Coinbase gets UK bank account with Barclays

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Quote from: gentlemand on March 14, 2018, 06:53:24 AM

https://www.coindesk.com/coinbase-receives-e-money-license-from-u-k-financial-regulator/

A bit more info here. Coinbase will be enabling faster payments which is a first and a huge improvement on the clunky shite you have to go through at present. Elsewhere they've said the UK is their biggest market in Europe by far which surprises me quite a bit.

Quote from: slaman29 on March 14, 2018, 06:53:03 AM

Interesting that you would consider UK a crypto backwater! They have been having several of those "neo banks" all based around UK, several in Ireland and Scotland and mostly in England, at least for two years? I can't remember the name of one but it even launched some ICO last year and was really successful. I guess now Coinbase will no longer be known as an American only exchange. I know Barclays is branched out in many commonwealth countries too, so maybe proxy access to non-UK but Commonwealth nations?

Compared to a place like the US where there are tons of places to shop with it and buy and sell it then yes it is. I'm talking more about action for regular people rather than backroom stuff.

It's maybe the only choice for UK people, it's a pain in the ass to try the other to get a tiny chance. You can notice in the past many topics in this section from UK people asking where they can buy bitcoins and withdraw to their UK account.
Other EU citizens don't really have reason to use Coinbase because there are better alternatives, so naturally, we use other platforms. Personally, I don't know anyone going to Coinbase for this

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Quote from: buwaytress on March 15, 2018, 04:11:19 AM

I get what you mean, of course, and share your pains... and I should know all about UK and their increasing stance of looking inwards (personally affected by Brexit ha ha).

What I see there is a strange cohabitation of private and state, where the government has been surprisingly open towards financial innovation (challenger banks for example), and already's got several incubators set up for blockchain, while has been never worse than lukewarm towards Bitcoin. Perhaps it points towards the people themselves, though. We've seen very healthy local efforts in other parts of Europe like with Arnhem as a Bitcoin city - well ahead of banks and governments. Perhaps there simply isn't that much of an interest from UK people after all?

I see no reason why Brits would be any more or less interested in BTC than anyone else other than their options for interacting with GBP being bleedin' terrible. There are of course workarounds that have gradually become smoother, but people as a rule do not like workarounds.

In mainland Europe it's been pain free for years and that definitely must have a knock on effect on general uptake. If there'd been a competent UK exchange with faster payments since 2012/13 I think things would look extremely different by now.

As for government, other than a few paragraphs from the tax man in 2014 which treat it sensibly, I haven't seen one other official statement about their attitude or plans towards crypto which is borderline incomprehensible when you compare it to other countries. I guess these days they're too busy destroying themselves to look to the future.

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Quote from: gentlemand on March 14, 2018, 04:24:49 PM

Quote from: buwaytress on March 14, 2018, 02:58:07 PM

You should check them out, these challenger banks.

I'm registered with Revolut but haven't done anything with it yet. And it's less about people already involved and more about onboarding newbies. When you go to places like r/bitcoinuk and read the endless string of threads about P2P and routing through multiple sites then I can well believe most people get turned off before they even got warmed up.

And ultimately it's less about Bitcoin itself and more about signs of a big UK bank thawing out a little. I wouldn't be surprised if it was killed off though.

I get what you mean, of course, and share your pains... and I should know all about UK and their increasing stance of looking inwards (personally affected by Brexit ha ha).

What I see there is a strange cohabitation of private and state, where the government has been surprisingly open towards financial innovation (challenger banks for example), and already's got several incubators set up for blockchain, while has been never worse than lukewarm towards Bitcoin. Perhaps it points towards the people themselves, though. We've seen very healthy local efforts in other parts of Europe like with Arnhem as a Bitcoin city - well ahead of banks and governments. Perhaps there simply isn't that much of an interest from UK people after all?

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I like the contribution of the UK government to cryptocurrency with its acceptability. I believe it will bring positive improvement to use in UK and Europe at large.

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Quote from: buwaytress on March 14, 2018, 02:58:07 PM

You should check them out, these challenger banks.

I'm registered with Revolut but haven't done anything with it yet. And it's less about people already involved and more about onboarding newbies. When you go to places like r/bitcoinuk and read the endless string of threads about P2P and routing through multiple sites then I can well believe most people get turned off before they even got warmed up.

And ultimately it's less about Bitcoin itself and more about signs of a big UK bank thawing out a little. I wouldn't be surprised if it was killed off though.

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Quote from: gentlemand on March 14, 2018, 12:34:38 PM

Quote from: mattcode on March 14, 2018, 12:28:03 PM

Which bank are you with? With Barclays my transfers are free and take a day or two to show up on Kraken.

Natwest. But this was a long time ago. It may have improved since then or I selected the wrong type of transfer. Like I said it was at the peak of 2013 madness so the slowness was probably at Bitstamp's end.

Yeah I've made the mistake of picking the wrong options and not reading it afterwards. Once I paid a £50 fee on a £20 transfer, ouch.

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Yeah. Received the official email from Coinbase earlier this morning. It's big news, if you like services like Coinbase, but I've always been able to get cheaper/faster coins even without SEPA access as I did not use to have before. I'm actually using Revolut already (UK based challenger bank as they're called these days, also has the same FCA licence that Coinbase got) and it's already a cheaper/quicker option than Coinbase, when used, for example, with BitPanda. They're getting their banking licence from... Estonia was it? I get things cleared maximum 2 working days, but usually well within 24 hours. Revolut's a pretty big hit with the new migrants here in EU, in my circles anyway.

You should check them out, these challenger banks.

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Quote from: mattcode on March 14, 2018, 12:28:03 PM

Which bank are you with? With Barclays my transfers are free and take a day or two to show up on Kraken.

Natwest. But this was a long time ago. It may have improved since then or I selected the wrong type of transfer. Like I said it was at the peak of 2013 madness so the slowness was probably at Bitstamp's end.

Considering how jealously guarded the faster payments network is I wonder what Barclays have demanded in return for access to it.

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Quote from: gentlemand on March 14, 2018, 11:29:10 AM

Quote from: mattcode on March 14, 2018, 08:59:56 AM

There's nothing stopping you from using SEPA from a UK bank account.

Nope. But it can cost £30 from my bank and the one time I did it to Bitstamp it took 5 days to be credited, but that was during a peak.

Which bank are you with? With Barclays my transfers are free and take a day or two to show up on Kraken.

Quote from: gentlemand on March 14, 2018, 11:29:10 AM

Brits need to let go of the Stockholm syndrome of dicking around with EUR, Revolut and Fidor and be jolly that here's an option that'll allow you to deposit and withdraw in the space of a few minutes. No wires, no exchange rates, no third party quasi banks.

It's what the rest of the EU enjoy right now.

Yep, that would make things much easier.

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Quote from: mattcode on March 14, 2018, 08:59:56 AM

There's nothing stopping you from using SEPA from a UK bank account.

Nope. But it can cost £30 from my bank and the one time I did it to Bitstamp it took 5 days to be credited, but that was during a peak.

Brits need to let go of the Stockholm syndrome of dicking around with EUR, Revolut and Fidor and be jolly that here's an option that'll allow you to deposit and withdraw in the space of a few minutes. No wires, no exchange rates, no third party quasi banks.

It's what the rest of the EU enjoy right now.

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Quote from: gentlemand on March 14, 2018, 06:59:27 AM

Quote from: maurobiasolo on March 14, 2018, 06:56:24 AM

why are you surprised? UK, when talking about finance, is the first market. You must consider that London is one of the most preferred locations for worldwide rich men...

Because there are no practical exchanges and there's hardly anywhere to spend it. In mainland EU you can SEPA to Kraken or Bitstamp, Bitonic or Bitcoin.de for free in an hour or two.

There's nothing stopping you from using SEPA from a UK bank account.

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Quote from: maurobiasolo on March 14, 2018, 06:56:24 AM

why are you surprised? UK, when talking about finance, is the first market. You must consider that London is one of the most preferred locations for worldwide rich men...

Because there are no practical exchanges and there's hardly anywhere to spend it. In mainland EU you can SEPA to Kraken or Bitstamp, Bitonic or Bitcoin.de for free in an hour or two.

There are also places like Berlin where you have whole areas infested with Bitcoin. There's nothing like that in the UK. And many EU countries like the Netherlands and Germany have vastly more favourable tax treatments for it too.

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Quote from: gentlemand on March 14, 2018, 06:53:24 AM

https://www.coindesk.com/coinbase-receives-e-money-license-from-u-k-financial-regulator/

A bit more info here. Coinbase will be enabling faster payments which is a first and a huge improvement on the clunky shite you have to go through at present. Elsewhere they've said the UK is their biggest market in Europe by far which surprises me quite a bit.

Quote from: slaman29 on March 14, 2018, 06:53:03 AM

Interesting that you would consider UK a crypto backwater! They have been having several of those "neo banks" all based around UK, several in Ireland and Scotland and mostly in England, at least for two years? I can't remember the name of one but it even launched some ICO last year and was really successful. I guess now Coinbase will no longer be known as an American only exchange. I know Barclays is branched out in many commonwealth countries too, so maybe proxy access to non-UK but Commonwealth nations?

Compared to a place like the US where there are tons of places to shop with it and buy and sell it then yes it is. I'm talking more about action for regular people rather than backroom stuff.

why are you surprised? UK, when talking about finance, is the first market. You must consider that London is one of the most preferred locations for worldwide rich men...

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https://www.coindesk.com/coinbase-receives-e-money-license-from-u-k-financial-regulator/

A bit more info here. Coinbase will be enabling faster payments which is a first and a huge improvement on the clunky shite you have to go through at present. Elsewhere they've said the UK is their biggest market in Europe by far which surprises me quite a bit.

Quote from: slaman29 on March 14, 2018, 06:53:03 AM

Interesting that you would consider UK a crypto backwater! They have been having several of those "neo banks" all based around UK, several in Ireland and Scotland and mostly in England, at least for two years? I can't remember the name of one but it even launched some ICO last year and was really successful. I guess now Coinbase will no longer be known as an American only exchange. I know Barclays is branched out in many commonwealth countries too, so maybe proxy access to non-UK but Commonwealth nations?

Compared to a place like the US where there are tons of places to shop with it and buy and sell it then yes it is. I'm talking more about action for regular people rather than backroom stuff.

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Interesting that you would consider UK a crypto backwater! They have been having several of those "neo banks" all based around UK, several in Ireland and Scotland and mostly in England, at least for two years? I can't remember the name of one but it even launched some ICO last year and was really successful. I guess now Coinbase will no longer be known as an American only exchange. I know Barclays is branched out in many commonwealth countries too, so maybe proxy access to non-UK but Commonwealth nations?

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Quote from: 1Referee on March 13, 2018, 04:58:00 PM

I however have read various articles stating that Barclays alongside HSBC and Llyods was planning to prohibit crypto-credit purchases, but have not heard anything from it again. How has that played out?

I can't speak for HSBC or Lloyds but I've had never had an issue with Barclays after a few years with transactions to various exchanges.

Quote from: gentlemand on March 13, 2018, 05:05:40 PM

I'm not sure what the score is with credit cards at the moment. The fact they still allow you to deposit to gambling sites with them tells you all you need to know about that.

Bittylicious will sell you Bitcoins for credit card payments, I'm not sure if they've ever had any problems.

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Quote from: 1Referee on March 13, 2018, 04:58:00 PM

Not even Coinsbank, which is the largest GBP based exchange? For such a well civilized economy, I expected it to not be a problem at all. Roll Eyes

It's a great thing for UK crypto enthusiasts obviously, but more importantly, it's also a victory for crypto in general. It makes things a whole lot more easy, and thus there is basically no real need for people using Coinbase to use an alternative route. I however have read various articles stating that Barclays alongside HSBC and Llyods was planning to prohibit crypto-credit purchases, but have not heard anything from it again. How has that played out? It's not exactly on the same level, but it would be somewhat contradicting if they allow one thing to take place, but shut down the other aspect, especially if it happens in the way major US banks have been doing it, the hypocrites that they are.

Nope.

They all have to bank in the EU. You have to wire GBP to places like Estonia or Poland.

No business has ever managed to keep a UK bank account. Previous exchanges like Intersango in the deep past got around it by lying to the bank about what they were up to until they were nailed.

Because of this effective ban crypto is a shadow of what it is compared to elsewhere.

I'm not sure what the score is with credit cards at the moment. The fact they still allow you to deposit to gambling sites with them tells you all you need to know about that.

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Quote from: gentlemand on March 13, 2018, 03:55:53 PM

No exchange has ever been able to retain banking in the UK so it's still a crypto backwater largely because of this.

Not even Coinsbank, which is the largest GBP based exchange? For such a well civilized economy, I expected it to not be a problem at all. Roll Eyes

It's a great thing for UK crypto enthusiasts obviously, but more importantly, it's also a victory for crypto in general. It makes things a whole lot more easy, and thus there is basically no real need for people using Coinbase to use an alternative route. I however have read various articles stating that Barclays alongside HSBC and Llyods was planning to prohibit crypto-credit purchases, but have not heard anything from it again. How has that played out? It's not exactly on the same level, but it would be somewhat contradicting if they allow one thing to take place, but shut down the other aspect, especially if it happens in the way major US banks have been doing it, the hypocrites that they are.

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Quote from: gentlemand on March 13, 2018, 03:55:53 PM

According to Zerohedge at least - https://twitter.com/zerohedge/status/973659855767687168

For Brits at least this is a sexy development. No exchange has ever been able to retain banking in the UK so it's still a crypto backwater largely because of this.

This may open up some actual crypto traction in the UK.

This is some nice development. I think we need to see such developments in every single EU28 countries block. If some banks start to become crypto friendly , then we can only expect good things to happen in the crypto world. Coinbase has also in plans to add many more countries than they actually do to buy with credit card and if that plan is implemented we have new nice developments for the crypto world.

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According to Zerohedge at least - https://twitter.com/zerohedge/status/973659855767687168

For Brits at least this is a sexy development. No exchange has ever been able to retain banking in the UK so it's still a crypto backwater largely because of this.

This may open up some actual crypto traction in the UK.

At the moment if you want to cash in or out you're stuck with either P2P or going via foreign bank accounts. And both are far from ideal for any business.

Topic: Coinbase gets UK bank account with Barclays (Read 183 times)