Coinbase is one of the many names belonging to the list of early entrants in the realm of cryptocurrencies. It is a crypto exchange that was founded in the year 2012 and has been growing steadily ever since.
The digital currency wallet provides sellers as well as buyers to make transactions in popular cryptocurrencies like Litecoin, Ethereum, and Bitcoin.
Coinbase located in San Francisco (United States of America)
Coinbase has its headquarters in San Francisco, California. The headquarters have remained the same ever since the advent of this cryptocurrency exchange. The company consists of engineers, designers, and entrepreneurs working together towards the growth of the platform. The key focus of the brand is to build itself as the most trusted cryptocurrency exchange out there. The company’s trade volume alone speaks a lot about its standing in the industry. Coinbase stands way ahead of most of its competition with a user base of 20 million, and trades worth more than $150 billion.
History on Coinbase
Coinbase came into being 6 years ago in the month of June. The founding team included Brian Armstrong, Fred Ehrsam, and Ben Reeves. However, Ben parted ways with Armstrong due to the difference in both their ideologies and went on to co-found Blockchain. The company got its initial start by joining the Y Combinator Startup Incubator program in the Summer of 2012. Later in the Winter of the same year, Coinbase launched bitcoin-based services. Customers of Coinbase were then provided with the capability of buying and selling Bitcoin via bank transfers. The next year marked itself as the year Coinbase got its first big investment.
Union Square Ventures invested $5 million in the company in May 2013. Subsequently, venture capitalist Andreessen Horowitz invested $25 million in Coinbase in October of the same year. After some growth years that consisted of even more investments, Coinbase has managed to become one of the leading crypto exchanges available worldwide. The coin exchange even underwent a change of names in May 2016. As of now, the Coinbase Exchange is known as GDAX (Global Digital Asset Exchange)
Coinbase’s team
Coinbase’s success can be rightfully accredited to the efforts of its highly competent team. Co-Founder, Brian Armstrong, till date manages the top-most position of the company as the Chief Executive Officer. Balaji S. Srinivasan looks after all things tech as the Chief Technical Officer. Dan Romero manages international expansion and banking for Coinbase. The finances of the company are managed by Alesia Haas who is the Chief Financial Officer. Asif Hirji is the President of Coinbase as well as the Chief Operating Officer.
Adam White makes his contributions to Coinbase’s growth as the Vice-President and General Manager. All the legal problems of the company are solved by the Chief Legal and Risk Officer, Mike Lempres. A number of other core members also provide their expertise and efforts in the company’s day-to-day officers. Coinbase even hosts a challenge on their website for prospective candidates looking to work for the crypto exchange company.
How to trade on Coinbase
Trading on GDAX requires you to have an account on GDAX itself or sign up as a present user of Coinbase. So, the first step would be to do either of the two. Deposits can be made into GDAX using your deposits in Coinbase as well. Furthermore, your bank account linked with Coinbase can also be used to made deposits. A wire transfer using your bank account is yet another option. One important thing that you’d need to familiarise yourself with Coinbase would be the order book. It is basically a list displaying all orders present for a specific price point. The colour red indicates the sell orders whereas the colour green indicates the buy orders.
The USD spread will further enable you to make detailed observations regarding the demand for certain cryptocurrencies. You must also familiarise yourself with the price chart. It will enable you to track your selected currency over time. The intervals can vary from 1 minute to 1 day. The depth chart further enriches the information available at your disposal. Once you place an order, it will show up in the orders section. Subsequently, when the order reaches the price point set by you, it will be indicated as filled in the filled tab. The trade history section on the website will enable you to keep a track of your activities. Once you are clear with the basics detailed above, your skill set can be further expanded as per your diligence and commitment to trading with Coinbase.
Apps
Coinbase has official smartphone applications for Android as well as iOS. The mobile apps are safe to use and can be used to trade in Bitcoin. Users can download Coinbase’s Android app from the Google Play Store, and the Apple App Store will serve the same purpose for iOS devices.Basically, the apps are mobile bitcoin wallets and thus lack some functionality when compared to the website version of the crypto Goliath.
Create an account on Coinbase
You can create an account on Coinbase itself, but since our primary focus here is cryptocurrency exchange, setting up an account on www.gdax.com will prove to be more convenient. To begin the account creation process, visit the URL mentioned above and click on ‘Create Account’. You’ll be required to fill in some particulars in the sign-up form. Once you’re done filling it, tap on ‘Create an Account’. Subsequently, check your given mail address for a confirmation mail. Verify your email by click on the specified link. The next thing to do is add a phone number.
You’ll have two accounts options to choose from i.e. ‘Industrial’ and ‘Individual’. Make the choice according to your requirements and fill in the relevant details. You can even link your bank account to your GDAX account for making deposits via day-to-day currencies like USD, EUR or GBP. However, it is an optional thing to do, and your account will work just fine using Bitcoin as well. Ethereum can also serve the same purpose. However, if you intend to sign in using your pre-existing Coinbase account, you may choose to go forward with that option.
KYC
The status of Coinbase as a reputed crypto exchange platform comes as a result of the company’s efforts to maintain security and credibility. As detailed in Coinbase’s policy, identification is required in order to prevent fraud and related illegal activities. The KYC ensures that you are the only one who’s able to access his/her payment information. The inherent security protocols of Coinbase are fortified further by KYC.
You can complete the identification on the website as well as the smartphone app. However, emailed copies do not make the cut for appropriate KYC verification. Also, while uploading your verifications document, you need to make sure that the ID is in focus and doesn’t lack visibility.
Security
Coinbase fulfils the ideal security standard of companies operating in the US. All the laws applicable to companies in the US are diligently followed by Coinbase at both the levels of the government that is, the Federal and State. Furthermore, the company is backed by a number of investments made by highly reputed venture capitalists. The list of prestigious investors with their money deployed to Coinbase are Blockchain Capital, Digital Currency Group, Alexis Ohanian, and Bank of Tokyo. Coinbase operates not only in the US but in 31 other countries as well.
No specific norms are applicable for cryptocurrency exchange companies in those countries. Regardless, the security standards of Coinbase are top-notch everywhere. Furthermore, a huge chunk of the cryptocurrency funds managed by Coinbase are stored offline. To be precise, as much as 98% of the cryptocurrency in the custody of Coinbase is stored in the offline cold storage. Appropriate checks and measures are also implemented for the cryptocurrency stored online.
Conclusion on Coinbase’s review
Coinbase is easier to use compared to a typical cryptocurrency exchange. It is faster than its competition, and also allows users to make a purchase using debit and credit cards. The ability to make use of bank transfers further adds to the pros of Coinbase.
However, Coinbase isn’t perfect. The fees charged by Coinbase is comparatively higher than the other options out there. Also, the fact that Coinbase monitors how you spend your cryptocurrency can be a con for some users.
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