Coinbase: Your Terms Of Service Update Is Alienating An Entire Industry

Posted by naxumadmin / February 20, 2018

Coinbase is a popular destination for individuals and businesses across the globe that want access to purchasing, storing, and selling core cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Etherium, and Litecoin.

The brilliance of cryptocurrency is how it’s allowed people and companies to make payments through a decentralized network instead of a central bank. As you can expect, this attracts people with all sorts of different motives.

We understand and agree that there should be protections in place to thwart illegal activities. The challenge is where in their last user agreement update, they lumped legitimate industries together with illegitimate ones.

The text reads:

By opening a Coinbase Account, you confirm that you will not use Coinbase Services in connection with any of following businesses, activities, practices, or items:

Multi-level Marketing: Pyramid schemes, network marketing, and referral marketing programs

Here is the challenge.

Pyramid schemes are illegal, we’re not advocating that they should make their services available to them.

BUT, when coinbase actively lumps in both the network marketing and even the referral marketing industries with Pyramid schemes, they are Alienating An Entire Industry full good, honest people!

This inclusion of legitimate industries with illicit business practices will block out a serious amount of companies. Is this really the decentralized way?

This definition would block out a serious amount of companies:

This would mean UBER is not allowed to use coinbase, because you can get a $10 ride credit through ‘referral marketing’ by sharing it with a friend.

This would mean GROUPON cannot use coinbase, because you can get a free voucher for your meal by referring it to others that buy.

This would mean Herbalife and Amway cannot use coinbase for processing orders, even though they are legitimate network marketing companies as proven by the court cases and investigations they went through when challenged.

So what does this really mean about coinbase as a company?

It means that they may not be as connected to their ‘why’ as we all thought. Decentralized currency in many ways is about ‘freedom to the people’. It’s opening up a new world that most people across the globe never had access to.

It’s a lazy move to just throw all referral marketing companies into the same bucket as ‘pyramid schemes’ and it’s honestly disrespectful to our entire industry. They’re basically saying that we’re not worth their time.

But no worries here folks, the crypto-evolution is truly just beginning, there will be wallets and processors that do the work to serve the social selling and referral marketing world.

But for today, coinbase has chosen to step aside.

Here at Naxum we’re working to bring the benefits of cryptocurrencies to the referral marketing space. To learn more about how your company can dominate in the referral marketing space, create an account HERE and we’ll coordinate a private demo for you.