coinbase

[coinbase]

Our blog has moved!

Please visit our new blog at https://blog.coinbase.com/

Thank you!

[coinbase]

New Coinbase Support Center

As part of our effort to provide world class support, we’re happy to present the re-designed Coinbase Support Center. 

Although we strive to make Coinbase easy to use, we understand that sometimes things do not work as expected or may be confusing. The Coinbase Support Center is a great place to help resolve those issues. You can:

Report a bug

Ask a question

Send us feedback

Message us on Live Chat

Create a Coinbase Community post

Peruse our robust knowledge base

We'd love to get your feedback on how you prefer to get in touch with us as Bitcoin continues to grow. Please drop by our Community and voice your opinion - we're listening!

[coinbase]

BitLicense: Part Two

In our comment to the draft BitLicense last summer, we proposed changes intended to encourage a more efficient and effective regulatory structure for virtual currency businesses operating in New York. In December, the Department of Financial Services (DFS) released its revised BitLicense, which, to DFS’s well-deserved credit, accepted many of the industry’s proposed comments. But despite its improvement, the BitLicense retains two fundamental design flaws.

First, the BitLicense unnecessarily duplicates federal anti-money laundering (AML) obligations.

Federal guidance requires virtual currency exchanges (among others) to register as Money Service Businesses (MSBs) and establish risk-based AML policies in accordance with federal law. DFS should treat such businesses in the same manner it treats licensed money transmitters and simply require them to comply with existing federal law. Instead, DFS has proposed its own sweeping AML regime that requires licensees to: (i) collect the identity and physical address of any parties to a virtual currency transaction, (ii) file state-mandated activity reporting on a 24-hour deadline, and (iii) verify the identity of any customer who establishes an account, among many other requirements. Although (i) and (iii) are conditioned with vague “practicality” caveats, these requirements would appear to eliminate opportunities to establish a reasonable risk-based approach to AML programs. The result would indiscriminately force all Coinbase customers in New York to pay a toll, vis-a-vis aggressive personal disclosure and verification procedures, as a prerequisite to establishing a Coinbase account. In imposing recordkeeping and verification requirements not supported through the Bitcoin Protocol and which go far beyond what is required of money transmitters under New York or federal law, the draft Bitlicense would effectively force licensees to operate closed, proprietary virtual currency networks, thus quietly eliminating the greatest feature of the Bitcoin Protocol: its global open access.  

Second, the BitLicense unnecessarily duplicates New York’s own money transmission regulations.

As we understand it, virtual currency businesses engaging in money transmission in New York will need to acquire both a money transmission license and a BitLicense. We won’t spill more ink describing the redundancies of this dual-track construct--you can read more about them in our original comment--but as we’ve stated before, the DFS can eliminate this duplicity, inefficiency, redundancies, and ambiguity  by simply amending its money transmission regulations to add definitions for Virtual Currency and Virtual Currency Business Activity. We hope to continue working with DFS to assist in proposing appropriate, targeted amendments to existing laws or regulations which will work for the virtual currency industry.

To conclude, we understand that businesses entrusted to safe keep and transfer virtual currency on behalf of others hold special responsibilities that DFS may wish to address through a form of regulation more akin to financial services regulation than to light-touch technology regulation. But there is no need to hold virtual currency businesses to standards which far exceed those applied to money transmitters under existing state or federal law. We believe existing regulations, appropriately tweaked, give regulators the tools they need to usher fresh technology and long-overdue innovation into the well-established financial space.  

We will continue to work with DFS to provide residents of New York with the same access to useful technologies and services we provide to people all around the world.

[coinbase]

Same-Day Wire Deposits Now Available

We’re constantly looking for ways to make it easier to buy bitcoin. As part of that effort we’re excited to announce that users can now fund their Coinbase Wallet and Exchange accounts via bank wire transfer. Even better, those funds will often be available in less than an hour if sent before 3:30pm PT for most banks.

To activate the wire deposit option, simply complete level 3 verification. For now, only users in approved US states with a US bank account can use the wire deposit feature.

If you have any questions, our support team is happy to assist. You can reach us through the Coinbase Community or at Support.

[coinbase]

Announcing the Coinbase Developer Sandbox

We’re excited to announce the launch of Coinbase Sandbox, a dedicated test environment where merchants and developers can easily and safely test bitcoin functionality.

The Coinbase Sandbox runs on testnet3, an alternate blockchain specifically designed for testing Bitcoin functionality. It does not require the use of live Coinbase accounts or real bitcoin. Testnet bitcoin have no monetary value and are used for testing purposes only.

The Coinbase Sandbox API looks, feels, and behaves just like the actual Coinbase API, delivering an accurate and representative test environment. For more detailed information about Sandbox functionality, please visit our developer blog.

To get started, simply sign up for a Coinbase Sandbox account account and begin testing.

[coinbase]

Dell Expands Bitcoin Acceptance to UK and Canada

Last summer, we partnered with Dell to bring bitcoin payments to Dell’s customers in the United States. With nearly $60 billion in annual sales, the announcement made Dell the largest ecommerce company to officially accept bitcoin at the time.

Today, we’re excited to share that we’re working with Dell to expand bitcoin as a payment option for Dell’s customers in the United Kingdom and Canada, making Dell the largest merchant to accept bitcoin internationally.

We are pleased to partner with Dell once again as we expand bitcoin acceptance worldwide. For more information on the integration, visit http://www.dell.com/bitcoin.

[coinbase]

OAuth Apps on Coinbase

Do you want to send small amounts of bitcoin to friends across the web? Buy and sell things globally with your mobile device? Collect tips on Twitch for great content? You’re in luck - there’s a Coinbase app for that. 

There is a growing array of applications built with the Coinbase API that enable you to do things that weren’t possible before Bitcoin. As a Coinbase user, you can benefit from the innovation happening in the Bitcoin world by securely connecting your Coinbase account to third party applications with the OAuth2 protocol.

Here’s a few of the most exciting apps that are currently using the Coinbase API:

ChangeTip allows you to send micropayments frictionlessly across the web. It’s a great way to show love for a comment on Reddit or introduce a friend to bitcoin on Twitter. ChangeTip allows you to link your Coinbase account and then seamlessly deposit funds within the ChangeTip user interface.

Gliph offers an easy way to buy and sell things using bitcoin. Create a listing, communicate with interested buyers, and sell your items using Gliph’s iPhone, Android or desktop apps. Gliph makes global e-commerce simple on mobile by allowing you to link your Coinbase account and start sending and receiving payments within the application.

Streamtip allows Twitch streamers to collect tips. Streamtip has over 200,000 users across the world who actively stream videos on Twitch and receive tips. Streamtip users are increasingly recognizing that connecting a Coinbase account is a great way to receive tips from a global audience.

For a broad list of Coinbase-enabled apps, visit our app gallery. If you’re a developer looking to build your own app using the Coinbase API, you can get started here.

[coinbase]

Coinbase Mobile Apps Go International

Today, we are excited to announce that Coinbase Android and iOS apps are now available in 11 new languages.

Our mission is to make bitcoin easy to use for people across the world. As a step towards that, we have added support for the following languages:

Spanish

French

German

Italian

Russian

Portuguese

Japanese

Korean

Chinese Traditional

Chinese Simplified

Bits Support

In addition to localizing our apps, we have also added support for bits as a unit of bitcoin currency on mobile. On both the iOS and Android apps, our users can set their preferred bitcoin currency unit by going to the settings page and selecting the “Bitcoin units” option.

Tablet Support for Android

To provide the best possible user experience on all devices, we have also optimized our Android app for tablets. Our iOS users should expect a tablet optimized experience soon.

Install The App

To try out the apps in your preferred language please visit:

Install Coinbase for Android

Install Coinbase for iOS

Let us know what you think and what you would like to see in future versions at support@coinbase.com or on Twitter. We'd love to hear your feedback.

[coinbase]

Coinbase Expands Bitcoin Buy/Sell Functionality to Czech Republic, Hungary, Bulgaria, Norway and Croatia

Today we’re excited to announce support for bitcoin buy and sell functionality in the following 5 countries: Czech Republic, Hungary, Bulgaria, Norway and Croatia. Users in these countries can now link their bank account via SEPA and easily buy and sell bitcoin with euros.

Coinbase buy and sell functionality is available in 24 countries worldwide. If we don't yet support your country, sign up on our global page to be notified when we add it.

[coinbase]

Shutting Down the Coinbase Tip Button

Today we’re announcing that we’ve decided to shut down our bitcoin Tip Button. The project has seen some good usage since we launched it, with about 10,000 users accepting bitcoin tips across a variety of websites.

However, another excellent tipping service in the bitcoin community, ChangeTip, has gotten some even better traction, and done a great job at pushing the tipping ecosystem forward. So today we’d like to show our support for them and encourage existing users of our tip button to migrate over to ChangeTip.

At Coinbase, we view our core business as providing bitcoin infrastructure (secure APIs for bitcoin storage, exchange, wallets, and merchant tools). ChangeTip is an excellent example of a company which uses our APIs, and we’d like to support them instead of competing with them. Our goal is to have a thriving ecosystem of many companies in the bitcoin space building innovative applications like this.

We will be helping customers migrate to ChangeTip over the coming weeks and our Tip Button will be officially shut down on April 1st.

[coinbase]

Introducing Coinbase Google Now Cards

We’re pleased to announce our latest partnership with Google: beginning next week, some users of the Google app on Android will be able to receive Now cards from Coinbase.

Google Now will begin enabling users of Coinbase’s app to seamlessly receive notifications on Android mobile devices.  These notifications, which will appear as a Now card on your device, will provide you with timely updates, like bitcoin price changes, the delivery of bitcoin to your Coinbase wallet, and other transaction information.  The functionality will be rolling out to all Android users over the next few weeks.

Here’s an example of a notification you can receive from Coinbase via Google Now:  

To try it out, simply tap the Google app icon or swipe up on your Android device’s home button. For more details on Google Now, click here.  

[coinbase]

Introducing Coinbase Community

Today we’re announcing the launch of Coinbase Community, a discussion site for Coinbase customers. With this site we hope to generate a knowledge base where our customers can help out one another and also have closer communication with Coinbase employees.

Who is the Coinbase Community site for?

For Consumers: What features would you like to see in your bitcoin wallet? What bug has been annoying you for months? We would love to hear from you how we can be serving you better.

For Merchants: How are you thinking about accepting bitcoin payments? How have you integrated Coinbase into your business? Let us know what is working well and what isn't.

For Developers: Are you trying to integrate bitcoin into a product or service? Get your API questions answered by other developers, and discuss strategies for launching your app on the largest bitcoin API platform.

Coinbase Community is running on modern forum software powered by Discourse.org, which means it has lots of helpful features like nested conversations, up-voting, and mobile support that make it easy to use. We’ve also integrated our tip button in case you see an especially helpful post!

If you have a Coinbase account, you already have a Coinbase Community account - just click here to get started!

[coinbase]

Coinbase Launches First Regulated Bitcoin Exchange in the U.S.

We’re happy to announce Coinbase Exchange, the first regulated bitcoin exchange based in the U.S. With this launch our goal is to bring increased stability to the bitcoin ecosystem.

Coinbase Exchange provides a reliable and secure platform for bitcoin trading that is backed by investors such as the New York Stock Exchange. If you are a Coinbase user in one of the 24 supported U.S. states or territories you can begin trading immediately on Coinbase Exchange. There will be no trading fees through March 30th, after which we will move to a maker-taker model. If you don’t already have a Coinbase account, you can sign up for one here.

We believe Coinbase Exchange will bring stability and trust to the exchange space and are excited that large institutions like the Trading Division of SecondMarket are already trading on the platform. To get started, check out exchange.coinbase.com.

[coinbase]

Braintree Opens Private Beta to Accept Bitcoin

After working closely with Braintree over the past few months, we are excited to announce that Braintree has opened up private beta access to accept bitcoin for all of its U.S.-based merchants. Braintree merchants can now accept bitcoin by creating a Coinbase account and adding a few lines of code to their existing Braintree v.zero integration. 

           We’re excited to continue working with Braintree to bring the benefits of Bitcoin to merchants and consumers around the world. If you are a merchant interested in joining the private beta, email us at merchants@coinbase.com.

[coinbase]

Coinbase Raises $75M from DFJ Growth, USAA, NYSE, and More

Today we are pleased to announce that Coinbase has raised $75 million in Series C financing, the largest funding round to date for a Bitcoin company. This brings our total capital raised to $106 million.

The round was led by DFJ Growth, with participation from our existing investors, including Andreessen Horowitz, Union Square Ventures, and Ribbit Capital.

Three of the world’s most respected financial institutions – The New York Stock Exchange, a subsidiary of USAA, and BBVA (a large multinational bank) also invested in the round alongside personal investments from former Citigroup CEO Vikram Pandit and former Thomson Reuters CEO Tom Glocer. This marks the first time that financial institutions have made a major investment in a Bitcoin company.

The round saw participation from a number of other strategic partners who will accelerate our international expansion, including DoCoMo Capital, a division of Japan’s largest mobile telecommunications operator.

Today’s fundraise gives us solid growth capital to continue driving mainstream, global adoption of Bitcoin. We are honored to be joined by such a prestigious group of investors and remain focused on helping Bitcoin continue to grow in 2015 and beyond.

[coinbase]

USD Wallets In 7 More States

We are pleased to announce that USD Wallets are now available in 7 additional states, for a total of 22 states and 1 US territory.

The newly available states are:

Alabama (AL)

Iowa (IA)

Kansas (KS)

Mississippi (MS)

New Hampshire (NH)

New York (NY)

North Dakota (ND)

Users in these states with a verified identity will now be able to deposit US dollars directly onto Coinbase. Those dollars can be used to fund buys and sells instantly, with zero transfer delay.

Over time, we will continue to grow this list and provide USD Wallets to more users.

Try it

If you live in a supported state and have a verified identity, your USD Wallet will be automatically enabled. Sign in and give it a try!

[coinbase]

Coinbase Launches Redesigned iOS and Android Apps

Today we’re announcing a redesigned version of our mobile apps for iOS and Android. These mobile apps have been rebuilt from the ground up, taking advantage of the latest versions of iOS and Android to create the best possible mobile wallet experience for our users. With these sleek and simple apps, you can now:

Instantly buy and sell bitcoin in 19 countries

Send and request money by bitcoin address, email, and QR code

Shop with merchants who accept bitcoin

View your balance, transaction history and transaction details for multiple accounts

Securely and conveniently access your Coinbase account on the go

Security

We’ve added a variety of new security features to these apps, including:

Support for TouchID on iOS

Support for 1Password if you store your passwords with their service

If your device is lost or stolen you can revoke the app’s access from coinbase.com

Enhanced PIN lock functionality

Install The App

To try out the new apps click a link below:

Install Coinbase for Android

Install Coinbase for iOS

We would love to hear your feedback! Let us know what you think of our apps and what you would like to see in future versions at support@coinbase.com or on Twitter.