Detailed Coinbase Exchange Review

Sign up process & requirements

In order to join the Coinbase Exchange, you must be at least 13 years of age, and if you wish to deposit, withdraw or trade funds, you must be 18 with a bank account and bank issued debit card.

Signing up to the Coinbase Exchange was fairly straight forward. Users are required to enter an email address, a password and the state in which they live. That was it as far as signing up goes. Once that info is submitted, users will receive the expected email in order to complete the verification step.

Email verification

The email to verify the account will arrive immediately and with the click of a button, the email will be verified.

Upon successful emsail verification, you will be directed to the user agreement, which was prefaced with a State specific clause regarding the volatility of digital currencies and the risks involved, as well as a statement that lets you know that digital currencies, such as Bitcoin are not backed by the US government.

Agree to terms

The terms, which appeared on par with what one would expect from a financial exchange were straightforward. After reading, click the “I Agree” button. This will take you to the Dashboard area, which will have a lot of information and further initial sign-up tasks that need to be completed.

Profile/Account completion

Under a section labeled, “Complete Your Account”, it had “Verify Email Address” checked off of the list of three items. The next item on the list, “Add A Payment Method.”, along with the last item, “Add Your Phone Number”, remained unchecked and in need of attention.

Mobile phone verification

By clicking through to verify the phone number you wish to use, you will be asked to enter the digits, and then will receive a text message immediately, enter the code they send and another item will be checked off of your list.

Account funding

The next item was to add a funding method and you are given the choice of bank account or credit/debit card. The bank account option had a promise of higher limits with a timeframe of 4-5 days for the funding to occur and the credit/debit card option lets you know that you would have lower limits, but would enjoy instant buying power. You are also given the option to skip the step entirely for now.

Bank accounts/debit & credit cards

Adding a bank account will give you the option to verify your bank account instantly. All of the major US banks are represented on the page, with a link at the bottom in case the bank you want to verify with was not listed.

If it so happens that your bank is not on the main list, choose the “Other Bank” option. You will be taken to the page to do an old school verification and asked to enter your bank account’s routing and account numbers, along with your full name. After the information was successfully added, they promise to make 2 small deposits in the next 2 to 3 days and then you can enter those amounts to verify account ownership.

Id verification/weekly limits

At this point, you should be able to start the process of adding funds. However, to enable the US wallet, you must verify your identity. you will have to enter your name, full mailing address, last 4 digits of your social security number, employment info and what you plan to use the Coinbase Exchange for (i.e. trading, investing, business, buying/selling). If you enter the required info, you should be instantly verified.

After the Successful verification method, you will be taken to the weekly limits page. This page show the weekly limits for buying and selling for each of the following:

Buy Limits:

USD Wallet: $10,000.00    |    Bank Account:
$50.00    |    Credit/Debit Card: $15.00

Sell Limits:

“The combined amount of all your sell-enabled payment methods”

And each of the three methods have a disclaimer saying that you could upload your ID to increase these limits. Upon clicking the upload ID link, you will be taken to another verification page that tells you to have your ID ready and displays the “NETVERIFY” logo. Simply get your ID out and click the button to begin the process.

Identity verification

You have choices between “Identity Card” and “Driver License”, Choose the appropriate for of ID, which you are then asked to upload a jpg or png image file that shows the front of the Identification Card. Snap a pic using your phone, take one of the back too, just in case and uploaded them to your computer.

The page then displays a spinning icon and tells you not to close the browser until it was completed. It took approximately 2 minutes for the process to complete. You may have to retry 3 times before it will read your ID using the OCR technology. This process is then repeated with the back of the ID card, which only took once and then you will be fully verified. The weekly limit amount increase will not be immediately shown to you and this can be different for each person.

Limits increased/depositing

It takes about 5-7 minutes before most people will see the limit increase on their account. The amount your limits get set at is based solely on the Coinbase Exchange’s decisions and there is no set method for making the determination. Most users are given the ability to load $100/week using a debit/credit card and $500 per week via bank deposit. The promise of increased limits after time/activity levels is mentioned in several places.

Once verified and all leveled up for the time being, you may initiate deposits; via bank deposit and via debit card. If fully verified, the money loaded from your debit card or credit card, up to $100 should be instantly available to spend in your USD wallet and you will receive notification that the bank deposit has been initiated and that it could take up to 5 days for it to fully process.

Buying Bitcoin/Fees through the Coinbase Exchange

To use your USD funds to buy Bitcoin, head over to the Buy/Sell area, and place an order for the amount ofBitcoin you wish to buy. Bitcoin’s trading amount when we did this was at $1,029.23, and the Coinbase Exchange fee was roughly 6.5% for the transaction.

Web Interface/Usability features

Coinbase exchange dashboard

Coinbase exchange: privacy/legal

The legal page and privacy policy are the standard policies found within the industry, the home page is self-explanatory, next is the career page. For detailed info on what careers are available and what the Coinbase Exchange has to offer, check out their hiring page, you can view all current openings by Clicking Here.

Carres at Coinabse exchange

The quick version is that there are a good number of job openings as of the time of this review, although you have to live in or be able to commute to San Francisco to work. They list some pretty decent fringe benefits and also allow coders to take an aptitude test to see if they have what it takes and you can even find a few friends (two or more total people), and apply as a team.

Allowed countries

Next up is the Supported Countries page, where it lists the name of the country, sorted by continent and if the users from those nations can buy and if they can sell along with the available deposit methods for each. With the exception of only a couple, almost all countries could use bank accounts or 3D secured debit/credit cards. United States Users had the additional option of using their PayPal accounts, as well. The full list of allowed countries can be found at

Supported Countries.

Press/media

The Press/Media page has the expected material; Links and summaries of news stories or mentions of theCoinbase Exchange on 3rd party sites and then their own media section for releasing info to the press.

About the system metrics used on Coinbase exchange

The About page is something that you would not expect normally, at least not on an “About” page of a website. It lists every single service they offer (i.e.; Coinbase Exchange website, the API, Individual Payment methods, Bitcoin, Litecoin and Ethereum), as well as the community and even customer service and lets you know the status of each one. So, if something is down or there is planned maintenance on a certain area, this page will tell you about it and keep you updated in real time as to the status.

Below this, they list the system metrics, showing charts to represent the Coinbase Exchange’s load time, The GDAX response time and a daily breakdown of past incidents stretching back 2 weeks. Currently, there are 2 issues within the past two weeks; delayed bitcoin transfers, which is marked as resolved and the given reason was “network congestion” and 5 days earlier, a database Upgrade was done that lasted just under two hours.

Advanced & extra features

Rerferal program

The Coinbase Exchange has a referral program. It works fairly simple: refer a friend by giving them a link that is coded to your account, and when they join the Coinbase Exchange and buy or sell $100 worth of Bitcoin, you both get $10.00 added to your accounts instantly. They provide you with the link and a way to post it directly to Facebook, Twitter or email it to people you know. You can also simply copy/paste the code into your own web page or community page of your choosing.

The vault

The BTC vault feature allows you to store your Bitcoin in a wallet with enhanced security. Withdrawing from your vault requires conformation from two separate email addresses and allows you to add co-signors to the account for approving withdrawals if you wish. Each withdrawal is also secured by a 48-hour window in which the withdrawal request is put into the system and then held to ensure authorization and it is able to be cancelled at any time within that period.

The first step was to name the vault. It allows you to give it any alphanumeric name you want. Then you are given the option of signing off on withdrawals yourself, or authorizing others to co-sign the withdrawals by way of an email invite. The next step was to choose whether or not to let Coinbase manage the vault security (Recommended)/(involves storing your own multisig access keys). It is a good idea to choose to let Coinbase handle the security. Since every withdrawal needs to be approved by two email addresses, wou will have to add an additional email address. If you choose the group management option, you can choose a person you trust to provide the second authorization via email. Once you add the secondary email address, they will have to verify it.

Once approved, it shows all of the pertinent information, which should be copied in case you ever lose access. To withdraw funds from the vault, there is a 48-hour delay for added security and the withdrawal can be cancelled at any time during that 48-hour period if needed.

Tools

The tools page offers users a few different tools to utilize as needed. First, they have your address page, which lists every address ever used by you. Once you generate a new address, it is your forever. It is the address you send from and receive to and it can be reused if you want.

Next, they have the recurring transaction page, which allows you to set-up recurring payments and even schedule payments to occur at specific points in the future. They have the ever present history page, which shows you the history of your activity and then they have a reports page, which allows you to generate reports based on the metrics you need.

There are 7 options for type of report to generate. Transaction History report, merchant order history, Merchant order mispayments, merchant subscriptions, Buy, Sells and merchant payouts, Cost basis for taxes and referrals history. Each report can be displayed per wallet/account and you can choose a variety of different options for the timeframe. There are also options to regularly run the report at set intervals and it supports advanced features, such as callbacks (FIFO and LIFO).

Coinbase exchange’s help/community/news features

Coinbase Exchange has a community hub page, a blog, Press/media page, About the company page, info on supported countries, merchant tools, a GDAX page and a developer’s platform.

Blog

The blog and community page, along with the support page is a giant wiki type area that gives users everything from tips on securing your wallets and being safe when transacting in digital currencies, to tips for how to invest your money wisely. There are news stories that would interest any Bitcoin, Ethereum or Litecoin enthusiast and plenty of instructional guides that cover just about every topic in the digital currency realm.

Community

In the community specific area, users can post questions and other members can answer in a Bulletin Board styled format, as well as choosing the full forum for tons more topics that users create and respond to. There are 8 main categories in the forum, each with a few sticky threads and tons of posts. The Category named Coinbase is broken down into 7 subtopics which cover the main points of the website (i.e.; Mobile app, Buying and selling, transactions, ID verification, 2FA, payment methods and the vault).

Coinbase exchange support

And if for some reason all of that still is not enough to answer your questions, you can head to the support page, which is a very comprehensive and hugely extensive knowledge base, complete with FAQ’s, articles, how to guides and then even a way to contact support directly.

There is seriously no reason that any Coinbase Exchange user should ever be lost while looking for the answer to a question. They cover their bases very well and it is by far one of the best community/staff hybrid knowledge base set-ups on the web today.

Advanced/tech/developers

Since this review focuses on the exchange itself, there will only be a brief comment on the dev platform. It is a fully packed and feature rich area that anyone needing API access from an exchange would do a lot worse than Coinbase. Fully featured app building or the ability to add their API into your existing app is right at the experienced developer’s fingertips. It is a must for any developer who needs a digital currency market solution.

Merchant tools

The Merchant tools section opens up a whole new area for those who would like to accept Bitcoin, Ethereum or Litecoin as forms of payment on their website.

GDAX exchange

Next, is the GDAX platform page. For those that do not know, GDAX is Coinbase’s API Trading platform that is backed by The New York Stock Exchange, Andreessen Horowitz and 7 Union Square Ventures to name a few. This is a tool for serious trading needs. Accounts are FDIC Insured up to $250,000. That is right, Bitcoin that is FDIC Insured!

Ultimately, GDAX allows flexible API trading, flexible order entries, streaming, real-time market data and comprehensive account history and reporting tools for those in the financial industry. It does require a separate account, as it is separate from the Coinbase Exchange, even though they are the ones who run and operate it.

Coinbase exchange business information & contact

• Coinbase Exchange was formed as a corporation in 2012 in the state of Delaware, USA.
• The CEO and Founder of the Coinbase Exchange is Mr. Brian Armstrong.
• Their main offices and corporate headquarters are located at:

Coinbase Exchange
548 Market Street
Suite 23008
San Francisco, CA 94104
United States
Email: support@coinbase.com
Phone: 800-343-5845
Website: www.coinbase.com

Conclusion/summary

Overall, the Coinbase Exchange is a well-respected exchange for trading in Bitcoin and/or Ethereum. They are federally regulated and licensed and are backed by some huge names in the financial world. They provide innovate solutions and are on the front lines of Bitcoin Pioneering and all that is currently happening in the world today involving digital currencies and blockchain technology.

They provide users of their exchange the information to be well informed and give everyone the ability to utilize all of their tools and services, no matter the experience level of the user. Anyone, from a first time Bitcoin user to a well-seasoned vet can find the perfect level of community conversations and information to make their individual experiences using the exchange a pleasant and rewarding one.