Coinbase Wants to Be Too Big to Fail

Re:Coinbase Wants to Be Too Big to Fail by csomar on Friday September 28, 2018 @06:06AM (#18092181)

I did a transaction yesterday. It cost around $0.08 and was confirmed in 15 minutes. However, given how very unlikely it is to reverse a transaction (you'll need to double spend, not an easy trick to pull when you are paying for coffee), the guy just acknowledged the transaction.

So yes: It is cheaper.

Speed? Yes, it is faster. If you send me money through PayPal or another gateway and I don't trust that one. I'll need to withdraw that money to my bank account. That's another few days. So bitcoin is faster is that it gives you your money (cash). A credit card ATM withdrawal can also be just as fast.

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Re:Coinbase Wants to Be Too Big to Fail by blackbrokkoli on Friday September 28, 2018 @08:10AM (#18092691)

This is just deliberately "well-technically" misinformation. Here, let me buy a steam game:

Store Page.

Yes, buy for myself.

Yes, accept.

Yes, PayPal Oneclick, accept.

Yes, thanks.

Conformation via email on phone, game starts downloading.

Not even 20 seconds. Yeah, maybe the mills of the old COBOL databases of my local bank who is probably already calling it a day this time on a friday might grind a few days before there is an 'actual' transaction or whatever. Point is, me representing the average day-to-day money user, this system, backed by reciproc trust is completely sufficient for the VAST majority of transaction the VAST majority of people will ever do. I'm not saying cryptocurrency is useless. Au contraire, I think it has great potential.

But claiming that it's easier, safer, faster, cheaper or less likely to fuck you over at this very point in time for the Otto-Normal customer is just plain wrong.

[ Parent | on HN ]