Quote from: Mr. Socko on February 04, 2014, 03:00:09 PM

Quote from: adeojo on February 04, 2014, 02:50:20 PM

Thank you all. As explained earlier I have a strong pw 2fa auth and use same machine
that I use for all my bank transactions( I have never lost a penny at the bank)
In a space of one minute there were three ransactions on my account
one was flagged as fraudulent (by coinbase). One is still pending and the coins are still
missing
Clearly it is suspect that the transactions that happened within that minute are also
Fraudulent. All I assure you this is coinbase issue. Please do not keep your coins with them
Since this happened I have come accross other posts that shows problems with coin base.
I have tried to contact them- no lock. I have left my phone nos with them no one is calling me back
What are they hiding? If any one knows how I canreach them please post.

well thanks for the warning regardless. I added by bank account but did not yet verify the account with their 2 small transactions so I'll give everything a good look over before I decide anything.

Quote from: cr1776 on February 04, 2014, 02:57:17 PM

I have had friends buy a few coins through coinbase and never had an issue - I did show them how to create a paper wallet and move them immediately to cold storage so that nothing is stored there. As the saying goes, if you don't have the private keys, then you don't own the coins. Just like at a regular bank, your money is only a bookkeeping entry until you are holding it.

that is a unique feature of bitcoin. It would be interesting if there was a way to 'back up' a bank account balance independently from the bank's control but I suppose the FDIC insurance wouldn't apply then. I don't think anything will happen that will cause people to lose their money outside of a hyper-inflationary explosion in which any number of investment vehicles including bitcoin could be handy. Still I love the paper wallet idea.. wealth in the palm of my hand, good as cash, yet able to back it up unlike cash.

I agree about if a hyper-inflationary explosion occurred a variety of assets would be useful. Paper wallets are good if properly protected or encrypted.

Anyway, if you had asked the people of Cyprus in January 2013 if their money in their banks was safe, they probably would have given a similar answer regarding the only risk being hyper-inflation. The risks may not be high, but it is there.

Check this article from PBS (notably, pretty government friendly) on Jan 30, 2014 about a Harvard Economics professor who withdrew all his money from Bank of America:

Quote

Is your money safe at the bank? An economist says no and withdraws his
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/making-sense/is-your-money-safe-at-the-bank-an-economist-says-no-and-withdraws-his/