Some more conditions and thresholds are in place depending on your bank and region. The higher fee is for debit cards and the Coinbase card. The lower fee is for US bank accounts and a Coinbase USD wallet. Coinbase’s convenience and ease of use come at a cost: when you buy bitcoins, the fee is 1.49% to 3.99%. And it’s because you also compromise the privacy of people who transacted with you. Transacting bitcoins on Coinbase may be worse for privacy than even PayPal. Also, it’s likely that even transactions out of Coinbase get tracked. So every satoshi entering the Coinbase exchange receives rigorous blockchain analysis. They want to associate Bitcoin addresses with identities. In plain language, this means that Coinbase conspires against Bitcoin’s anonymity. The organization is notorious for helping oppressive authoritarian regimes surveil and arrest dissidents. In 2019, Coinbase has even hired employees from Hacking Team. The exchange tracks your transactions and it’s hard to escape its panopticon.
Regular users are also insured – yet it’s USD that everyone would receive, not bitcoins.Ĭoinbase’s biggest con is privacy. This is yet another reason why institutions and merchants should use Coinbase. Last but not least, up to $250.000 of every user’s individual funds are covered by FDIC insurance. So if you’re going to use any custodian, then Coinbase is one of the safest choices. Though hackers have targeted the exchange in the past, they never managed to steal any funds.
Coinbase app pc pro#
As a feature, you get to pay your friends by their name (and not by their BTC address).Īnother pro of Coinbase is that it has a great record for security. Playing with the Coinbase wallet is very educational for later stages of the rabbit hole.
You make payments with your credit card, receive the coins in your wallet, and may then transact. You don’t have to think too hard about how anything works. Coinbase is also known for its intuitive and straight-forward. It has been around since late 2012 and has since sold and bought bitcoins. To millions of bitcoiners, Coinbase is the first exposure to financial sovereignty. Often locks users accounts without any explanation and does not return the money.The platform goes down and prohibits withdrawals often - stuck money.Tries to sell its analytics to the IRS and the DEA.Owns and utilizes a chainalysis company linked to spyware rackets.Lots of coins to choose from - for Bitcoiners, this is a con.It’s respect for your privacy is beyond atrocious and there are plenty of alternatives worth using. It scrutinizes Coinbase’s background, security record, services, user friendliness, accessibility, and costs.īut let me be very clear from the get-go: We do not recommend ANYONE use Coinbase. This review aims to present the most in-depth analysis of the Coinbase exchange. It also has some of the highest fees in the business. It has offered a reliable on-ramp for BTC since October 2012 and started adding altcoins in 2016.Ĭoinbase is secure, has a good record as a custodian, but falls short in the privacy department. Please be aware that we have never posted a disclaimer like this one to any of our exchange reviews, but Coinbase has simply gone too far and you should know about it before you go through any KYC with them.Ĭoinbase is one of the most popular Bitcoin and cryptocurrency exchanges. We recommend patronizing other exchanges that respect your prviacy to the extent that they can, such as Kraken or Coinmama. However, it is our opinion that Coinbase does not care about you, your privacy, or anything else except for whoever will pay them the most money. In this review, we have done our best to remain objective, give Coinbase the benefit of the doubt, and admit the good points. And now we even know that they have sold this data to the Secret Service. We feel so strongly about this that we refuse to earn any affiliate money from referring customers to their platform (and many positive reviews you read about Coinbase are financially motivated).Ĭonsider this a public service announcement: Coinbase has already acquired a chain analysis company (founded by members of a hacking organization that sold spyware to tyranical dictators) and is now using that chain analysis company to help the DEA and the IRS identify Bitcoin users. Dear Reader: Before you get too far, we want to save you some time: we absolutely do not recommend that you give Coinbase ANY of your business.