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Bitcoin Global News (BGN)

March 06, 2019 -- ADVFN Crypto NewsWire -- After Coinbase laid off the former Hacking Team employees, you may have thought that the controversy surrounding the company would die down. Today, unfortunately, that does not seem to be the case.

Reportedly, after statements Coinbase made last week to the effect that they had been selling customer data, they have attempted to clear up the situation by stating that said data was never “personally identifiable.”

What this exactly means is anyone’s guess. On a foundational level, selling customer data is selling customer data. Coinbase did however, admit that they had third-party vendors which bought data from them. More specifically, the company that had been their previous data analytics provider seems to have been acting like a mini-Facebook.

To make matters worse, little details have come to light on the subject beyond these general facts. Because of this, CoinDesk quoted one particular Coinbase user as saying that he has quit the service due to their “lack of transparency.” In truth, it is hard to argue with his reasoning, though beyond his testimony, there does not seem to be much information that has been made public on how many users Coinbase has lost recently.

Yes, there has been a Twitter movement calling for users to help each other cancel their Coinbase accounts. Still, overall, the effect of this movement appears to have been quite small beyond a large amount of tweets from a small group of people and a single dedicated Reddit thread.

Coinbase is and always will be the first exchange that rode the ups and downs of the crypto market to an impressive amount of success, even if it experiences serious difficulties in the future. Especially due to the high level of trust it seems to have gained with regulators and its’ direct line to fiat-based banks, users may need to give the service a chance for the foreseeable future.

By: BGN Editorial Staff