Someone could fraudulently initiate a draft, but ACH drafts can be chargedback, giving you some protection. Obviously this is trickier and more painful than a credit card chargeback because it's your money that's been taken, and not your CC company's.
Since the writing of a Knuth article, checks have become less risky, but they're still more risky than credit cards. [1]
So like I said, don't give your banking info out to just anyone. There's still risk involved. Whether or not you find Coinbase overly risky is up to your own utility curve.
You write a cheque to X.
X hands it to their bank A.
A asks your bank B for the amount on the cheque.
B asks A for the cheque to check its valid.
B sends money to A.
Done. Which is why I thought they take days to be processed.
Used to work that way. Not anymore. Routing number and account and amount are sent electronically to a check clearinghouse and the money is transferred sometimes the same day or even close to real-time. The paper itself gets scanned, and the original shredded.
