If you're a Coinbase user, please don't use Coinbase to buy. The fees are really high. Instead, use GDAX. Your Coinbase account is sufficient to register with GDAX and all your privileges like limits, KYC, etc. is carried over.

It supports both Market Orders and Limit Orders. Transfers from GDAX to Coinbase are instantaneous and off-blockchain, so there are no fees.

As a bonus fun fact, if you transfer BTC from GDAX to your personal wallet, there is no Bitcoin network fee charged to you. However, if you use Coinbase, you'll end up paying a lot more in fees than you must because Coinbase uses very inefficient fee-estimation systems and still haven't deployed SegWit or batching which would reduce network fee for their customers.

This is good advise. The problem right now is getting verified on gdax takes a really long time and doesn’t accept government ids like greencards.

I have a coinbase account that I can buy with but I am stuck at the verification stage on gdax..

> Accepted ID types: For our US customers, you must submit one state-issued driver's license or ID card.

Not sure about GC, but it's quite common to have either a driver license or a non-driver license state ID. It might even accept Real ID which is something you can get through DMV. If you live in the U.S. I highly recommend have a state-issued ID (Real ID would be a wise one at this point for future domestic traveling).

They rejected my GC and I came across another hn reader who had the same issue. I know this from first hand experience with gdax.

I’m renewing my drivers license next month so this problem will go away. Just letting others on hn know as you can be stuck in a verification queue for a long time.

Why don’t you just walk into your next best DMV and get an ID? Doesn’t need to be a driving license...they can easily also just issue a ID.

That’s what I am doing. I have an appointment booked. I don’t own a car so I had let my old ID expire.

How did you buy beer or fly?

With my greencard or Irish passport.

This is good advice but there are countries that support Coinbase but not GDAX (Australia is one of these).

Would you recommend GDAX over an alternate such as Kraken?

Kraken has gotten better since their big rewrite (just this year), but it's still not as great as other options (like GDAX). It is better than it was though. Also, Kraken has margin trading (and shorting), and GDAX doesn't (if you want to use those tools).

I tried using Kraken a few months ago and their website was down frequently and the crypto withdrawal functionality was also frequently not working/unavailable.

Coinbase/GDAX has been gone down a few times but not at the frequency/duration I experienced with Kraken, YMMV.

It's a lot better now after the recent upgrade. It also remains the only usable option for CAD funds.

Agreed. Kraken has been terribly unstable. What about Gemini, any thoughts on that exchange?

Gemini is ok, but less volume than GDAX and I'm not sure they have a free type of orders. Also Gemini's interface is personally less interesting for day trading. But to that point GDAX's graphing interface is a bit odd and represents data differently than say trading view.

Trading view is by far the best to check out a coin, see its indicators etc imo.

Still I think it's good to diversify your funds over various exchanges, just in case of a hack.

Doesn’t Gemini have an advantage to gdax in the way funds transfers work? A friend was telling me about this but I have yet to try it, I’m still in a queue to be verified for Gemini.

Kraken did a massive upgrade so it doesn't have issues like it used to. People haven't come back yet however, and the spread is pretty bad. It's the only exchange I've found to support margin trading and shorting for US customers which is why I went back.

I bought one ETH last fall that Coinbase took away from my account and has been holding hostage from me for 8 months. Apparently my Credit Card expiration date was not correct or something, but they successfully took my money... and show that I have no crypto either. Their support has been a nightmare. I'm really excited to move away from Coinbase to Robinhood as soon as possible.

https://www.reddit.com/r/CoinBase/ paints a pretty ugly picture of Coinbase's support. I'm glad I never had issues but took all my money out this year.

But keep in mind that Coinbase has millions of customers, so even a small percentage with problems can make a scary-looking subreddit.

I had a few issues with them and I contacted them in every way I could. No response, ever. Not even after months of trying. Coinbase support just doesn't exist.

I think we need to see how Robinhood shapes up. AFAIK their customer care isn't great either. And with their estoeric rules on coin transfer this might not go down well.

I agree. Hopefully they turn into a serious competitor, but right now it's a little too early to tell.

Just wanted to say that I've passed hundreds of thousands of dollars through Coinbase and have always received stellar support. Not everyone hates them :)

so far in the market I feel like Coinbase has acted as one of the only – and certainly most vocal – trustworthy marketplaces. Especially with a concept like cryptocurrency which in and of itself seems a bit "sketchy" to most (especially becuase of its association with black markets), many competing marketplaces dont instill a lot of confidence in users. That may be something as simple as UX/UI or branding, either of which would solidly add Robinhood into the "easy to understand for non-techies" category along with Coinbase.

What about Gemini?

Disclaimer: I have not used gemini.

On first glance, it seems to fall into the category of "not-intimidating" along with the previously mentioned markets. The point i was trying to illustrate was that there are many laces on the web that skew much more towards LocalBitcoins or the like*.

A lot of these kind of sketchy sites have been stomped out in the frenzy that was the Bitcoin Bubble, being replaced by these more legitimate - at least at first glance - sites.

As more scandals like Mt. Gox etc arise, however, trust in the currency - and random places on the internet to buy and sell said currency - will drop, leaving only those more "reputable" and known brands like Coinbase and Robinhood behind.

I signed up for it weeks ago but they haven't verified my ID yet and haven't responded to inquiries about how long it will take. It'll be 4 weeks this weekend. Also, their process to link my bank account felt like a scam - they required a huge amount of information that traditional banking institutions don't need to withdraw/transfer. It needed my bank account password(!) and all of my security question answers! Plus copies of my ID.

I use Gemini and it works fine. The amount of Coinbase Stockholm Syndrome that I see boggles the mind.

You can buy crypto for no-fee on Coinbase by using their integrated GDAX exchange. Simple post a limit buy order instead of a market order for zero fee purchases.

Interesting, wasn't aware you could do that. I'll have to look into it more.

> transfer times, are getting too ridiculous

Then I got good news for you! the RobinHood app's transfer times are infinite, because you can't transfer the coins out :).

They never let you hold the bitcoin--all buys/sells take place on their system. I imagine they did this to avoid a lot of challenges that come with being able to transfer coins out.

You cannot transfer in, but you can transfer out.

Refer: https://ibb.co/dHNENc

What fees ? I have never paid a single cent in fees in coinbase. Buying/selling with limit orders is free in GDAX and they pay the miner's fees themselves when you withdraw. I don't even know how they make money.

Check the screen before you buy, they display fees:

https://ibb.co/eCkthc

Also the base price is more expensive than gdax (also owned by coinbase).

US-only competitor. Not sure how much that helps. It's a start...