Coinbates in Brief

Coinbates is a rebate service that allows you to collect cryptocurrency rewards when you shop online. The service currently only has 25 partners. However, it is still in beta and the company plans on adding more merchants soon.

The main benefit of Coinbates is that it’s extremely easy to use. Other crypto rebate programs require multiple steps to make a purchase, force their users to navigate complicated interfaces or involve convoluted peer-to-peer marketplaces. But with Coinbates, you can start earning crypto rebates immediately.

Coinbates’ founders hope to draw in people who are completely new to cryptocurrency and give them a reason to use blockchain technology on a daily basis. They even describe Coinbates as a “weapon of mass adoption.” The question is– does the Coinbates leadership team have the skills and experience needed to take this promising new rebate platform all the way? Read on to find out everything you need to know about Coinbates before you join.

Pros

Easy to use interface.

Instant account activation.

Twelve different payout cryptocurrencies are available.

Cons

Withdrawals and deposits will remain disabled until the token sale is over.

Users can only earn cashback from 25 different merchants.

Table of Contents Coinbates in Brief Pros Cons

What is Coinbates? History and development timeline Leadership and investors

How Does Coinbates Work? Legal and regulatory compliance

Customer support

Coinbates Reputation

How to Join Coinbates Who can join? Getting started

Referral Program

Final Word

What is Coinbates?

History and development timeline

Coinbates founder Omar Chowdhury started assembling the Coinbates team in May of 2018. This– and developing a marketing strategy– constituted phase one of the Coinbates roadmap. Four months later, Coinbates debuted phase two with a working beta version of the rebates platform.

As part of phase three, Coinbates will start its BATES token sale. This will happen sometime in the fourth quarter of this year. There’s also a plan to integrate new purchase options that will allow consumers to buy BATES tokens with their credit or debit cards.

Early next year, after Coinbates onboards at least 100 merchants, it plans to launch a large marketing campaign aimed at US e-commerce shoppers. In the second quarter of next year, the company plans on releasing iOS and Android apps and browser extensions.

Leadership and investors

The Coinbates team has deep experience when it comes to marketing.

Omar Chowdhury – Founder . Chowdhury worked in marketing at Mozilla, Google and Adlab before founding Coinbates. He also frequently responds to questions about Coinbates on Reddit and other social media sites.

Tahmina Farhana – Head of Product . Farhana worked at an internet marketing company called Adlab. Her UX/UI approach involves “action oriented simplicity.”

Luke Star – Head of Development . Like Chowdhury and Farhana, Star worked at Adlab before he joined the Coinbates team. His background is in adtech and performance marketing.

Josh Montoya – Senior Software Engineer . Montoya worked at a number of software development companies including Sonic Electronix, Meteora and Hatchify.

Alex Ösh – Advisor . Ösh was an analyst at a Vienna-based IoT (Internet of Things) research and development startup for eight years. Then, he became the director of a blockchain consultancy firm called Applied Token Economics.

Coinbates has yet to receive any venture capital funds ahead of its ICO. On Reddit, Chowdhury mentioned that the company is “completely self funded” and is “currently courting investors for a growth round.”

How Does Coinbates Work?

The fact that Coinbates doesn’t require its new users to buy anything to get started seems like a newbie-friendly approach. But what’s in it for Coinbates’ partners– and the cryptocurrency community as a whole? The Coinbates white paper answers those questions:

“Creating trialable crypto for this crucial e-commerce group completes a symbiotic relationship. As explained, adopters get the benefits of a frictionless, familiar, and riskless crypto onramp. The crypto world adds new users therefore increasing its network effects per Metcalfe’s law and growing overall trust.”

Merchants benefit from partnering with Coinbates because it gives brands an easy way to appeal to a growing demographic– cryptocurrency users. According to Statistica, over 25 million people currently use cryptocurrency on a regular basis.

Coinbates CEO Omar Chowdhury provided this explanation of how Coinbates benefits merchants on Reddit:

“With us, they can just expect sales in fiat like they normally do. We’d be opening them up to new demographics (crypto-enthusiasts), so that’s a new sales channel for them. We have deep experience in performance marketing from which brands and retailers know we can send them high volume sales, and that just makes it all the more easier to get them on board.”

Legal and regulatory compliance

This excerpt from Coinbates’ Terms of Use document indicates that the company is registered in Wyoming:

“These Terms of Use and your use of the Site are governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of Wyoming applicable to agreements made and to be entirely performed within the State of Wyoming, without regard to its conflict of law principles.”

Contact information at the bottom of the page indicates that the service is headquartered in Estonia.

Editor’s note: Coinbates reached out to to clarify their business model. They have a subsidiary in the US that’s registered in Wyoming. The Estonia entity is responsible for the issuance and administration of the BATES token.

Customer support

Customer support is available through several channels, including Twitter, Telegram and via email: [email protected]

Coinbates Reputation

The majority of comments about Coinbates around the web are positive. This comment from Reddit typifies what people seem to like about the rebate platform:

“This looks like a great way to get crypto more mainstream. I know lots of projects tout that they’re the one to bring crypto mainstream but Coinbates seems like it’s the one that can actually deliver. Simply cause they’re embedding the distribution of crypto into something that most people do anyway — shopping online.”

The few reported problems with the platform are likely to be the result of user error. The response to these remarks is sometimes borderline unprofessional, though:

“It’s hard to take you seriously when all you have to got to say are subjective terms like “feels like a scam site”. I have a long list of beta users who have successfully earned crypto cashback shopping at our merchants. You jumped to the worse conclusions possible about us. And I’ve repeatedly asked for you to provide full screenshots of your browser during this confidence eroding experience of yours, so we can pinpoint where the issue really is. You keep ignoring that.”

How to Join Coinbates

Who can join?

The Coinbates white paper explains that the crypto rebate service’s target demographic is crypto newbies. In other words, Coinbates is specifically designed to draw in people who are totally new to cryptocurrency and get them more interested in using it on a daily basis.

“The Coinbates crypto cashback model enables the possibility of obtaining exposure to crypto and entry into digital asset networks in a manner that is free of speculative and investment risk, embedded in a common everyday behavior; the e-commerce purchase, and within transactions that are of an immediate net benefit, as the consumer enjoys discounts on their purchases.”

The white paper goes on to say that fear, uncertainty and doubt have created an obstacle for widespread cryptocurrency adoption. Massive price fluctuations, high profile hacks and scams make cryptocurrency seem dangerous. Coinbates hopes that its rebates program will give ordinary consumers a practical and risk-free way to benefit from cryptocoins. The company hopes that female shoppers, in particular, will take a shine to their service:

“Importantly, targeting the ecommerce sector also addresses one of crypto’s weak adoption groups: women. While only 29% of American crypto holders are women, 73% of this demographic engages in ecommerce. The ecommerce hook may also finally help bring women into crypto given their overrepresentation in Internet shopping.”

Even though Coinbates is primarily attempting to attract American shoppers, it is not limited to the US. On Reddit, Coinbates founder Omar Chowdhury explained that Coinbates users in other countries can register and earn crypto rebates:

“Hey there, founder of Coinbates here! If the merchant ships outside of the US, then yes it will work.”

Getting started

The only thing you need to do before you can use Coinbates is get a cryptocurrency wallet. Without an address to send your rebate, you won’t be able to collect digital cash when you shop. (If you don’t already have a cryptocurrency wallet, you may want to read a few of our cryptocurrency wallet reviews first before you proceed.)

The first step of signing up for Coinbates involves verifying your email address. Once you do that, you’ll land on the Choose your payout cryptocurrency landing page. Available coins include bitcoin and 11 different altcoins, including BATES– the Coinbates’ in-house cryptocoin that can be used to buy subscription upgrades.

Click the cryptocurrency you want to get paid in and then proceed to the next step.

Now it’s time to pick a merchant. Coinbates currently has 25 partners:

Sephora – 3%

Macy’s – 1.5%

Calvin Klein – 3%

DKNY – 4%

Banana Republic – 2%

New Balance – 5%

McAfee – 15%

TRX – 8%

GAP – 0.75%

Marriott Vacation Club – 2.75%

Lenovo – 0.75%

Lacoste – 6%

Bodybuilding.com – 6%

Barneys New York – 3%

Gilt – 1.5%

Bloomingdales – 3%

BareMinerals – 6%

GNC – 6%

Forever 21 – 2.5%

Canon – 1.75%

Sennheiser – 4%

WD – 5%

Microsoft – 3%

Asics – 1.75%

H&M – 1.5%

Next, copy and paste your bitcoin wallet address into the Enter Bitcoin deposit address here box.

Now it’s time to decide whether or not you want to upgrade your Cryptobates account.

Each new Cryptobates user automatically gets 250 BATES coins for free. You can use those free coins to upgrade to the Premium plan if you want to increase the amount of crypto cash you get when you shop. If you want to get the Maximum plan, you’ll have to sign up at least one Cryptobates user through the Cryptobates affiliate program. This will give you enough BATES coin to make the upgrade. Alternatively, you choose to save your BATES by opting out of buying a yearly subscription.

After you choose a subscription, a redirect will take you to whatever merchant that you selected earlier. Your rebate will be deposited into your crypto wallet.

Referral Program

The Coinbates referral program enables its users to earn BATES coins for spreading the word about the crypto rebate platform. There are three main ways to earn a referral reward:

Signups . Coinbates will award you 100 BATES for each new person you sign up. After five signups, that reward increases to 200 BATES for each referral. Affiliate links can be found in the Refer section of the website. Referral BATES coin purchases . If your referral purchases BATES coins during the token sale, you’ll get a 6% rebate of their total purchase amount. This rebate is paid out in ether. There’s apparently no way to select a different cryptocurrency payout method for this particular reward. Ordinary referral purchases . Every time your referral buys something through Coinbates, you’ll get a 20% rebate of their shopping reward. This type of reward never expires.

Final Word

Out of all the crypto rebates sites out there right now, Coinbates is one of the easiest to use. All you have to do to get your rebate is paste in your cryptocurrency address and click the store you want to peruse. Once you complete your transaction, your rebate is automatically sent to your crypto wallet. Other crypto rebate sites require much more effort and background knowledge.

The biggest problem with Coinbates at the moment is that it only has a limited number of partners. The future success of Coinbates depends on its ability to reel in more participating merchants. Also, the Coinbates website could do a better job of explaining what consumers can do with their cryptocurrency rewards once their rebates land in their wallets. Links to merchants that accept bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies or tutorials for exchanging crypto for government-issued money through various crypto exchanges could help close that information gap.