[3np]

A large part of this is also just the immaturity of the industry as such.

Kraken now has a US banking license, Coinbase is not more likely to shut down or screw you over than any normal bank, etc.

The people saying "not your keys, not your coins" are in general applying the same logic to banks - so, yes, "not your cash, not your fiat" holds just as true in principle. Banks and government institutions can still freeze your funds for arbitrary reasons. In many places you also don't have any recourse in the event of, say a combined hacking + SIM-jacking attack resulting in loss of funds from your bank account.

Understanding how to protect your funds properly will continue to get easier to understand and do over time (and honestly, a hardware wallet like for example Ledger is in principle not more complicated or difficult to use properly than using the various 2FA systems banks utilize today).

It's not that hard today, and it will continue to get easier.

More secure ways to do custodial/multisig/etc that relies on a third party like a bank are being continuously worked on as well.

It's still early days. But at the end of the day, if you're happy to forfeit your independence for convenience, banks will be happy to fill that void for you.

The promise of cryptocurrency is that you have the choice. That choice does not exist in the legacy fiat economy.

[arcticbull]

> Coinbase is not more likely to shut down or screw you over than any normal bank

Coinbase literally just direct listed, had their executive team dump every single vested share on the open market, and then listed Tether. Not a mention of Tether in their regulatory filings under "OMG WTF ARE YOU THINKING". Hmmmm.

Starting to smell a bit like an exit scam.

[3np]

> Coinbase literally just direct listed, had their executive team dump every single vested share on the open market

AFAIUI this is not uncommon practice for IPOs in general

That being said - time will have to tell of the CB executive team is honest or not. I wouldn't be surprised either way TBH.

Jumping on Tether seems very shortsighted in CBs position.

[arcticbull]

> AFAIUI this is not uncommon practice for IPOs in general

IPOs generally have a 180 day lockup, in part so that the market can begin down the path of price discovery. This is a solid anti-pump-n-dump mechanism. This is achievable because new shares are issued for folks to trade with. The rules were changed recently, by the way, so that direct listings could also issue shares instead of requiring insider selling.

I think some selling is fine, I do think selling almost 100% of vested shares by every executive on day 1 isn't a bullish indicator. Usually they sell over months/years with a 10b5-1 plan.

> Jumping on Tether seems very shortsighted in CBs position.

I think they direct listed before launching USDT specifically so they could avoid putting Tether in their disclosures.

[3np]

Thanks for the education.

> I think they direct listed before launching USDT specifically so they could avoid putting Tether in their disclosures.

That definitely explains the timing, but given that they probably prefer users to use their own USDC anyway, why do this when it's such a controversial asset?

[pjc50]

> Coinbase is not more likely to shut down or screw you over than any normal bank

What is the minimum set of people, or computers, or cellphones that one would have to compromise to steal a substantial chunk of Coinbase?

How vulnerable are Coinbase to, say, Solarwinds style supply chain attacks?