Coinbase is currently the world’s largest Bitcoin broker. Available in over 30 countries, it is often recommended to newcomers as one of the easiest ways with which one can purchase Bitcoins.
With Bitcoin’s prices increasing every day, there is increased demand for Bitcoin which has led to the birth of more firms that deal with Bitcoin. But talking about CoinBase, let’s find out if it deserves to be the first choice for investors to buy bitcoins?
Coinbase offers direct sales of Bitcoin close to its actual price with a minimal fee. Other than that, it has a lot to offer. Following is a list of services and benefits being offered by Coinbase:
- Instant purchase of up to $1000 BTC per week for verified credit card holders.
- Instant transfers between Coinbase users as well as instant buy available with a credit card as backup.
- An intuitive user experience as well as easy ways for new users to buy Bitcoins.
- A variety of deposit and withdrawal options
- Insured Bitcoin deposits.
- A well-documented API for developers.
- A recent addition of transaction support for PayPal and major credit cards.
- High liquidity and buying limits.
- Available in multiple currency zones including USA ($), Europe(Euro) and the UK(GBP).
What makes Coinbase so easy to use for new investors?
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The interface is user-friendly. It’s designed specifically for the ease of people buying Bitcoins for the first time ever. Coinbase keeps payment options simple too with options like credit or debit card. All that’s needed to be done is simply adding credit/debit card information after creating an account and that’s it!
The availability of purchase through bank transfer is also an option. PayPal support has also been added giving people more options to choose from.
There are other options as well like EFT payment, ACH/ SWIFT/ SEPA transfer but paying through credit/debit card is generally more convenient and easier.
Supported countries.
Coinbase is currently operational in United States, United Kingdom, Canada, and Singapore. It also supports a select few European countries which include:
Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, San Marino, Slovakia, Romania, Portugal, Norway, Poland, Netherlands, Monaco, Malta, Liechtenstein, Latvia, Italy, Ireland, Hungary, Greece, France, Finland, Denmark, Czech Republic, Cyprus, Croatia, Bulgaria, Belgium, and Austria.
As time passes it will most likely extend its services to other countries as well. Sign Up For Coin Base
Is Coinbase safe?
Storing money in an online wallet is always risky, so this is one of the most important concerns of many when it comes to selecting a Bitcoin broker. Coinbase is the world’s largest Bitcoin broker which is backed by many investors, statistics do not lie as well.
Coinbase has seen over 20% increase in traffic each month since February 2017. The current figure is around 11.5 million monthly visits. This may very well be because of the latest buzz and popularity of Bitcoin, however: no other BTC exchange has seen this much growth as much as Coinbase has.
Coinbase also segregates company funds from operational funds. This means that none of the funds that come from their customers goes into their business operations. 98% of customers cryptocurrency funds are stored in a secure offline cold storage. So yes, it’s safe.
Account security and privacy.
Coinbase offers a variety of features to users for keeping their account safe. A unique and strong password is also recommended. Multiple authentication methods are used to keep the user’s account safe, one of the basic ones being SMS authentication.
The user can also track the activity of their account as well as get a notification if a new or unfamiliar IP is used to access their account.
However, privacy may be an issue here. Users must provide full identity verification and even a photo of your passport or driver’s license if you are going to use a credit card. You must also provide a lot of personal information to avail Coinbase services. Tracking the activity of your account can help you keep it safe but Coinbase gets access to your account activity as well.
Limits
Coinbase offers high limits in keeping money in your account and the limit to buying bitcoins per day and week. The limits depend upon how much information you have verified. Fully verified users can buy up to $50,000 in bitcoin per day.
How fast is the service?
Transactions completed with credit/debit cards in the United States have instant delivery of Bitcoins. Bank transfer will take 5 business days.
Canada’s EFT transactions take up to four days, but Interac Online purchases are instant.
European users receive their Bitcoins in one-three days.
The downside to Coinbase.
There have been many cases of closed or frozen accounts in the past. Due to Coinbase’s excessive safety measures, many accounts get flagged and thus get temporarily frozen.
There have been many complaints regarding this by users on public forums. Community complaints remain unanswered on some forums like Reddit which is used by a lot of users. Although Coinbase responds much faster on forums such as Twitter, it should include all its customers in all different forums.
As mentioned earlier, Coinbase monitors your activity. It can track how you spend your Bitcoin which causes a lot of privacy questions to be raised.
Coinbase is not primarily at fault here as it strictly follows all the rules and regulations for a broker but if your intention is to use your Bitcoin for illegal activities such as gambling or buying substances generally frowned upon, then most likely expect your account to be shut down by Coinbase.
Although you will receive a full refund after your account has been shut down, it’s extremely inconvenient and frustrating.
Should you use Coinbase?
Simply put, Coinbase is a great option for new users who are looking for an easy way to familiarize themselves with Bitcoin. Coinbase is one of the safest options out there but if you’re not comfortable with giving a lot of personal information then Coinbase is not for you.
