2012-06-29 Wall Street Journal - Coinbase Wants to Be the PayPal of Internet

[bbit]

Couple of sources on this Coinbase funding:

http://allthingsd.com/20120629/betting-on-bitcoin-coinbase-wants-to-be-the-paypal-of-the-internet-only-currency/

Betting on Bitcoin: Coinbase Wants to Be the PayPal of Internet-Only Currency

Hacknews:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4177605

[kiba]

Where the wallstreet journal article?

[bbit]

Where the wallstreet journal article?

Hey, AllthingsD is a arm of the WSJ.

http://allthingsd.com/20120629/betting-on-bitcoin-coinbase-wants-to-be-the-paypal-of-the-internet-only-currency/

[adamstgBit]

Right now, transferring Bitcoins pretty much requires a PhD, or something close to it.

[Raoul Duke]

Right now, transferring Bitcoins pretty much requires a PhD, or something close to it.

That can't be true as the closest I've ever been to a campus was while going to college parties and I use Bitcoin every day lol

[beckspace]

Right now, transferring Bitcoins pretty much requires a PhD, or something close to it.

That can't be true as the closest I've ever been to a campus was while going to college parties and I use Bitcoin every day lol

I know two kids that use it. Satoshi dice and bitcoinkamikaze are favorites.

[Nabilo]

Right now, transferring Bitcoins pretty much requires a PhD, or something close to it.

That can't be true as the closest I've ever been to a campus was while going to college parties and I use Bitcoin every day lol

I know two kids that use it. Satoshi dice and bitcoinkamikaze are favorites.

can someone help me to contact 'bitcoinkamikaze' administrator ?

[prophetx]

Right now, transferring Bitcoins pretty much requires a PhD, or something close to it.

That can't be true as the closest I've ever been to a campus was while going to college parties and I use Bitcoin every day lol

I know two kids that use it. Satoshi dice and bitcoinkamikaze are favorites.

can someone help me to contact 'bitcoinkamikaze' administrator ?

sure. are you aware that google search works for this website?

try it out 

[solex]

OK. So its been over a year. How is this working out?

"Coinbase Wants to Be the PayPal of Internet"

[prophetx]

OK. So its been over a year. How is this working out?

"Coinbase Wants to Be the PayPal of Internet"

well to be honest... my experience using coinbase has been 100X better than using PaynPal- of course I would rather hit my hand with a hammer than use the latter due to prior experiences

[StarfishPrime]

OK. So its been over a year. How is this working out?

"Coinbase Wants to Be the PayPal of Internet"

They're basically there, or at least well on their way. They've attracted the largest single VC funding of any bitcoin startup ($5M). Coinbase's first mover advantage is very similar to that Paypal had in its early days - right before their many competitors threw in the towel.

It's tough to compete with free. Coinbase has a zero-fee merchant sign-on program currently underway (first $1M in bitcoin sales at no commission).

For end users, there really no faster or lower-fee (1%) way to buy or sell bitcoin, all you need is a bank account. Why anyone in the US would still use MtGox for the occasional buy/sell is difficult to understand.

Definitely the best place to send anyone new to bitcoin.

[solex]

Good info and good to hear they are doing well.

What is interesting about the Bitcoin news lately is how many stories are about successful start-ups and businesses.

[runam0k]

Coinbase is nice but it could be a lot more user friendly. Simple things like an address book would work wonders. InputsIO is really nice (in terms of UI).

[kjlimo]

OK. So its been over a year. How is this working out?

"Coinbase Wants to Be the PayPal of Internet"

They're basically there, or at least well on their way. They've attracted the largest single VC funding of any bitcoin startup ($5M). Coinbase's first mover advantage is very similar to that Paypal had in its early days - right before their many competitors threw in the towel.

It's tough to compete with free. Coinbase has a zero-fee merchant sign-on program currently underway (first $1M in bitcoin sales at no commission).

For end users, there really no faster or lower-fee (1%) way to buy or sell bitcoin, all you need is a bank account. Why anyone in the US would still use MtGox for the occasional buy/sell is difficult to understand.

Definitely the best place to send anyone new to bitcoin.

For the most part, agreed.  Wasn't aware of the $1M free option.  Need to look into that; however, my hands are tied as I'm a Bitpay local Integration Partner.

Keep in mind that being a US based company, they may be faster to report to the SEC/IRS which may make having an account elsewhere advantageous. 

I think there's definitely an advantage to saying I own my bitcoins in Germany given the 1 year tax free treatment for example.  I haven't thoroughly looked into these things, but I'm guessing I'll be making decisions on where to say the "location" is of my money before year's end.  Not sure how much the govt will buy "internet" as the "location."

I will say that someone sent bitcoins to my e-mail address that I registered with Coinbase and the bitcoins showed up in my account easy peezy.  So I'd say that's a win.

[leemar]

Any idea why they haven’t opened an exchange, seems like a bit of a no brainer in the current climate?

[kjlimo]

Any idea why they haven’t opened an exchange, seems like a bit of a no brainer in the current climate?

What are you talking about?  You can buy/sell bitcoins using Coinbase.

That counts as having an "exchange" open.  Are you looking for something else?

[18RATTT]

coinbase has the potential, not to mention the VC investments couple months ago to coinbase.

[cbhelp]

Coinbase has set itself up brilliantly.  As they add more people, to slowly upgrade the response times, this company is set to explode.

[leemar]

Any idea why they haven’t opened an exchange, seems like a bit of a no brainer in the current climate?

What are you talking about?  You can buy/sell bitcoins using Coinbase.

That counts as having an "exchange" open.  Are you looking for something else?

Perhaps that does qualify but not really what I mean.  I do not have an account (not in US) but I cannot from the site see an order book or any indication of daily volumes and price ranges like on Bitstamp or  MtGox.  They are also not listed on here as .....

https://bitcoinaverage.com/#USD

…. and their price quotes are also not referenced on sites like Coindesk.

BTW I think they look like a great company, just that they are in a strong position to do this for US customers at least.

[kjlimo]

Any idea why they haven’t opened an exchange, seems like a bit of a no brainer in the current climate?

What are you talking about?  You can buy/sell bitcoins using Coinbase.

That counts as having an "exchange" open.  Are you looking for something else?

Perhaps that does qualify but not really what I mean.  I do not have an account (not in US) but I cannot from the site see an order book or any indication of daily volumes and price ranges like on Bitstamp or  MtGox.  They are also not listed on here as .....

https://bitcoinaverage.com/#USD

…. and their price quotes are also not referenced on sites like Coindesk.

BTW I think they look like a great company, just that they are in a strong position to do this for US customers at least.

gotcha; all fair points, thank you.

I'll admit I've been confused that the exchanges have been so nice to share trading books... can you see the trading books for NYSE?  I believe we usually only get bid /ask and volume info.

But as you point out, we're not even getting that form Coinbase.

We'll see what the future brings.