By now everyone paying attention to the crypto currency markets knows that Coinbase is playing some serious games. It has been pointed out by many people between Reddit and Twitter, the Bitcoin copy Bitcoin Cash (B trash) began to pump hours before the Coinbase made the surprise announcement they were releasing customer owned Bitcoin Cash that was locked inside their system since the B trash fork. The surprise wasn't the release of the B trash but the sudden decision long after they made it clear to their customers that the tokens would not be released until January 1st 2018. So all of us should be demanding an answer to the question "Why the change in your stated road map?" And as the previously stated position was that customers would not receive their B Trash until January 1st, "do you not recognize that this constitute fraud by deception?" Is this company so grossly incompetent to have made such a blatantly dishonest choice and open the door to legal action? or do they have an actual motive? Do they not recognize this action will have consequences across the whole space of crypto and give further incentive to competitors?
In the wake of this malicious or irresponsible action nearly everyone I've guided into the crypto space has asked me about alternatives to Coinbase. While I do not support the use of any particular exchange, I've had to point them to a few competitors such as kraken.com, gemini.com, and bitstamp.net, but these too are suffering from their own limitations. The massive influx of new customers into these alternative exchanges should serve as a dire warning to Coinbase. Clearly, their days at the top are numbered. With companies like Square promising the addition of Bitcoin services, soon Coinbase may by their disregard for customer demands for stronger technologies, go the way of Myspace. And good riddance, I'm looking forward to a time when Coinbase is a brand and logo tossed into the pile of other failed companies that grew complacent and refused to cater to their customers and the demands of evolving technologies. One day we may look back at Coinbase and point directly to 12/21/2017 as the beginning of their end. I do not wish the failure of the company, but like Kodak and Blockbuster, their unwillingness to provide customers the services they want (segwit support for example), will inevitably kill them.
Adding to their lack of adopting customer requested innovation (like segwit), lack of user friendly information within the Coinbase interface, blatant LIES and dishonest alt-coin promotion tactics, and other problems, they throw gas on the fire and pull this Bitcoin Cash stunt. For me, THIS is the camels last straw. I'm not boycotting Coinbase entirely just yet, as they still owe me my Bitcoin Gold. But once they get their shit together and pay out what they owe, I will be closing my account with them and taking all of my crypto business to their competitors. And as of yesterday, I've stopped pointing my friends and family to Coinbase for their Bitcoin purchasing needs. This is not to say I endorse their competitors, but that I cannot support a company that has acted in such an underhanded way.
As for the very likely claims of insider trading, I cannot realistically see any way to avoid this. Whenever any exchange adds a new token, there is bound to be leaks and some level of profiteering among those in the know... I have no idea how to stop this nor how to correct this problem, other than request some sort of publication of intent from the exchange long before they add the tokens, some sort of fine/fee punishment system imposed on the exchange for NOT publicizing their intentions of adding a new token. Perhaps this is where regulators may see opportunity to step in and take some sort of action in this new space. They could enforce a thirty day publication announcement that requires an exchange to publish their intent to add a token thirty days beforehand. But again, this cannot stop the power of insider trading to capitalize on the inevitable pump that would result from such a publication. This is a tough problem to solve and I'm not really sure regulations would help at all...
I'd have to ask that Coinbase competitors learn from Coinbase and avoid making such mistakes. Do your best to remain honest with your customers and do NOT pull stunts like the Coinbase BTrash fiasco. If you say you are going to do something on a particular day, do NOT suddenly change the plan without prior announcements.
END RANT.