nanobtc
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February 14, 2014, 06:40:03 AM

Searing, didn't see anyone directly answer this. Coinbase is more of a broker. They buy (presumably) from Bitstamp on your behalf, plus fees. On very busy times they have run out of coins to sell to you. You can hook it into your bank, so whatever price you buy/sell is usually locked in then. It takes 4 business days, give or take for it to happen.

Gox/btc-e/Bitstamp are exchanges, where you transfer fiat to it in whatever way works for you and is set up for them. This takes varying amounts of time. You can usually transfer btc directly in much faster, but I'm not sure about Gox right now.

The exchanges let you keep money sitting on there. You can buy/sell back and forth within minutes/seconds. The btc can be sent out to an external address, or the fiat can be removed via whatever method the exchange allows (plus "bank time").

Coinbase also wants to be an online wallet for you, and also has some nice SMS/text methods that work on any phone, no app required.