Coinbase stated it would not support BCC or it's blockchain or allow withdraws of BCC. It stated no plans to support BCC trading and gave ample notice of all of the above. Over the course of several days leading up to August 1st, Coinbase drug it's user base through a muddy ditch of pins and needles as transactions painstakingly took upwards of 24 to 48 hours in preparation for the event that was the birth of the new altcoin, Bitcoin Cash.
Well today they took it all back and said they'll support BCC in some manner. Users will be able to withdraw BCC and their balances will be in tact after all.
Notably there was no "April Fool's" subsequently following the email blast on Thursday when they made this announcement.
There's a Catch
Sounds just peachy doesn't it? Well it's not. Users won't be able to access their BCC, much less do anything with it until next year. The current estimate being January 2018.
Seriously?
What's so damn hard about letting folks withdraw their coin? Well lots of things.
Coinbase would had to have had 100% of the coin they have custody over in individually allocated wallets for each amount per customer.
It's very unlikely this is the case and even if it was, they then would need to shove allot of code in rather quickly to support the new blockchain for BCC or handout the private keys for BCC, which would just so happen be the keys for bitcoin and suddenly you have a regulatory and security headache.
It's very unlikely this is the case and even if it was, they then would need to shove allot of code in rather quickly to support the new blockchain for BCC or handout the private keys for BCC, which would just so happen be the keys for bitcoin and suddenly you have a regulatory and security headache.
They also have the 8MB blocks to worry about as they are susceptible to network attacks.
All things that lean heavily towards a "not gonna happen" and for the most part nobody cared. Until BCC hit $700 before going stale. Then everybody had an opinion of the Coinbase decision and claimed "stupid" about how to withdraw fund from Coinbase to get BCC. Even a lawsuit was threatened and then suddenly ... Coinbase has everyone's BCC, everything is fine. You just have to wait
Yeah ... wait. Wait until BCC is ultimately worthless in 2018 and then Coinbase will fork it over. It sure will be awfully convenient for Coinbase if that value drops and BCC isn't worth $700 in January 2018.
That said, you can't blame Coinbase for being careful and not taking an unnecessary risk just because a handful of people want something for nothing with a BCC money-grab. This is one of those times I would actually have to agree with Coinbase.
However, not on the "wait until Jan 2018" part ... that part is just mean.
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