Coinbase, a leading U.S. cryptocurrency exchange, has rolled out its much-anticipated Smart Wallet.
Coinbase, a leading U.S. cryptocurrency exchange, has rolled out its much-anticipated Smart Wallet, designed to make it easier for new users to dive into the decentralized finance (DeFi) space. Coinbase first introduced the concept of its Smart Wallet at ETHDenver in February. Unlike the traditional recovery phrases, apps, and extensions typically required to access DeFi services, the new Smart Wallets utilize industry-standard Passkeys and a companion web portal. At launch, these wallets are compatible with networks like Base, Ethereum, Optimism, Arbitrum, Polygon, Avalanche, BNB, and Zora.
The Smart Wallets are designed to address several challenges in the DeFi user experience, particularly for those new to the space. "Until now, going onchain has been slow, expensive, and challenging, involving separate wallet app installations and first-generation blockchains," Siddharth Coelho-Prabhu, senior director of product management at Coinbase, explained. With the new Smart Wallet, users can create a wallet using Face ID, a Google Chrome profile, Yubikey, fingerprint unlock, or FaceID.
Additionally, the Smart Wallets aim to resolve the fragmentation issue caused by managing multiple wallets to fully engage with various crypto applications. Users can now facilitate transactions using their Coinbase account balances or their self-custodial wallet balance.
Coinbase is urging crypto developers to integrate the Smart Wallet into their applications, offering incentives such as up to $15,000 in gas credits through the Base Gasless Campaign and other On-Chain Summer contests. Coelho-Prabhu emphasized that integrating smart wallets is straightforward, requiring only a few lines of code, and noted that the system is already supported by popular crypto code libraries.
One standout feature of the Smart Wallets is the potential for gasless transactions through "paymaster" sponsorships, where developers or other parties cover user gas fees to provide services for free. This feature is part of Coinbase's broader vision to expand crypto usage globally. "Smart wallets are a revolutionary step forward in our mission to bring more than 1 billion users onchain," Coelho-Prabhu stated.
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