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Comment by toephu2 | Hacker News Reader

I haven't seen a single bitcoin exchange that is stable and trustworthy enough to put your money in (Mt. Gox used to be the biggest and most reputable and we all know how that turned out). Converting from your real currency in to and out of bitcoin is still very difficult. Almost every exchange gets hacked sooner or later or gets shutdown due to government regulations.

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Nowadays there are quite a few extremely reputable and solid exchanges, insured, following all regulations, etc. For example Gemini run by the Winkelvoss twins, and Coinbase/GDAX (a YC-funded company.)

MtGox has never been reputable. It was the biggest, and it worked, but it has always been sketchy. I say this as a MtGox user through 2011-2013. And yeah I stopped using it about a year before it got shut down because other exchanges more reputable than MtGox started appearing and it was more and more obvious MtGox had serious internal issues (delays in processing transactions, one of their bank account seized by the feds in 2013, etc.)

That may be true, but we've come a long way. Coinbase insures all currency they store in online storage, and offline storage is significantly more secure and less hackable. USD in Coinbase accounts is FDIC insured too! It's not perfect, but we've certainly come closer to a safer exchange world.

Coinbase also blocks accounts from buying and refuses explanation. They may be a little safer, but they're still far from reliable.

It's just because Coinbase is being extremely/overly cautious about detecting and fighting fraud. They will refuse to let you buy/sell if your account/documentation is a bit suspicious. And they can't explain you why you were tagged (or else fraudsters would simply ask why and would adjust their operations accordingly.)

That's what happens when an organization is KYC/AML compliant. Legal compliance and customer experience are mutually incompatible in finance.

I personally favor them being overzealous than too lax.

I'm pretty confident Coinbase will still be here in 10 years with no major breach. And I'm also fairly confident that even if there were a major breach, I wouldn't personally lose any Bitcoins or money.

It's pretty easy to transfer your coins to an external wallet, and then spend it as you please.

What do you find unstable or untrustworthy about GDAX or Gemini? They're both American companies with a great deal riding on their reputations as mature platforms, Gemini in particular in light of the ETF.

Gemini hasn't even been around for more than 2 years.. I check bitcoinwatch every now and then, and the biggest exchanges always disappear soon or later. I haven't seen anything (for USD) in that top 10 list for over a year (maybe bitstamp, but still...). Not very promising.

I wont defend the exchanges, but they're exchanges not banks. Keep your bitcoin in your own wallet until you need to convert it another currency.

bitcoin.de seems quite reliable and trustworthy. I bought bitcoins there and also use it as a wallet.

It's generally safer to use your own wallet. Online wallet services are a massive target for would-be thieves, so even if they use better security practices than you would, the risk isn't necessarily lower.

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