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Coinbase Review 2018 – A Glimpse of History

Coinbase was co-founded by Fred Ershaw and Brian Armstrong in June 2012. It launched its bitcoin buying and selling service, which was to be done via bank transfers in October 2012, and over the years it has expanded its services to 32 different countries. Coinbase has investors from several people, banks, and organizations and is in partnership with some. In January 2015, it launched a U.S based exchange called Coinbase exchange. It is a digital assets exchange, and it rebranded to the name Global digital asset exchange (GDAX) in May 2016. It allows users buy and sell bitcoins through credit card, their bank accounts or PayPal accounts (used for selling only) with a wide variety of different fit currency deposit and withdrawal options. (Related reading, see: BITCOIN PRICE PREDICTION (SHOULD YOU INVEST IN BITCOINS-ANSWERED))
5 Features of Coinbase
The following are its features.
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Easy, well designed and intuitive user interface
All digital currency stored on its servers are covered by an insurance policy that if there is a breach of its online storage as a result of employee theft, cyber security or their physical security and there if there are any losses arising thereof, the insurance policy would pay out to cover such losses. It also stores customers’ fiat currencies in segregated custodian bank accounts in case there is an event of insolvency; such funds will be returnable to users. All of its USD wallets are covered by FDIC insurance. (Related reading, see: CEX.IO – SCAM OR NOT? BEST BITCOIN EXCHANGE )
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Mobile wallet
It also operates a mobile wallet that allows users buy and sell bitcoin from their phones by connecting their bank accounts to the wallet after which they can securely access their accounts and send and request bitcoins. This wallet is available for iOS and Android mobile devices.
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Instant exchange
It allows users to send and receive bitcoin and also cash out to their local currencies (for all supported local currencies) thereby protecting users from exchange rate risks.
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Offer full control
Coinbase allows users maintain full control of their private keys.
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Customer support
It offers a phone support service to customers, has an FAQ page on Coinbase website and a support forum. (Related reading, see: LUNO (BITX) BITCOIN EXCHANGE AND WALLET REVIEWED)
3 Controversial Issues – Coinbase Review
As can be seen on their website, they claim to have $40billion in digital currency exchange, support 32 countries and serve 12.2 million customers. Despite all these strong features there have been some controversial issues surrounding them including:
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Frozen/closed accounts

There have been complaints of forced account closures of users accounts because they failed to comply with certain regulations. Coinbase is governed by regulations that prevent money laundering, and so they monitor activities carried out on their platform. They have practices like KYC and AML which people do not agree with especially cryptocurrency investors because one of the reasons why people invested in cryptocurrencies was to maintain the privacy of money transactions.
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Several customer support complaints
There have also been a number of complaints about slow customer responses by Coinbase.
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Reward abuse
There have been complaints of non-payment of rewards to users who completed stated task requirements deserving of awards.
Expert’s Opinion about Coinbase
Before you register with them, consider the fact that your privacy is at stake because your transactions are tracked, so you really do not have complete control of your account. However, you ensured a high level of security especially if you intend to hold large amounts of cryptocurrency on an exchange.

Also, read the well researched following article about top 10 Bitcoin Exchanges review before you go for any exchange.
TOP 10 BITCOIN EXCHANGES (10 OPTIONS REVIEWED)