I don't know if anyone will read this because it's so far down the post and because I'm brand new. But I'd like to share my experience with Xapo and
hopefully it can help those who do get a chance to read this.
I joined Xapo when it first came out, offering their top of the line security. In fact I was directed to them through Moon Bitcoin. I have been so happy and so angry with their service ever since.
It always seems like "Yes this is such a secure and nice interface" then immediately after thinking that I run into something that makes me say, "*&@#!! Xapo what are you doing?!"
IT STARTED when I registered my account and they made me verify my ID and phone number and email and all that, I was impressed. I read through their Terms of Service and I was impressed by their bragging about a guarded vault and all that.
Then I came across problem 1: In the fine print was listed a 12% transaction fee for every deposit and I could not transfer those funds until I had 0.01
BTCARGH! I was a cheap little satoshi miner, hunting down faucets, spending hours collecting those fractions of a cent satoshi, it would take 12%???
However this was solved when they became more popular and a lot more investors invested. The 12% and 0.01BTC limit were dropped and when I asked Xapo about it they denied it ever existing. That's fine with me, as long as it was gone.
Then problem 2: The site was almost Too secure. Before they had an app with 2nd auth generator, they sent texts (still do if you don't have the app) Well I had since switched phones and had no way of retrieving that number back, and they would only use text messages, oops! It took 6 and a half weeks before support got back to me ( was this a one man show?? ) and finally had me go through the verification process with my ID, email and new phone number.
Finally problem 3 and what causes my most concern: Xapo never gives out a users ACTUAL bitcoin address, that (I assume) is kept in their al capone vault of bits, never cresting the horizon of the internet so that it could never be stolen. Instead they use temporary addresses to link the funds to your account OR if businesses and sites have their api incorporated, they use your email. Smart and very secure! Right? They claim "
Your address will change with each transaction received, but you'll still receive all payments sent to your previous addresses!"
I have since found this out to be incorrect. Old addresses stop working or won't keep a persistent link to your Xapo account. SO WHERE DO THE FUNDS GO??? They sit, they veg, they go to die because only Xapo has that private key and once you use a new temporary address they generate then the funds transferred to the previous addresses go no where. How do I know this, because when you use faucets or you set up a miner, you need to have a persistent address, you can't change it every time you get paid, so I kept one of my temporary addresses ( more recently 33znW1rSxi2ngXcBNReT4KExCaJDg9GPXB ) and wallah... the only transaction that every went through was from a faucet about a month ago, the rest get transferred there and sit and sit and sit. you can watch the funds here (
https://blockchain.info/address/33znW1rSxi2ngXcBNReT4KExCaJDg9GPXB ) however I have since stopped using that address.
Xapo is great, honestly, but just be careful with how you use their service because the support is very very limited. Any really important transactions use a cold storage wallet where you are the only owner of the private key.
Alright I'm done with the feedback.
