March 1, 2019

Product Update — March 1st – The Coinbase Blog

As part of Coinbase’s commitment to prioritizing customer feedback and helping bridge the gap between traditional finance and crypto, our team is focused on constantly updating and improving the Coinbase experience. Here’s a look at what the team has been up to for the past couple months.

Easily convert one cryptocurrency into another

We announced a new feature, Convert, where you can convert one cryptocurrency into another. Instead of selling one cryptocurrency for a fiat currency like USD and then purchasing a different cryptocurrency with that USD, you can simply convert your crypto directly to another crypto in one trade for a significantly lower fee.

Currently customers can convert between Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH), Ethereum Classic (ETC), Litecoin (LTC), 0x (ZRX), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), and XRP (XRP).

Since our initial release of Convert, we’ve launched improvements of it on our iOS app, including the “Convert all” feature for single-click conversion from one asset to another. More improvements are coming soon.

Helping customers navigate crypto taxes

Tax season can be challenging, and we want to help make the process easier. For this tax season, we launched a new resource (https://coinbase.com/bitcoin-taxes) to help you better understand the impact of US taxes on crypto. This update is for everyone — Coinbase customer or not. We also teamed up with TurboTax to provide our customers with a discount on their tax filings.

Earn ZRX, BAT, and ZEC while you learn about them

Last December we announced the first Coinbase Earn experience by giving customers the opportunity to earn ZRX in exchange for learning about the ZRX project. And we didn’t stop there. This past month we launched similar Earn experiences for BAT (the Basic Attention Token) and ZCash. Try them out and put yourself on the waitlist here.

XRP is now available on Coinbase

XRP is the cryptocurrency used by the XRP ledger. XRP aims to be a fast, cost-efficient cryptocurrency that facilitates cross-border payments. XRP can function as a bridge currency in transactions involving different currencies such as US dollars, Japanese yen, Euros, Francs, and others in use on the XRP network.

Introducing the Coinbase affiliate program

We’ve offered a peer-to-peer referral program for some time, allowing customers to refer friends and get $10 of Bitcoin when their referral trades $100 or more on the platform. We saw that a number of “super-referrers” were using their referral codes to recommend Coinbase to their audiences, but the referral program wasn’t optimized for them. That’s why we launched an affiliate program for these customers where they can receive 50% of each referral’s trading fees for their first three months on Coinbase.com.

A few more updates:

We’ve made it easier for customers to get crypto news on the dashboard in the Coinbase app, as well as access information about the top 50 assets by market cap.
We rolled out the ability for customers in the EU to withdraw funds to their PayPal accounts.

As we work to make Coinbase better, we always appreciate feedback. Try out the above features and let us know if you have ideas or suggestions for how to improve the product.

Published at Sat, 02 Mar 2019 00:17:51 +0000

You might be interested in …

August 1, 2018

Unitus + Microfinance: Video Trailer for “Wealth of Opportunity”

Unitus + Microfinance: Video Trailer for “Wealth of Opportunity” More than 2.5 billion people live on less than $2 a day. For millions of families in need, microfinance offers the hope for a successful small […]

July 3, 2017

More Donors Give Bitcoin and Noncash Assets to Charities Than Actual Cash

With bitcoin gaining traction worldwide, charities have been seeing donations of the alternate currency skyrocket in recent years. Its use aims to streamline and cut costs for people trying to fund causes they care about.

Charity Begins…With bitcoin?

As with all new technologies, bitcoin’s rise in both price and adoption rate is causing industries to find niche uses for cryptocurrencies in ways previously unthought of. One of these niches is charitable giving. Charities around the world are able to revolutionize how they can accept funds from patrons willing to support their cause, and many are already moving towards integrating support for Bitcoin in their current systems.

World renowned charities such as the American Red Cross and Save The Children, set up right after the First World War to protect children in warring nations, have been benefiting from bitcoin donations for years, having accepted bitcoin since 2014. Partnering with payment processing companies such as BitPay further legitimizes bitcoin’s effectiveness in this industry and entices other companies to accept it to fund their causes.

According to Fidelity Charitable, a donor-advised fund and the United States’ second-largest grantmaker, people gave a record-breaking $796 million in noncash assets last year. This includes bitcoin as well as other alternate cryptocurrencies (altcoins).

The Benefits of bitcoin-based Giving

Using traditional means of charitable giving, fees and taxes can quickly whittle away much of a donation. This means that only a portion of the giver’s donation will actually go towards their supported charity. Let’s use PayPal as an example. Every time a donor uses PayPal to make a donation, the payment processor automatically takes 2.2% along with a $0.30 fee whenever a donation is made.

So if you were to donate $100 to your favorite cause using PayPal, the charity would actually receive $97.50. That may not sound like a lot from the standpoint of an individual donation, but over the course of hundreds – if not thousands – of donations, it can really add up.

bitcoin solves this problem because there are no payment processing fees associated with donating the cryptocurrency. If you donate 0.25 BTC to a charity, they will receive the full amount of bitcoin.

Another issue with most current donation models is the difficulty of cross-border donations. Generally speaking, a charity is limited to accepting donations in their home currency. This inability to accept donations from other countries can severely limit the pool of potential donors.

The current alternative is using a service to convert your money to the charity’s local currency, however, that incurs its own set of fees and taxes, often to the point where sometimes only half of what you originally gave reaches people in need.

Because bitcoin is classified as an asset by most countries rather than a currency, donations using the cryptocurrency are not restricted by borders. Donors can give using bitcoin and the charities can then convert the donation to their countries’ home currency without paying any currency exchange fees.

bitcoin donations also provide a level of anonymity for anyone who wishes to hide their identity. While this isn’t always wanted, for those who do not want to reveal who they are it allows more options for people looking to make a charitable contribution.

Do you think crypto-payments will take over as the primary form of donations for charities? Let us know in the comments below!

Images courtesy of American Red Cross, AdobeStock

The post More Donors Give Bitcoin and Noncash Assets to Charities Than Actual Cash appeared first on Bitcoinist.com.

November 5, 2018

Ethereum Upcoming hard-Fork Explained Simple (2018)

Ethereum Upcoming hard-Fork Explained Simple (2018) The Ethereum community along with cryptocurrency enthusiasts and cryptomarket players are anticipating a major upgrade of the Ethereum network called Metropolis. This Metropilot upgrade will include 2 parts, 2 […]