Post: #1

So I opened a coinbase account in the UK (home country) and bought a little of 3 different crypto-currencies. So that was all fine but when I went abroad (I am still now) I can no longer access my account.

Coinbase asks for a text confirmation code which is fine as my UK provider also works abroad. But then it asks me to grant authorisation to the new computer (which never changed - was same computer) but when I click the email link it fails each time. Changing IP address using vpn to the UK didn't help either.

Any ideas how to tackle this? Are there any crypto-currency wallets online that don't have this problem whilst also being decent?

Post: #2

This is the problem with coinbase and other services like it.

In order to prevent you from having your "money" stolen they need to go through several types of authentication to make sure it's the original account user requesting access. There is no federally mandated protection for your funds because they view it as not real money that's usually backed by gold like traditional banks.

There are probably services out there that have less stringent authentication guidelines but they probably are easier to gain unauthorized access to.
It's a give and take with these sorta things.

Maybe if you know you're traveling set up and account with another bitcoin service with less security and transfer the amount you'd think you'll need for the trip. Think of it as only taking out $60 to go out at night instead of withdrawing you're entire bank account.

Post: #3

Change your 2 factor authentication to something other than text (which is insecure anyway).

You have a few options. A lot of people like Authy. But you can also use Google Authenticator.

When setting it up, you'll need text access. Afterwards, you won't

I believe that Coinbase also gives you a 1 time key that you should've written down.




Anyway, with Google Authenticator or Authy, Coinbase will display a screen with an on-screen QR code:



You scan this with your phone using Google Authenticator or Authy and then it forever links your phone's private key to a private key on the coinbase server. Every 30 seconds a new number based off this initial key is generated. This means that you don't even need internet access on your phone to use 2 factor authentication, or text.

But you may need to do something else to fix your account problem. This could be something like providing proof of identification. I had to do that in order to purchase over their initial limits. It's very fishy to a provider when they notice you are using different devices. Coinbase's default is that when it sees your IP changes, it wants to make sure that it's actually you.