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Why does it take so long for my purchased Bitcoins to enter my wallet?
I bought my BTC on the 20th, and you told me I wouldn't get my BTC until the 26th because that's "when the bank transfer is completed." However, my bank statement says the transfer was finalized on the 21st.
I'm rather uncomfortable with the amount of time between taking my money and giving me the BTC I purchased. Is there any way to reduce this waiting period?
Hello, and apologies for the delay on that - I know it must be frustrating!
A few points to mention are that even if it is debited from your account on the 21st, it may not arrive to our account that day - so we are not able to verify the payment that quickly. There have been instances where we don't get a notice of insufficient funds or something along those lines for up to 4 business days. So especially in the early days while we are launching this feature, we wanted to err on the side of caution and watch how long it took for problems to show up.
I believe in the future we may be able to reduce these wait times by a day or two, especially for trusted users, but as you know selling bitcoin online is a high risk business so we wanted to play it safe for now. Hope it helps! And we'll work to keep improving it over the coming months.
A few points to mention are that even if it is debited from your account on the 21st, it may not arrive to our account that day - so we are not able to verify the payment that quickly. There have been instances where we don't get a notice of insufficient funds or something along those lines for up to 4 business days. So especially in the early days while we are launching this feature, we wanted to err on the side of caution and watch how long it took for problems to show up.
I believe in the future we may be able to reduce these wait times by a day or two, especially for trusted users, but as you know selling bitcoin online is a high risk business so we wanted to play it safe for now. Hope it helps! And we'll work to keep improving it over the coming months.
> but as you know selling bitcoin online is a high risk business so
I didn't know that, actually.
Why is "selling bitcoin online" a "high risk business"?
I didn't know that, actually.
Why is "selling bitcoin online" a "high risk business"?
Sorry, I shouldn't have assumed that. Basically bitcoin-to-bitcoin payments are fast and secure, and irreversible after an hour. So these are pretty standard to deal with. However when interfacing with traditional payment methods (bank account, credit card, etc) these methods can be reversed up to 60 days later or more. So when selling bitcoin online (an irreversible payment method) in exchange for bank or credit card (a reversible payment method) you tend to encounter a large degree of fraud.
This is one reason Coinbase is one of the few providers who offers this service. It is a hard problem technically, but something consumers want. Hope it helps!
This is one reason Coinbase is one of the few providers who offers this service. It is a hard problem technically, but something consumers want. Hope it helps!
Thanks for all the answers. Since posting this question, I've gained a better understanding of how Coinbase operates and why it sometimes takes a few days to process transactions. Sorry if I sounded pissed off in my first post! I've been very happy with my experience since signing up.
Glad to hear and thanks for the follow up!