[arasmussen]

I disagree with the direction Coinbase is going. Of all the things they could have built next, this is what they chose? Why not develop a button that says "Pay with Bitcoin by Coinbase" that allows one-click payments on third party websites/mobile apps? Or why not compete with Bitstamp and btc-e on the exchange front? There's definitely tons of room for competition there.

Consider a traditional USD/EUR bank account. If your bank offers you a "vault" option to store your large balance to offer better reassurance that it won't get stolen from your "regular account"/wallet, aren't you going to have some serious concerns about security of the regular account? Instead of offering a "more secure account" why don't think just work on the fact that people feel that their regular accounts are insecure. This seems like a bandaid on the problem rather than the proper fix.

It's also overcomplicated. Now I have two account types and have to worry myself over what the differences are for accessing my money in each and how to use each. They're increasing the amount of friction it takes to get started rather than basing their model off a bank's model of "your account is as secure as it needs to be, just use one".

[mangoman]

They have the pay with bitcoin button

https://coinbase.com/docs/merchant_tools/payment_buttons

I've used it on overstock.com and it's pretty incredible. I think it's the least amount of information I've ever had to enter to buy something online. All I entered was the shipping address and my email address.

[superuser2]

That's essentially the same as having a Paypal account, though.

[arasmussen]

Oh really, didn't realize that. I guess I should have done more research before posting! That's awesome!

[flexo0r]

I don't see how this is complicated or confusing and I completely disagree with you. I think this is absolutely the right direction to be going if coinbase (and bitcoin) want to become mainstream. An exchange is mainly for traders and most people like myself don't want to look at candlestick charts to know when to purchase or make a bid without any certainty of obtaining coins or worse compete with bots. On the other hand many people I know have kept away from bitcoin because of how seemingly complicated and confusing it is to supposedly keep secure -don't keep coins on exchange, use paper wallet, encrypt backups of private keys. This is definitely a step in the right direction towards attracting a more mainstream audience. As for a 'Pay with Bitcoin' button, are you kidding, how do you think overstock, newegg etc accept bitcoin payments - this is one of the first things they did.

[arasmussen]

Yeah I think we just disagree.

- An exchange is definitely a huge opportunity and a valid direction regardless of whether it'd be useful to you. and one that would make wall street more interested in Bitcoin which would push it mainstream.

- I feel this "vault" stuff won't do much to convince people it's secure. who knows whether the security is even different? just more terminology to learn = greater friction. keep it simple.

- does their button even support mobile?

[veemjeem]

I don't really agree here. A bank is safe because your money is FDIC backed even if a robber raided their coffers, BTC doesn't have that level of security yet and given the number of thefts in the last few years, I think security is something that is on everyone's minds when they choose a bank to hold their coins.

[arasmussen]

This is a good point. I guess what I should say is that I'm looking forward to the day when Bitcoin banks are FDIC backed and we can move on from being paranoid about security.

[evbots]

Bank's don't have that model. Any sane person would have a separate savings account that doesn't really get used. The checking account is meant for variable balances, because your account number is more than likely floating around via checks/online ACH transfers which results in the potential for a security breach.

[arasmussen]

So then why don't they just call it a savings account and a checking account? Wallet is an implementation detail at this point that the average user shouldn't have to learn when there's already a word in their vocabulary.

[JetSpiegel]

Because having Bitcoin deposited doesn't net you interest?

[arasmussen]

LOL neither does having USD deposited with interest rates nowadays...

[evbots]

also differentiating between the products/services traditional finance uses and the bitcoin ecosystem offers is a good idea.

[evbots]

the average user might have to learn a few extra words to understand bitcoin, "bitcoin" being one of them.

[jerf]

I am at a loss as to why you think this is the thing they built.