You can purchase Bitcoin via bank wire or a credit card. The company had its ups and downs with the more notable being when Apple removed their app from the iOS store. The phrase is not needed because all of the information including the private key is printed on paper. Image courtesy of coinbase. It operates in Europe as well. This way the private keys are stored offline and are therefore not exposed to viruses or attacks from the internet. On their website, Coinbase assures customers that «sensitive data that would normally reside on our servers is disconnected entirely from the internet.