Rick Rolled by Coinbase, so I went to look at their local beautiful SF office...

[rocoro]

if theyre not there because of security issues i might understand it since they hold  180,000 btc which is well worth stealing  ?

Someone takes their troops up a huge high rise in the heart of San Fran in the heart of the Financial District and expect to get out without a small medium war going off?

That's why you get the office in the Financial District and not Oakland...

SF Financial District doesn't have half hour police response time and most buildings have a security guard or concierge.

banks and jewellery stores have been robbed for a lot less in the past ...........
have you tried their email or telephone to see if anyone can answer whats up ?

What am I going to do call them up and asked them:

A:  Why they lied about being regulated and licensed exchange by California?
B:  Why they hid a 10 hour troll video on a 10 hour count down source code?
C:  Why I didn't have any time to get cash on my account before opening up the exchange to at least TRY to support my investment?
D:  Why they didn't use some of that 112 Million dollars to cushion the bid price AT ALL?  We free fell $50+ dollars at opening blast off with 0 resistance... Cryptsy has more attractive bids! (No offense horus <3)
E:  Why they use a fake mail address company?
And any other question you care to ask.

I'm not InvestigatorAreaCoins that's why!

I hope you do find out,  that is some pretty shitty stuff to be pulling !!
We don't need crap like that going on anymore!

[BayAreaCoins]

I hope you do find out,  that is some pretty shitty stuff to be pulling !!
We don't need crap like that going on anymore!

Thanks for your posts and I appropriate you and everyone else know that I'm not butthurt at Bitcoin.

I'm butthurt by a company in my own backyard who is supposedly leading the way in BTC and turning the Golden Gate City into the Gold Gate for bitcoin... who using lying and pressuring tactics to con me into putting a HUGE sum of money into Bitcoin futures.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BROWqjuTM0g

 

Edit:

Also great image with the arrows n such <3

[CoinCidental]

if theyre not there because of security issues i might understand it since they hold  180,000 btc which is well worth stealing  ?

Someone takes their troops up a huge high rise in the heart of San Fran in the heart of the Financial District and expect to get out without a small medium war going off?

That's why you get the office in the Financial District and not Oakland...

SF Financial District doesn't have half hour police response time and most buildings have a security guard or concierge.

banks and jewellery stores have been robbed for a lot less in the past ...........
have you tried their email or telephone to see if anyone can answer whats up ?

What am I going to do call them up and asked them:

And any other question you care to ask.

if i lost money yesterday  i would call their number to see if its fake too .........
i am not defending their shady practices at all

if they are doing something wrong then it should be brought to peoples  attention
but are you saying all the pictures are fake ?

this is big news if its true

[coblee]

This is Charlie Lee at Coinbase. I can confirm that we are indeed in the SF financial district. The HQ pictures are not staged. lol

The reason why we don't publicize our actual address is for the exact reason mentioned in this thread. Like someone said, banks and jewelry shops have been robbed for a lot less money. We have implemented security measures (cold storage, key splitting, ninja guards, etc.) to prevent rogue employees and armed gunmen from stealing the bitcoin we have stored for our users, but people don't know that. After hearing stories of how BitStamp lost 19,000 BTC, a crazy guy might just think it's worth the risk to come rob our office. And if they manage to get through our security to get to our office and find out that we aren't able to access the bitcoin, they are not going to be very happy. You can all imagine that this is NOT a situation we want to ever see ourselves in.

We'd rather be safe than sorry!

And to answer some of your questions.
A) We never claimed to be licensed in CA. The press did. I guess they just assumed we were. They also incorrectly claimed that we supported 25 states, when in fact we only supported 23 states + Puerto Rico at launch. We just started supporting Nebraska today.
B) The coinbase.com/lunar site was just a fun way to tease people on the internet and to create some buzz.
C) We've had USD wallets on Coinbase for 1.5 months now. You could have easily gotten money on our system and bought coins before we released the exchange. And if you had money in your USD wallet at launch, you would have been able to use our exchange immediately.
D) Our VC money is not meant to be used to speculate on Bitcoin price nor is it sane for us to support the Bitcoin price. We do not control the price. The market does.
E) It's not a fake address. We receive mail at that address.

[BayAreaCoins]

This is Charlie Lee at Coinbase. I can confirm that we are indeed in the SF financial district. The HQ pictures are not staged. lol

The reason why we don't publicize our actual address is for the exact reason mentioned in this thread. Like someone said, banks and jewelry shops have been robbed for a lot less money. We have implemented security measures (cold storage, key splitting, ninja guards, etc.) to prevent rogue employees and armed gunmen from stealing the bitcoin we have stored for our users, but people don't know that. After hearing stories of how BitStamp lost 19,000 BTC, a crazy guy might just think it's worth the risk to come rob our office. And if they manage to get through our security to get to our office and find out that we aren't able to access the bitcoin, they are not going to be very happy. You can all imagine that this is NOT a situation we want to ever see ourselves in.

We'd rather be safe than sorry!

And to answer some of your questions.
A) We never claimed to be licensed in CA. The press did. I guess they just assumed we were. They also incorrectly claimed that we supported 25 states, when in fact we only supported 23 states + Puerto Rico at launch. We just started supporting Nebraska today.
B) The coinbase.com/lunar site was just a fun way to tease people on the internet and to create some buzz.
C) We've had USD wallets on Coinbase for 1.5 months now. You could have easily gotten money on our system and bought coins before we released the exchange. And if you had money in your USD wallet at launch, you would have been able to use our exchange immediately.
D) Our VC money is not meant to be used to speculate on Bitcoin price nor is it sane for us to support the Bitcoin price. We do not control the price. The market does.
E) It's not a fake address. We receive mail at that address.

A: Coinbase never claimed they weren't either to be either prior to launch.  You caught everyone in San Fran with a lie that caused at least me to feel caught with my dick in my hand in a "Buy or Die" mindset.  Enough so that the State Government issued a warning today.  Maybe WSJ got the story from some bum on market street pretending to be a executive to pump his .1btc stash...  

B:  Just like it is funny to tease the Youtube staff into wasting 10 hours of man time that they could be making the world a better and more productive place.  There was plenty of buzz based on the pressure to buy and the lies spread.  Thanks for contributing to Humanity from your hidden bat cave.

C:  I could have had USD in my wallet if I had 5 business days, but this shit was shoved down our throats Sunday evening with 10 hours to go...

D: What the fuck is your VC money for?  Is it meant to bring a little transparency to the "magical" markets by paying for the Ninja Guards at the secret location?  Maybe a fraction of that can get chipped back at the California Customers that were just Rick Rolled.

E:  Good to know... I'm sure y'all will be receiving several letters from all types of folks.

If you want to Rick Roll folks and get away with it maybe you guys should have got a office in Japan...

At this point we can either settle it outside of court or we can take this as far as it needs to go.  I'm not going to be hiding behind a computer screen at an unknown office.

http://www.sfgate.com/business/article/Bitcoin-exchange-claims-it-is-regulated-but-6043584.php

[justbtcme]

http://www.sfgate.com/business/article/Bitcoin-exchange-claims-it-is-regulated-but-6043584.php


“The exchange is regulated because of its ability to obtain money transmitter licenses in 24 of the 50 states. So it’s regulated at the state level,” Coinbase said Monday.


Seems pretty misleading to say the least.


"On Tuesday, Coinbase backtracked, saying it had licenses in 14 states, didn’t need licenses in eight states, and that two — California and New York — are in a “grey zone” while they hammer out bitcoin regulations." -SFgate

[Elwar]

D: What the fuck is your VC money for?  Is it meant to bring a little transparency to the "magical" markets by paying for the Ninja Guards at the secret location?  Maybe a fraction of that can get chipped back at the California Customers that were just Rick Rolled.

Probably for the millions of dollars worth of licensing and regulation requirements for each of the 50 states in the US, which is the reason why there has not yet been a major Bitcoin exchange set up in the US.

[BayAreaCoins]

Probably for the millions of dollars worth of licensing and regulation requirements for each of the 50 states in the US, which is the reason why there has not yet been a major Bitcoin exchange set up in the US.

Or the $100,000+ a year mystery office rent where they brain storm ways to create buzz and rick roll users with huge news/PR pushes that aren't true.

I pray they don't get accepted in more states and states start revoking their shit   This company is poison and hides their office for a reason... It isn't for people not to show up at their office because I imagine you have to be let up like every other nice office.

If someone can sue Red Bull and win for not giving them wings... I'm sure I'll be fine suing a company that said they where a Regulated and Licensed exchange and wasn't that resulted in a substantial loss aka "Rick Rolling their customers" and flaunting it in their source code ...

http://www.businessinsider.com/red-bull-settles-false-advertising-lawsuit-for-13-million-2014-10

[BlindMayorBitcorn]

Probably for the millions of dollars worth of licensing and regulation requirements for each of the 50 states in the US, which is the reason why there has not yet been a major Bitcoin exchange set up in the US.

Or the $100,000+ a year mystery office rent where they brain storm ways to create buzz and rick roll users with huge news/PR pushes that aren't true.

I pray they don't get accepted in more states and states start revoking their shit   This company is poison and hides their office for a reason... It isn't for people not to show up at their office because I imagine you have to be let up like every other nice office.

If someone can sue Red Bull and win for not giving them wings... I'm sure I'll be fine suing a company that said they where a Regulated and Licensed exchange and wasn't that resulted in a substantial loss aka "Rick Rolling their customers" and flaunting it in their source code ...

http://www.businessinsider.com/red-bull-settles-false-advertising-lawsuit-for-13-million-2014-10

Lucrative

[Elwar]

Probably for the millions of dollars worth of licensing and regulation requirements for each of the 50 states in the US, which is the reason why there has not yet been a major Bitcoin exchange set up in the US.

Or the $100,000+ a year mystery office rent where they brain storm ways to create buzz and rick roll users with huge news/PR pushes that aren't true.

I pray they don't get accepted in more states and states start revoking their shit   This company is poison and hides their office for a reason... It isn't for people not to show up at their office because I imagine you have to be let up like every other nice office.

If someone can sue Red Bull and win for not giving them wings... I'm sure I'll be fine suing a company that said they where a Regulated and Licensed exchange and wasn't that resulted in a substantial loss aka "Rick Rolling their customers" and flaunting it in their source code ...

http://www.businessinsider.com/red-bull-settles-false-advertising-lawsuit-for-13-million-2014-10

If they have at least one license, and they (like all businesses) are regulated. Then they are a Regulated and Licensed exchange.

Did someone at Coinbase claim anything more than that?

[BlindMayorBitcorn]

Probably for the millions of dollars worth of licensing and regulation requirements for each of the 50 states in the US, which is the reason why there has not yet been a major Bitcoin exchange set up in the US.

Or the $100,000+ a year mystery office rent where they brain storm ways to create buzz and rick roll users with huge news/PR pushes that aren't true.

I pray they don't get accepted in more states and states start revoking their shit   This company is poison and hides their office for a reason... It isn't for people not to show up at their office because I imagine you have to be let up like every other nice office.

If someone can sue Red Bull and win for not giving them wings... I'm sure I'll be fine suing a company that said they where a Regulated and Licensed exchange and wasn't that resulted in a substantial loss aka "Rick Rolling their customers" and flaunting it in their source code ...

http://www.businessinsider.com/red-bull-settles-false-advertising-lawsuit-for-13-million-2014-10

If they have at least one license, and they (like all businesses) are regulated. Then they are a Regulated and Licensed exchange.

Did someone at Coinbase claim anything more than that?

The US is one of the most litigious places on Earth. This kind of thing was bound to happen, once corporations started trying to 'mainstream' Bitcoin

[BayAreaCoins]

If they have at least one license, and they (like all businesses) are regulated. Then they are a Regulated and Licensed exchange.

Did someone at Coinbase claim anything more than that?

They obviously got the news from somewhere.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/102367943

http://www.wsj.com/articles/first-u-s-bitcoin-exchange-set-to-open-1422221641

http://huntnewsnu.com/2015/01/first-regulated-bitcoin-exchange-opens-in-the-u-s/

And then ...

California State government people released a statement:

https://i.imgur.com/lSanSFb.jpg

http://www.zdnet.com/article/regulator-refutes-coinbase-exchange-regulation-claims/

Edit:

Glanced over Coinbases news section and it appears a WSJ post is there too, but I can't read to see if it says California.

https://www.coinbase.com/press which links to http://www.wsj.com/articles/first-u-s-bitcoin-exchange-set-to-open-1422221641  which of course you have to pay for to read or have a account or some shit... *shakes head*

[BlindMayorBitcorn]

If they have at least one license, and they (like all businesses) are regulated. Then they are a Regulated and Licensed exchange.

Did someone at Coinbase claim anything more than that?

They obviously got the news from somewhere.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/102367943

http://www.wsj.com/articles/first-u-s-bitcoin-exchange-set-to-open-1422221641

http://huntnewsnu.com/2015/01/first-regulated-bitcoin-exchange-opens-in-the-u-s/

And then ...

California State government people released a statement:

https://i.imgur.com/lSanSFb.jpg

http://www.zdnet.com/article/regulator-refutes-coinbase-exchange-regulation-claims/

Edit:

Glanced over Coinbases news section and it appears a WSJ post is there too, but I can't read to see if it says California.

https://www.coinbase.com/press which links to http://www.wsj.com/articles/first-u-s-bitcoin-exchange-set-to-open-1422221641

You can prove you lost $200,000 here?

[BayAreaCoins]

You can prove you lost $200,000 here?

I'm not here getting my troll on... I wish I was as cool that cool though.



Plenty of other ones, but that makes me sick enough for now.

Accounts equity was above 420 BTC the minute before Coinbase's exchange launched to save BTC via "Licensed and Regulated in the state of California".

I bought that evening because Coinbase released news that was a lie.  I would still be thinking they where regulated had I not read saw the State of California's consumer warning.... (and I guess Charlies post 8 hours later)

The US is one of the most litigious places on Earth. This kind of thing was bound to happen, once corporations started trying to 'mainstream' Bitcoin

Flat out fucking lying and spreading news that damages fellow country people is probably not a good way to go 'mainstream' and not a bad thing to stay on top of.

Thank god the State of California even go around to using a alert.  

Glad to see my tax dollars work.

[Elwar]

I checked, they are licensed in 14 states.

That would make them a Licensed and Regulated exchange.

Where are they located?  (hint: California)

I would not get your hopes up on suing on the theory that it was that news that made the price go down from $300. People bought on rumor and sold on news. A 20+% rise in one day was bound to have a lot of sell off. I would have done the same had I not been traveling. No matter what the news was.

You could just as well blame the trolls in the Speculation forum for losing you money with their FUD. It is just as viable.

[BayAreaCoins]

I checked, they are licensed in 14 states.

That would make them a Licensed and Regulated exchange.

Where are they located?  (hint: California)

I would not get your hopes up on suing on the theory that it was that news that made the price go down from $300. People bought on rumor and sold on news. A 20+% rise in one day was bound to have a lot of sell off. I would have done the same had I not been traveling. No matter what the news was.

You could just as well blame the trolls in the Speculation forum for losing you money with their FUD. It is just as viable.

Did you even read the thread?

Anyways..

Price dumped the minute of Coinbases "launch" and Coinbase lead the way on the dump (their price dropped first and then everyone elses)

It wasn't news that dropped the price, but it was false news that raised it.

My suit won't be based on theories, it will be facts.  It is a 100% fact that I bought those contracts that night believing in my heart of hearts the news I read on the WSJ, CNBC and a number of other people that came from Coinbase.  California regulated and licences, On top of the huge news of securing $112 million, plus the NYSE helping with transparency and then they go for the Big Dirty via Rick Rolling folks.

Coinbase fucked up majorly. 

[Elwar]

I checked, they are licensed in 14 states.

That would make them a Licensed and Regulated exchange.

Where are they located?  (hint: California)

I would not get your hopes up on suing on the theory that it was that news that made the price go down from $300. People bought on rumor and sold on news. A 20+% rise in one day was bound to have a lot of sell off. I would have done the same had I not been traveling. No matter what the news was.

You could just as well blame the trolls in the Speculation forum for losing you money with their FUD. It is just as viable.

Did you even read the thread?

Anyways..

Price dumped the minute of Coinbases "launch" and Coinbase lead the way on the dump (their price dropped first and then everyone elses)

It wasn't news that dropped the price, but it was false news that raised it.

My suit won't be based on theories, it will be facts.  It is a 100% fact that I bought those contracts that night believing in my heart of hearts the news I read on the WSJ, CNBC and a number of other people that came from Coinbase.  California regulated and licences, On top of the huge news of securing $112 million, plus the NYSE helping with transparency and then they go for the Big Dirty via Rick Rolling folks.

Coinbase fucked up majorly. 

So Coinbase launched and the price dropped, then you bought on the news you read on WSJ?

What I saw was that there was rumor of Coinbase becoming an exchange, then the price went up over $300, then when they launched the price came back down to sane levels. Are you saying the news came out before the launch?

Do you have an article where Coinbase stated that they were licensed in California?

Technically they are a licensed and regulated exchange in California.

[haploid23]

D:  Why they didn't use some of that 112 Million dollars to cushion the bid price AT ALL?  We free fell $50+ dollars at opening blast off with 0 resistance... Cryptsy has more attractive bids! (No offense horus <3)

E:  Why they use a fake mail address company?

I generally do agree with you, but these points I don't. They can't just use VC funds to pump BTC price. It might temporarily work, but eventually market will just correct itself. Instead, those VC funds are better spent for expansion and building up the company. Long term effects wins over superficial price rise any day.

And there's very little reason to visit the physical location where the employees do work. What would that accomplish that communications online or phone can't do? As mentioned, they would open themselves up for safety concerns. I'm sure there are plenty of angry people (some of which are willing to express their anger in person) from canceled transactions or being completely denied of using Coinbase's services.


Personally, I could care less if their work space was known or not, as long as they don't pull a mtgox. I only need to know that my funds are safe. Speaking of which, where can I verify that my fiat on there is indeed FDIC insured? And wouldn't that be great if insurance was also extended to BTC... yeah right  

[BayAreaCoins]

I generally do agree with you, but these points I don't. They can't just use VC funds to pump BTC price. It might temporarily work, but eventually market will just correct itself. Instead, those VC funds are better spent for expansion and building up the company. Long term effects wins superficial price rise any day.

I didn't mean use VC funds to "pump" Bitcoin... Maybe buy 10 coins that day or something, but don't manipulate us!  Get in line to buy some Bitcoins like everyone else...  The books where near nil and Coinbase knew it would be like that.  Cryptsy had thicker books than they do.  Maybe Coinbase doesn't buy any bitcoin.  Frankly it isn't any of my fucking business and I have no interest in making it my business... that part just annoys me.  So you maybe right to disagree with that.

This doesn't effect the fact that I bought my shit personally because I was lead to believe that Coinbase had the proper shit from the State of California... Charlie has already made this clear too.

A)  The press did.

They did however post it to their page @ https://www.coinbase.com/press ... if they wanted to correct a press fuck up then it would have been just as easy for Charlie to log in and make a quick post or any other number of actions that could have been done... rather than waiting for the State of California to say "Hold the fuck on..."

If it truly was a fuck up the Charlie should be here up in arms for the California and New York customers who just got fucked by the press major MAJOR fuck up, but he's not... hasn't made a post since OCT 2014 and he pops back over here to inform us of a secret Coinbase lair with ninjas guarding it and complain at someone for not supporting the "silver of Crypto" any more.  

[BayAreaCoins]

So Coinbase launched and the price dropped, then you bought on the news you read on WSJ?...

Just stop thinking... you are going to hurt yourself. <3  

You're outta your element Donny!



I'm off to bed. Gnight fellas and thanks for understanding my frustration is NOT with Bitcoin at all or even losing $... It is the fact I feel cheated and I'm not alone.  That fake news shit is horse shit. I was so excited for Bitcoin, it was truly a heart breaker