Rant and questions about Kraken and bitcoin

in #bitcoin6 years ago

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So I decided to sign up with Kraken yesterday with the hopes of being able to exchange some of my bitcoin or other crypto currencies for bitcoin cash. Even though I've already signed up with a few other exchanges, Kraken is one of the few exchanges that currently handle bitcoin cash trading. After the usual account creation and verification steps, I wanted to see if I would be able to transfer Canadian funds from my bank or a credit card, onto Kraken. The website is very misleading, stating that you only need verification level 2 (full name, address) in order to be able to withdraw and deposit up to $2000 per day. Of course after being approved for level 2, I was only able to find one option to wire transfer funds from a Canadian bank, but that option is only available to those with level 3 verification which includes proof of photo identification. Kraken seems to be purposely misleading, advertising minimal identity verification for fiat transfers, then changing the tune once you have already gone through most of the verification process. I probably would have completed the 3rd level of verification if it said it was required from the beginning, but this bait and switch tactic didn't impress me much, so that ended my hopes of buying some bitcoin cash with Canadian dollars.

Next I thought I would try to send some bitcoin to Kraken and exchange that for bitcoin cash. Well this didn't work at all but I don't think it is Kraken's fault. I use MultibitHD wallet, even though it is not supported anymore, it was still working fine for my uses and I haven't bothered to switch wallets. So I sent .01 btc to my Kraken address, but I immediately got a warning from MultiBit saying that my funds were dangerously low since some funds were still tied up in unconfirmed transactions (or something to that effect). The transaction still showed successfully broadcast and eventually was seen by 10 peers, but it still says confirming on Kraken. I thought maybe repairing my wallet would help. After the first repair, most of my remaining bitcoin was labeled "unconfirmed". Even though my last deposit to this wallet was over two weeks ago, and all my transactions say confirmed by multiple thousand blocks. A second repair yielded the same results. So now I am stuck with half my bitcoin in a transaction that won't complete, and the other half that was available weeks ago, is now unconfirmed and I don't know how to fix it and get it back.

In short, I'm not impressed. I feel like bitcoin has been around long enough that these issues should not exist. Past transactions have been slow and expensive, but at least they worked. This makes me have some serious doubts about bitcoin and crypto currencies in general . Krakens practices are dishonest and misleading. Bitcoin requires significant transaction fees especially for small amount transfers, and the fact I basically lost or froze $160 worth of bitcoin in one transaction, is more than a little scary. If anyone has some suggestions for how I can re-confirm my bitcoin balance and transfer properly to Kraken, please let me know! Otherwise I'm thinking of getting away from bitcoin until basic functionality issues are resolved.

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