Why all the Hate for Coinbase? Common Guys They Aren't That Bad

Lately I've been seeing a lot of people hating on Coinbase. I personally am a big fan of Coinbase. Could their customer service be better, well of course, it's not their strong suite but honestly I've yet to deal with an exchange who has done a better job.

I've been using Coinbase for a couple years and thus far they have been good to me. They provide a clean dashboard and interface, they make the process of buying Bitcoins for a beginner very easy, and while they aren't the cheapest option around, they are pretty well priced. They also have not been hacked or in any way caused me to lose money.

Lately with the whole fork issue a lot of people are hating on Coinbase. Some seem to be mad Coinbase is not supporting the fork and giving them their Bitcoin Cash, while others were upset about the delays on cashouts and sends. I was personally affected by this, I had a transfer from my Coinbase account to my Trezor Wallet take over 42 hours. While it was a little disconcerting, I wasn't pissed at Coinbase, nor do I hold any ill will towards them.

When I first got into Bitcoin years ago either Coinbase wasn't around or at the very least I wasn't aware of them but buying Bitcoin was a pain in the butt. I would have to use LocalBitcoin and pay a pretty big upcharge and was never super comfortable with the process, or I would have to do some roundabout process like deposit money onto one site, then move it to another site, then move it to a third site to finally buy them and then move it back to my wallet, it was just a huge pain.

Coinbase accepting ACH transfers as well as credit and debit cards just makes things so easy and convenient, I also love how they unlike some other exchanges allow you to setup daily/weekly/monthly recurring transactions for Dollar Cost Averaging.

I know some people are/were kind of annoyed Coinbase wasn't going to support Bitcoin Cash and while I agree I wish they would have as well, at the end of the day they are under no obligation to deal with every altcoin that comes off of a fork. I'm sure it would cost them a lot of time and money reconfiguring their site and finding a safe way to get this all setup and allow for it.

I feel like Coinbase gave us plenty of heads up they woudln't be dealing with Bitcoin Cash. If people decided to not heed their warning and leave coins on Coinbase then they have nobody but themselves to blame for getting it stuck on there. I had some coins sitting in the Coinbase Vault. As soon as Coinbase sent out the email saying they woudln't be dealing with Bitcoin Cash I moved a little bit out of Coinbase. I then got lazy and said "ahh, I'll wait til later and move the rest" despite Coinbase saying close to the end of the month will be high volume and delays. I wound up waiting until July 28 and wound up waiting 42 hours plus for a pending Bitcoin send to finally clear. Again, while it was aggravating it was my own fault.

I guess my point is at the end of the day Coinbase is better than any other exchange I've tried and while they aren't perfect, in my opinion it's better than the alternatives. Every exchange out there from Kracken to Gemini to Poloniex to others I've heard complaints about from everything regarding customer service to verifying accounts to freezing money.

One last thing I think many of us fail to realize and appreciate. For those of us who live in the USA we have a lot of unnecessary bullshit laws meant to treat citizens like stupid children who can't be trusted with their own money, things like accredited investor rules and such. These exchanges have a ton of rules and regulations they have to abide by from Money Transmitter Laws which not only exist federally but within all 48 states who all have different rules, laws and regulations plus whatever SEC rules and laws may affect them as well. They have a maze of stuff to get through to try to avoid getting fined literally millions of Dollars so if Coinbase or any other exchange for that matter holds your funds or needs verification while it can be frustrating just realize they are probably just abiding by KYC or know your customer rules or laws they are required to abide by.

Follow the number one rule of crypto which is control your own money and you'll alleviate the majority of these problems. If you choose to keep your money on Coinbase or any other exchange realize your involving an unnecessarily third party and complicating your life. And give Coinbase a break, they aren't all that bad.