Topic: Coinbase co-founder claimed it takes seconds for a transaction to confirm!!! (Read 1782 times)

I think he just got confused. He was probably talking about the time it takes them to verify a customers SSN using a government database. That would only take them a few seconds with their government connections. Now, forwarding your spending habits to the government takes a little longer. lol

so, in other words the gvt has (in a roundabout way) imposed just enough laws to make using btc, well not very adventageous.  And I agree, I have pretty much no other reliable alternative to coinbase when having to move btc->fiat.  Yes I know about localbtc, but have had NO luck there, and when I need to exchange within a day, I have no other choice but to go with coinbase.

Well how many threads did we have on this forum how we shouldn't trust coinbase. That they are complying with every government crap that US law makers them ask to do and that they are even maybe closely cooperating with the government. Also on Twitter, there were many eminent bitcoiners that called out openly for not to use Coinbase.

The other problem is that the bitcoiners in the US really don't have many more alternatives so they are very often forced to use Coinbase since there is this KYC crap everywhere in the US.

so in other words, coinbase is becoming like any other bank out there.  partly because they are protecting themselves from handling "illegal" funds, but also how else are they going to legitimately make money?  Only if people feel safe using their service.  Making a haven for money laundering, etc would not make me feel sdafe using their services

he is most definitely referring to transactions that are being done between coinbase wallets, which means off-chain transactions otherwise we all have sent and received bitcoin and know very well that how long it will take for our transactions to get any confirmation "on the chain".

it is actually a useful thing but only if you are ok with trusting a third party with your bitcoins and also have no problems with their rules like this one:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/3gqm35/coinbase_restricts_users_for_gambling_transactions/

Seconds... Only a couple thousand of them....

He means "seen by the network" and he's talking to noobs.
Non event here. Moving along

It's possible (that it could confirm in seconds). But it's probably just a figure of speech. Also, he could possibly be referring to off-chain transactions like Coinbase-to-Coinbase payments. It's all about context.

But, coinbase to coinbase Tx is not a bitcoin Tx. This is same as an intra-bank Tx.

OK, so I was partially right. The transactions occur "off the chain" when its coinbase -> coinbase acct.  Hence, instant confirmations in their system

Overall that's good presentation although.. 

I think that you are right and he refers to just this. Usually, when I send coins to my coinbase wallet, the amount is shown as "pending" few seconds later, but of course, you cannot use that money until all required confirmations are done.

You're wrong. The coins exist in a central wallet in coinbase. Once a account to account transfer is initiated, the balance is adjusted in the database and hence displaying a different amount. The transaction will only be sent if on chain transaction is initiated.

LOL...

Have any of you ever engaged in bitcoin transactions before?
I have.

I've made quite a few. I'll tell you how it goes, usually.


In the cases where I was the sender, the receiving company acknowledged my payment within seconds.

Yes, that's correct... seconds. The transaction was nearly always for a tiny amount, about $5 equivalent, so probably they didn't feel it was necessary to wait for multiple confirmations before they acknowledged the fact that I had made a bitcoin payment to them. But literally, within seconds their payment webpage would reload, thanking me for making payment, and my email would ding, letting me know a new message had been received, and invariably, it was a confirmation email from the company...


In many other bitcoin transactions, I was both the sender and receiver... I was either sending from an exchange to my wallet or from one of my wallets to another wallet on another computer of mine or my phone. These transfers/transactions took mere seconds for the first confirmation. (Although once, it took a damned long time, and believe me: I was sweatin' that day till it got confirmed!)

Was a transaction recorded in a block at the moment I received these confirmations? No. Obviously not. But the bitcoin network was, rather quickly, acknowledging my transaction. In seconds.

From the comments in this thread, I strongly suspect the majority of you have little to no active experience of actually using bitcoin.

Amirite?
 

Why would they push their internal DB settlment to blockchain ?

yes,i also see it on other forum. nice..

Was he possibly talking about coinbase transactions?  If you are sending btc from a coinbase acct -> another coinbase acct I think they are instant (off the blockchain) and then pushed to the blockchain later.  Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

Maybe he is talking about the future when a coinbase uses Vanilla coin instead of the inferior Bitcoin and then it will be true.....though not seconds but Zerotime which is sub second speeds......for the entire transaction with negligible risk of double spend....I shit you not.

next time OP can make that talk in front of 100 VCs 

I think it's very clear that he's referring to coinbase service and not bitcoin as a whole. A person at his position and knowledge would rarely make that kind of mistake.

from what i noticed, even if bitpay marks it as paid, the payment would only be processed by the merchant if it has a specific amount of confirmations, can be adjusted by their control panel.