal transfers for basicly everything.
Come to think of it, it would be basicly like PayPal. Just cheaper because its based on Bitcoin ...
and, uhmm, doesnt use bitcoin internaly to avoid fees and have faster transaction.
Hmm, but well, if you can skip that billion dollar mining industry you would safe a lot energy. Yeah, green, save the planet and things ...

Hmm, yeah, this is cool. Right?

So we're not basically praising a centralized solution for eliminating the caveats of our beloved Bitcoin technology? I guess we're doing something wrong here, then... Also, it is transaction fees. Blockchain fees sounds like blockchain.info gets a piece of the cake

Bitcoin itself is decentralized. But I personally have no problems with newbies using a centralized (and easy) method of getting their first bitcoins. I remember back in 2012 I couldn't get anyone to sell me bitcoins for shit due to having no rep on the OTC. Having a few centralized places for newbies to get their bitcoins is good as it takes the risk away from having to deal with individuals online, especially since no one in their right mind would take paypal for bitcoins, that means they typically have to work even harder to get ahold of them (IE Moneypaks or Western Union)

I believe there should be many (trusted) places you can get your BTC. They should be located in many different countries and should accept foreign orders. The reason for this is that you can't take down the Bitcoin economy by stopping just a few exchanges/resellers.
This would make it decentralized.

[zimmah]

kraken is all you need

and if you live in belgium or the netherlands bitonic is even better if you need to buy/sell instantly (a bit higher fee, ofc)

[Wilhelm]

kraken is all you need

and if you live in belgium or the netherlands bitonic is even better if you need to buy/sell instantly (a bit higher fee, ofc)

I use Bitonic. The only problem is that the coins run out when it's bubble time

[minerpumpkin]

Wow, this is really cool.

Finally Coinbase is coming to Europe. Lets hope lots people and merchants will use Coinbase.
And the great thing, if both the buyer and merchant are on coinbase they dont even use a blockchain transfer and you can safe on the blockchain fees as well (those might actually increase in time. And faster than having to wait for several verifications.
Probably you would only need to use the block chain for transaction where the merchant uses a different payment processor.
But then again, if they get a monopoly they could use internal transfers for basicly everything.
Come to think of it, it would be basicly like PayPal. Just cheaper because its based on Bitcoin ...
and, uhmm, doesnt use bitcoin internaly to avoid fees and have faster transaction.
Hmm, but well, if you can skip that billion dollar mining industry you would safe a lot energy. Yeah, green, save the planet and things ...

Hmm, yeah, this is cool. Right?

So we're not basically praising a centralized solution for eliminating the caveats of our beloved Bitcoin technology? I guess we're doing something wrong here, then... Also, it is transaction fees. Blockchain fees sounds like blockchain.info gets a piece of the cake

Bitcoin itself is decentralized. But I personally have no problems with newbies using a centralized (and easy) method of getting their first bitcoins. I remember back in 2012 I couldn't get anyone to sell me bitcoins for shit due to having no rep on the OTC. Having a few centralized places for newbies to get their bitcoins is good as it takes the risk away from having to deal with individuals online, especially since no one in their right mind would take paypal for bitcoins, that means they typically have to work even harder to get ahold of them (IE Moneypaks or Western Union)

Yes, centralized exchanges are alright in my books, but I'm not so sure about solutions that actually perform transactions offchain. Sure, it eliminates fees, confirmation times, etc. but we're not dealing with 'real' Bitcoins anymore. On the other hand I do think that services like PayPal or other payment providers may indeed adapt this, and simply use Bitcoin as a currency and way of funding the wallets. Bitcoin becomes more of a backbone-protocol.

[CryptoCarmen]

I thought everyone uses bitstamp. I know founders are from Europe since they lived just 15km from me.