Cryptocurrency Focus: Coinbase - the Global Digital Wallet

Coinbase, the San Francisco based Cryptocurrency exchange, is a secure platform that makes it easy to buy, sell and store Cryptocurrencies.

Coinbase was founded in 2012 by Brian Armstrong and Fred Ehrsam in California. The company specialises in brokering a large variety of currencies, including Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, Ethereum Classic, and Litecoin with fiat currencies across 32 countries. 

To date, Coinbase has exchanged $150bn+ of Cryptocurrency, supports 102 countries worldwide and has served upwards of 30 million customers. It dubs itself the “most trusted cryptocurrency platform.”

Cryptocurrencies are a turbulent product to say the least. So far this year, we have seen a drastic rise in Bitcoin’s value, and skepticism over the legalities of Facebook’s Project Libra which continues to divide businesses over the sustainability of cryptocurrencies and its adoption into businesses. Yet despite this, crypto has the potential to be lucrative to investors, and is continuing to alter the concept of currency. 

To ensure maximum security when using cryptocurrencies, investors often use brokers such as Coinbase to protect their assets. Indeed, the business sees its security as its key selling point. Below we list the five key security features at Coinbase: 
 

1. Data Protection According to Coinbase, 98% of customer funds are stored in a vault, offline. Sensitive information is stored on an off-line server which has no connection to the internet. Data is then split, AES-256 encrypted, and copied to FIPS-140 USB drives and hard copies. These drives and hard copies are then distributed geographically in safe deposit boxes and vaults across the world.

2. Insurance Though Coinbase holds less than 2% of customers' funds online, all of the currencies held by Coinbase are insured, should there be a breach on its online storage.

3. Employee Screening All employees undergo a criminal background check before joining the company. All employees are required to encrypt their hard drives, and take exceptional care when creating strong passwords and locking screens in use.

SEE MORE: 

• Facebook’s Project Libra increases faith in digital tokens but won’t threaten Bitcoin, say experts

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4. Security and Control via app The Coinbase app has two layers of security: Username and password; and a single-use, generated code sent to the users phone. 

5. The Bug Bounty Program Coinbase Also known as the Vulnerability Rewards Program (VRP), Bug Bounty Program is an incentive program that invites individuals to identify and report vulnerabilities within the system for a  financial reward. 

Did you know? As of August 2018, there were a reported 1,600 different cryptocurrencies across the world.