> This happened to me as well a few weeks back. Smells a lot like a Ponzi scheme.
Readers, please enshrine this comment as the canonical example of the Cryptocurrency Corollary of Godwin's Law: "As an online discussion about cryptocurrency grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Ponzi approaches 1."
Coinbase's entire business is to irreversibly and permanently send you Bitcoin in exchange for you sending them funds that you have months to dispute and reverse. And this is with reasonable fees that put a check-cashing outfit to shame. Of course they're going to err on the side of caution. Based on zero information whatsoever, I'm going to assume you're telling the truth. But for every honest person like you, there are probably at least two who truly are trying to steal Bitcoin from Coinbase.
I don't like it any more than you do when businesses make mistakes. But jumping straight to "Ponzi scheme" is just silly.
If you have a statement on your site saying you will deposit x coins in y days, you should do that. If you don't for a lot of people, then something is wrong with your business and no, people should not trust you.
> in exchange for you sending them funds that you have months to dispute and reverse
and here we see the limits of crypto currency and the legitimate concerns people have with it.
>Readers, please enshrine this comment as the canonical example of the Cryptocurrency Corollary of Godwin's Law: "As an online discussion about cryptocurrency grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Ponzi approaches 1."
Because the Corollary is true. At this point to believe otherwise marks you as a credulous dupe.
You were probably defending Mt Gox up to the day of its collapse. The Bitcoin True Believers are the easiest marks for these scams and cons because their ideology blinds them to reality.
I don't think it's unreasonable to think that they might using the cash influx from newer users to cover cash outs for older users. Which I suppose is fine if they keep balanced books, but not if they're not delivering advertised service to the new users, which they aren't. They took my money, gave me nothing, then went absolutely silent.
Yes, it is unreasonable. You could say that any business "might [be] using the cash influx from newer users to cover cash outs for older users." Seriously, don't hide behind the word "might." It's a lazy defense of an accusation that's based more on emotion than reason or facts.
I once ordered a computer from Dell. The sealed box arrived empty. I went through few weeks of increasingly enraged emails and phone calls. Should I have assumed Dell was a Ponzi scheme?
The fact that HN is just discovering Coinbase (Normiebase) and not discussing the in's and out's of Etherdelta tells me this bubble still has a far way to go before it bursts.
How many fund-stealing XSS attacks has EtherDelta been hit with by now? It should be considered criminal that they still haven't put up a competent Content-Security-Policy header that would entirely block that class of exploits. Their current one is trivially-bypassable security theater that I tried reporting and got blown off. It's probably for the best that they don't have more attention.
Well now I'm worried. I also bought a tiny amount of ETH and BTC which is still in my account but I'm really worried about getting the funds out, even if it's just a refund of my original USD.
I didn't come here to spread doubt, just to +1 with my experience. I have had other transactions with them go okay, but when this one went wrong I realized how absolutely abysmal their support is.
They stole my money and I'm being downvoted for it, ha!
why did you give them so much money that you are "really worried" dont be irresponsible, its a new venture , dont put in your life savings ... just a couple of dollars , try it out if it doesnt work then at least its not something to be "really worried" about
I gave them money , they gave me coin , everything worked ... maybe you made them angry and tried to do something illegal on their site so they shut your user down.
I hear they prioritize "good" users in their system.
There is a section where there is the type of account you add, if you add a bank account you get special treatment
"maybe you made them angry and tried to do something illegal on their site so they shut your user down."
Ahh, crypto-punk-decentralized-liberatrians never seize to amaze with the level of double-think they can achieve.
How someone can hold both "the government is evil and might take your money" and "maybe you made this website angry so they didn't give you your money" at the same time is truly impressice.
> just a couple of dollars , try it out if it doesnt work then at least its not something to be "really worried" about
Could you imagine living in a world where you had to start every business relationship by only making extremely small "beta test" transactions, be it a trip to Target to opening an account at your local credit union. Like, on your first trip to Costco, you only bought a box of gum because you couldn't ever be sure they wouldn't somehow completely fuck you over and if they did fuck you over the societal response would always be "LOL too bad, so sad.... shouldn't have trusted them!!!"
I dunno about anybody else, but that really isn't the world I would want to live in.
There is value, substantial value, to trust others and when that trust fails, having a solid legal system to back you up. If you cannot trust anybody but yourself, every transaction you make becomes significantly more expensive.
Readers, please enshrine this comment as the canonical example of the Cryptocurrency Corollary of Godwin's Law: "As an online discussion about cryptocurrency grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Ponzi approaches 1."
Coinbase's entire business is to irreversibly and permanently send you Bitcoin in exchange for you sending them funds that you have months to dispute and reverse. And this is with reasonable fees that put a check-cashing outfit to shame. Of course they're going to err on the side of caution. Based on zero information whatsoever, I'm going to assume you're telling the truth. But for every honest person like you, there are probably at least two who truly are trying to steal Bitcoin from Coinbase.
I don't like it any more than you do when businesses make mistakes. But jumping straight to "Ponzi scheme" is just silly.