This is a Coinbase review for beginners.
EVERYONE is talking about how Bitcoin is the future of money.
But how do you practically jump on the Bitcoin bandwagon?
Well Coinbase, one of the original cryptocurrency exchanges, that already boasts 12 million
users, might just be your answer.
With Coinbase you can buy and sell currencies from 32 countries and use the wallet in 190.
Getting set up on Coinbase was easy.
Simply create an account using your email address, and add your phone number for the
2-step verification process.
To comply with anti money laundering regulations you need to share a photo of your ID, which
you can do via your phone or your webcam.
It took about two minutes to get set up.
Your next step is to connect your bank account which I did using my UK debit card (but an
online transfer would also have been possible - if a little slow - up to 5 days before you
can start trading)
Once that’s done, you are ready to start buying your digital currency.
The Coinbase interface is really user friendly.
It was immediately clear how to buy Bitcoin, Litecoin and Ethereum (the only three currencies
available on Coinbase at the moment).
I bought £100 worth of each (the minimum was £1.99).
After I had confirmed I wanted to make the purchase, I got a hold screen telling me the
transaction was processing.
The screen stayed like that for a couple of minutes
and the site also crashed in the middle of my Bitcoin transaction.
I then got some contradictory emails from Coinbase after my transactions: one that said my
banking partner had cancelled my Ethereum transaction.
Then another immediately afterwards saying the Ethereum was now available in my account
- which it is.
I love the Coinbase app – it’s so easy to use to check the current prices of different
currencies, as well as to buy and sell cryptocurrencies.
There is also a really great little feature where you can set an alert to be notified
when the price hits a certain point so you don’t need to keep checking.
So, these are the things I like about Coinbase
The first is that the user experience is really good
The second is that it acts as an exchange and a wallet
so you can store your digital currency on Coinbase.
The dashboard is also really helpful in terms of providing information on the value of your
cryptocurrency And finally the app is brilliant
But I wasn’t so keen on the fees - just under 4% to buy and sell
Or the fact that I didn’t get a verification screen informing me that my transaction had
been successful The whole thing crashed during my Bitcoin transaction.
And I'm a little confused about Coinbase’s claims
around insurance - the website says that all funds stored online are insured.
But it also says that 98% of customers’ funds are stored offline.
Which to me means that your funds basically are not insured.
It also definitely wasn’t instant - the transactions took a while to process, although I don’t
know how long because I didn’t get a confirmation that they had completed.
Other things you might like to consider are If you are based in the US then Coinbase
is currently in a legal battle with the Inland Revenue.
IRS is demanding that Coinbase share details of its users and their transactions, which
kind of defeats the purpose of going off grid and using cryptocurrency!
The other thing to bare in mind is that
Coinbase offers a service to merchants who want to accept cryptocurrency.
I tried this but couldn't quite figure out how to get it set up.
Thanks for watching my review of Coinbase.
What’s been your experience buying digital currency?
Leave a comment.
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