#DeleteCoinbase is gaining traction – Coinbase is getting a lot of heat and is facing growing backlash from its users.
The hashtag is becoming more popular every minute, with users showing proof that they’ve deleted their Coinbase Account, and in one instance, of people paying others to close their Coinbase Account. This is due to the community believing that Coinbase has lost their moral compass after their recent acquisition of Neutrino, a startup.
Neutrino was founded by three former employees of Hacking Team, an Italian surveillance vendor that was caught selling spyware to governments with murky human rights records such as Ethiopia, Saudi Arabia, and Sudan.
Coinbase has responded, saying:
“Coinbase does not condone nor will it defend the actions of Hacking Team,” but “it was important for Coinbase to bring this function in-house to fully control and protect our customers’ data and Neutrino’s technology was the best we encountered in the space to achieve this goal.”
It’s difficult to ascertain how many people have left Coinbase, and whether or not the number will ultimately make a difference in Coinbase’s policies and actions. Coinbase investors have also remained silent on this issue, including Andreesen Horowitz, DFJ Venture Capital, Union Square Ventures, and others.
One person, under the Twitter handle @JpintoPedro, is further incentivizing the movement: “Everyone deleting their #Coinbase account and making proof of it will receive 1000 [satoshis]. respond to this post with the proof of deletion and rejoice sending an invoice for 1000 sats!” @JpintoPedro is using tippin.me, a Twitter crypto tipping app that uses Lightning Network to send small transactions between users.
Jesse Powell, the CEO of Kraken, a competing Cryptocurrency exchange, commented on the case on his personal twitter account, saying:
“Personally, I support any company which has the guts to roll out a transitional workforce development program. If you’re giving an honest paycheck and a second chance to a guy who used to have to sell out journalists to fascist governments to make ends meet, you’re ok by me.”
He was defended by users from an immediate backlash of users who didn’t understand that Powell was using sarcasm.
For those looking to close their accounts, Coinbase, yet again, is making the issue contentious, further fueling the controversy. Many Twitter users have exclaimed how they’re not able to close their accounts, even after completing everything the exchange wants them to do.
The likely culprit is so-called “dust”, popularized by exchanges that use trading fees, dust is the small fractional amounts of cryptocurrency left over from a transaction. Rival Binance popularized the tool to convert dust on its platform to its native token, BNB. It’s likely that the accounts can’t be closed due to the dust that remains on individual’s account.
Udi Wertheimer, a Bitcoin developer and enthusiast, proposed a solution with the name #DeleteCoinbaseTrustChain. His solution? Users could transfer their “dust” to another Coinbase user and then close their account. This is possible because Coinbase allows free transfers between existing accounts.
What do you think? Are you team #DeleteCoinbase or do you think this outrage is unnecessary? Cryptocurrency is all about freeing and liberating the people, but we continue to see more and more instances of efforts towards centralization in this space. What do you think? What do you plan to do? Let us know what you think on our Facebook Page!
