Finally, the biggest downside with Circle is that you can't ever withdraw bitcoins from it (although you can deposit bitcoins into it). This essentially means that Circle is always going to "hold" your bitcoins which means you will have to trust them. Yes, I know I've heard they are insured but I do not see the FDIC logo anywhere on their site, and that is the only insurance that means anything. Plenty of other fraudulent companies have said "trust us" and then they either they ran away with the money or the bitcoins were mysteriously "stolen". Why should I trust Circle, then? With Coinbase I can buy coins and then immediately send them to my wallet, only sending them back to Coinbase when I want to sell. I prefer that much more.
? You can send bitcoin to any bitcoin address..
That would be the biggest problem with Circle by far if that is the case. Does anyone know?
I know some people have mentioned them perhaps using fractional reserve banking strategies. If they indeed to not allow for the withdrawal of coins then that is further proof that they are perhaps doing that. I would stay away from them if that is the case.
ok, I figured out how to withdraw. But it wasn't obvious. I'm not sure why the "withdraw" option doesn't let you do but you can send bitcoins to yourself. It is probably because Circle wants to be thought of as a bank account where your fiat is held as bitcoins, while Coinbase is an exchange that let's you have a bitcoin wallet.
Yes, it is exactly the same thing. It's just marketing.
Still, all the other problems with Circle still stand. Until they let you deal with reasonable amounts of money, I'll still prefer Coinbase.