Give the gift of crypto this holiday season

December 2, 2021 Coinbase

By Catherine Shyu Sullivan, Senior Product Manager, Coinbase

The month of December normally consists of a scramble to find the perfect gifts for coworkers, hosts, friends, and family. You either brave the long lines in stores or navigate supply chain delays online, and frequently end up settling on another generic candle.

This holiday season, we’re introducing a new crypto gifting experience that allows you to send family and friends crypto assets like Bitcoin and Ethereum along with a personalized digital card. The season of (crypto) giving is here.

The gift that keeps gifting

Crypto gifts educate and excite. Plus, all crypto gifts come in a personalized digital card featuring up-and-coming, crypto-forward artwork.

Give a crypto gift right from the app or coinbase.com/gifting. Simply tap Send a gift from the menu on the left hand side — all you’ll need is the lucky recipient’s email address. You can gift 100+ crypto assets to recipients who already have a Coinbase account and can gift 5 assets (including Bitcoin and Ethereum) to recipients who are new to Coinbase. There is no fee to send a crypto gift.

Perfectly packaged with a digital card

Your gift is delivered in a digital card featuring a piece of unique artwork by an up-and-coming artist. Pick a piece, write a personalized note, and give the lucky recipient a taste of crypto culture.

“Andrius”-008 by Magdiel Lopez

Born in Havana Cuba, Magdiel Lopez spent his childhood inspired by the colorful culture. Lopez’s upbringing played an integral part in forming his sense of style, art and design, which can be seen in his works today.

Robot Invasion by David Krovblit

David Krovblit is a Canadian visual artist who now lives in California. He curates images that he considers lost in time — layering them to form whimsical collages rooted in pop culture.

#1644 by Bored Ape Yacht Club

An iconic collection of NFTs. Each Bored Ape is unique and programmatically generated from over 170 possible traits, including expression, fashion accessories, clothing, and more. Note: your recipient will not receive a NFT, just a digital replica of the Bored Ape! Sign up for the waitlist of Coinbase NFT if you’d like to explore NFTs.

Snow Days by Rob Flowers

Rob Flowers is a UK based artist with humor at the heart of his work.

It has been described as “trippy…. as if you ate too much candy floss and went on the waltzers at your town’s local fair.”

The future of gifting just got brighter. Try it this holiday season in the Coinbase app on iOS or Android or at coinbase.com/gifting.

*Excludes Japan

Give the gift of crypto this holiday season was originally published in The Coinbase Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Empowering the crypto community with new ways to learn and share

November 12, 2021 Coinbase

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By Rishav Mukherji, Senior Product Manager, Coinbase

Many of our customers are looking for ways to better understand crypto both as an investment and as an app platform, but it can sometimes be challenging to find relevant information at the right time. Coinbase wants the crypto community to be an active part of this education effort. We want to help self-empower the community with easy-to-use sharing tools making it simpler and more fun to share information on your portfolio allocations or key crypto topics such as emerging new assets.

Sharing made simple

We’re making it easier to share information around your assets, such as price changes or portfolio allocations. Simply tap the Share button in the Coinbase app on any asset price page or your portfolio page and share these asset pages with your private network or on your social network. The choice is yours. When you share your portfolio with someone, you will only share your allocation percentages, never your portfolio balance.

You’re always in control

It’s easy to change your sharing settings and you can choose to stop sharing your portfolio allocations publicly anytime. Just go back to your portfolio, select Share and toggle to Private. Now, your portfolio is only visible to you. You’ll see a screen confirming your portfolio is no longer visible to anyone. You can always choose to share your portfolio again in the future by just toggling to Public.

More ways to learn and share, coming soon

We want to empower the cryptoeconomy to share knowledge and information and learn from each other. In the coming weeks, we’re launching new ways for you to share details about your trades. In the meantime, you can always check out our existing resources (Coinbase Learn, Bytes, Earn) to learn more about crypto.

Empowering the crypto community with new ways to learn and share was originally published in The Coinbase Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Coinbase Wallet is now available as a standalone browser extension

November 8, 2021 Coinbase

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By Sid Coelho-Prabhu, Group Product Manager

In May, we introduced a downloadable browser extension that brought Coinbase Wallet onto laptops and desktops. We’ve seen incredible traction with the Coinbase Wallet extension, which made it easier to securely connect to decentralized apps (dapps) and decentralized finance (DeFi) from more devices.

Today, we’re bringing full standalone functionality to Coinbase Wallet extension. Now customers can browse dapps, access thousands of cryptocurrencies, trade on decentralized exchanges (DEXes), earn interest, and collect NFTs, all with just a few clicks.

Total control of your crypto from your browser

When we first launched the Coinbase Wallet extension, we wanted to empower millions of customers to engage in the exciting world of dapps, and bringing Coinbase Wallet to desktops was a key way to increase access to the larger crypto ecosystem.

Today’s release gives the Coinbase Wallet extension full standalone functionality, unlocking the world of crypto on desktop. Now, you can browse dapps, access thousands of cryptocurrencies, trade on decentralized exchanges (DEXes), earn interest, and collect NFTs from your browser without needing to confirm transactions on your smartphone.

It all starts with your recovery phrase

With today’s release, we have made it easy for both new and existing Wallet users to get started with the standalone extension.

If you have been using the Coinbase Wallet extension via WalletLink, make sure you have your recovery phrase handy and then choose ‘Sign out’ from the Settings menu in your Wallet extension. Choose ‘Import a wallet’ and then enter your recovery phrase.
If you are a new customer, download Coinbase Wallet for free from the Chrome web store. If you do not already have a self-custody wallet, select ‘Create a new wallet’. If you would like to import an existing self-custody wallet, such as MetaMask, Trust Wallet, Coinbase Wallet, or another Ethereum-based wallet, choose ‘Import a wallet’ and then enter your recovery phrase.
If you have been using WalletLink and would prefer to continue using the browser extension as a linked account and keep handling confirmations and signing from the mobile app, you do not need to take any additional steps. If you need to re-enable the connection, choose WalletLink in your Coinbase Wallet mobile app’s settings.

You can also seamlessly link your self-custody Coinbase Wallet to a Coinbase account and access everything that Coinbase has to offer, including buying crypto with cash.

Looking forward

We’ll continue working to empower everyone to use dapps and web3 by building the easiest-to-use and most accessible self-custody wallet in the ecosystem.

You can download the new Wallet extension from the Chrome web store. We’re always listening to our users and welcome feedback. Follow us on Twitter @CoinbaseWallet for the latest Wallet-related news, and visit our help center for any additional questions.

Coinbase Wallet is now available as a standalone browser extension was originally published in The Coinbase Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Bringing advanced trading tools to Coinbase

November 3, 2021 Coinbase

Coinbase Cloud introduces unified developer docs

October 12, 2021 Coinbase

Whether it’s trading, payments, or integrating with blockchains or crypto services, start building the future of crypto with Coinbase Cloud

Despite the momentum we’re seeing in the crypto ecosystem, building on blockchains is still incredibly challenging. Developers frequently need to build bespoke software to integrate basic crypto activities like trading or payments into their product or service.

Coinbase Cloud is committed to empowering crypto developers by making it easier and faster for them to build their applications. As part of this commitment, we have launched a new and streamlined developer docs experience to help the next generation of developers use the APIs powering Coinbase.

Start integrating with Coinbase APIs

Developers can integrate with the APIs powering Coinbase from a single documentation site at coinbase.com/cloud. Guides and references make it easy for developers to incorporate key crypto primitives like trading and payments into their products and services.

Trade with Exchange API: Developers can power high-volume crypto trading with Exchange API, accessing deep liquidity, managing their account, and getting market data.

Accept crypto payments with Commerce API: Despite the convenience and speed of crypto transactions, accepting crypto payments requires secure and reliable infrastructure. With the Commerce API, businesses can securely and easily accept crypto payments.

*Power crypto trading and payments with Exchange and Commerce APIs.*

Simplify how you interact with blockchains using Rosetta: Building cross-chain products and services, or creating integrations between blockchains and other crypto services, are among the most challenging tasks for developers. Each chain has a different set of rules governing interactions. Using our open source project Rosetta, asset issuers can integrate their blockchain to any crypto product or service that uses Rosetta. Crypto developers can standardize how they interact with multiple blockchains, and build cross-chain applications faster.

Easily connect Coinbase Wallet to your dApp: Using the WalletLink SDK and documentation, developers can easily and securely add support for Coinbase Wallet to their dApp, making it simpler for users to onboard and transact on mobile and web.

Make user onboarding easy with ‘Sign in with Coinbase’: Sign in with Coinbase lets Coinbase users easily sign in or sign up for a developer’s third-party app or service through their Coinbase accounts. With this integration, developers can broaden access to their product or service among existing Coinbase users, while reducing the need for their customers to manage multiple usernames and passwords.

Sign in with Coinbase also lets developers use Coinbase APIs to take permissioned actions on behalf of their customers, such as buying, selling, depositing, and withdrawing crypto, to deliver an even more seamless customer experience.

*Offer your users an easy way to sign in or sign up for your product or service using Sign in with Coinbase.*

Build the crypto future

Coinbase Cloud gives developers an on-ramp to building crypto applications and services, speeding up development timelines, and allowing teams to focus on improving their product instead of managing crypto infrastructure. We will continue to release additional APIs and services as part of Coinbase Cloud. This is only a first step in what’s to come.

Coinbase Cloud introduces unified developer docs was originally published in The Coinbase Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Do more with your crypto: beyond the buy and sell buttons

September 27, 2021 Coinbase

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Simply spend, earn, send, receive and trade 100+ cryptocurrencies and more on Coinbase

Direct deposit coming soon: customers will be able to deposit any percentage of their paycheck into their Coinbase account in crypto or USD
Coinbase Card adds ability to spend USD; offers new rewards with DAI, AMP and RLY; and general availability starts this Fall
Since the launch of Coinbase Earn in 2018 more than 6.5 million unique users on Coinbase have earned crypto

By Max Branzburg, VP of Product, Coinbase

Coinbase began with a radical idea that anyone should be able to easily, simply, and securely access bitcoin. We’ve come a long way since then.

Today, consumers have more options than ever when looking for a place to buy and sell bitcoin. This is something to celebrate. It means crypto is gaining more adoption around the world.

At Coinbase, our goal is to enable everyone to get more out of their money with the power of crypto. That’s why we’re determined to deliver the most trusted full suite of crypto-first financial services to our 68 million users.

Get paid in crypto

With more of their spending, earning, trading and borrowing happening on Coinbase, customers will need simpler ways to fund their Coinbase accounts. In the coming weeks, we’ll launch the ability for customers in the US to get paid into Coinbase. Customers can get paid in crypto or US dollars and can choose any percentage of their paycheck to deposit. With direct deposit, customers can more easily access our crypto-first financial services and be ready for any trade or purchase.

Reimagine crypto spending and earning

As customers look to the cryptoeconomy to meet their everyday financial needs, they need a way to easily make purchases with crypto and earn yield on their portfolio.

Coinbase Card is a Visa® debit card that gives customers up to 4% back in crypto rewards¹ on every eligible purchase, so our customers can seamlessly buy everyday items with crypto². Here’s what’s new:

Starting this week, cardholders can spend US Dollars (as well as crypto), while earning crypto rewards
Coinbase Card holders can already choose to earn 1% back in ETH, DOGE, or BTC or 4% back in GRT or XLM. Starting this week, they can also choose to earn 1% back in DAI or 4% back in AMP or RLY.
All customers* in the US will be eligible to sign up for a Coinbase Card starting this Fall

In addition to earning by spending, the ability to earn crypto without buying or transacting it has been critical in bringing more people into the cryptoeconomy. I’m excited to share that since the launch of Coinbase Earn in 2018, more than 6.5 million unique users have earned crypto for completing educational tasks such as watching videos and answering questions. Coinbase Earn is live today in 42 countries and we have plans to add more in the coming months.

Designing for the cryptoeconomy

Powered by crypto and blockchain technology, the cryptoeconomy has the opportunity to be a more fair, accessible, efficient, and transparent financial system for the internet age. Our goal is to be the gateway to this new financial system, by building a platform that is safe, trusted, and easy-to-use.

That means designing products with a simple UX that makes our platform usable and intuitive for even the newest entrants to the cryptoeconomy. Our app was originally designed for trading a few dozen crypto assets, but as we continue to build out a full-suite of financial services for the cryptoeconomy, our UX needed an overhaul to accommodate.

We made a number of improvements to our Mobile and Web apps, including:

A new ‘Assets’ tab to view your crypto holdings and discover new features
A revamped ‘Trade’ tab to help you research assets and transact for both novice & advanced traders alike
A new ‘Pay’ tab to access Coinbase Card and P2P payments for everyday spending
A new ‘For You’ tab to discover news, insights & education and engage with the broader cryptoeconomy

Our goal is to deliver the best financial services that consumers are used to, but in an even better way with crypto and blockchain technology. Financial services built on crypto have the potential to enable more fair and equal access to wealth for anyone, anywhere, without prejudice. It’s still early days, but by building the foundation of the primary financial account, we’re one step closer to enabling more economic freedom for the world.

*Coinbase Card will be available to all eligible customers in the US, excluding Hawaii.

¹Crypto rewards is an optional Coinbase offer.

²Coinbase will automatically convert all cryptocurrency to US Dollars for use in purchases and ATM withdrawals.

The Coinbase Card is issued by MetaBank®, N.A., Member FDIC, pursuant to a license from Visa U.S.A. Inc. The Coinbase Card is powered by Marqeta.

Do more with your crypto: beyond the buy and sell buttons was originally published in The Coinbase Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Now get your paycheck deposited into Coinbase

September 27, 2021 Coinbase

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By Prakash Hariramani, Sr Director, Product, Coinbase

Over the next few weeks, we’re rolling out the ability for customers in the US to deposit their paycheck into Coinbase to more easily make regular crypto trades, spend on Coinbase Card, earn crypto rewards¹, and more. Get paid in crypto² or in US dollars and deposit as much³ or as little of your paycheck as you want. The future of payroll is coming.

Get easy and zero-fee access to crypto

There are many reasons why customers make frequent transfers into Coinbase: to make short or long-term investments, to earn interest on yield-generating assets, and to fund everyday purchases with Coinbase Card. However, customers tell us that making frequent transfers is time-consuming and inconvenient.

Now, you’ll save time on the extra steps it takes to move money so you can immediately earn interest on your income or earn crypto rewards with your Coinbase Card. Plus, you’ll pay zero transaction fees on direct deposit funds⁴ so you have instant and free access to the cryptoeconomy.

Maintain full control

Stay in control of your money by depositing as little or as much of your paycheck as you want. Get paid in any of the 100+ crypto available on Coinbase or in US Dollars. Choose to get paid in crypto so you can make recurring buys or earn interest on your income (by getting paid in USDC, DAI, or other interest-yielding assets), or choose to get paid in US Dollars to be ready for any trade or to spend with your Coinbase Card.

Set up just once

You can set up direct deposit in just a few steps without leaving the Coinbase app. Tap direct deposit in the settings, follow the instructions, and find your current payroll company or employer, and we’ll automatically update your paycheck allocation. If you’d prefer to set up direct deposit manually, we’ll provide instructions on what to share with your HR department or employer payroll website. You can modify your direct deposit preferences at any time within your Settings.

Enter the future of payroll

As you begin to do more with your crypto from staking to spending to sending, we’re also making it easier for businesses to pay their employees in crypto. We’ve partnered with a number of companies, including Fortress Investment Group, M31 Capital, Nansen, and SuperRare Labs, to allow employees throughout the creator economy and financial services to enter the future of payroll.

Stay tuned for announcements in the coming months as we make it easier for more businesses to pay employees in crypto.

¹Crypto rewards is an optional Coinbase offer.

²If you choose to be paid in crypto, Coinbase will automatically convert your paycheck from US dollars to crypto with no transaction fees.

³Limits apply, see terms.

⁴No Coinbase transaction fees but a spread applies when we buy, sell, or trade cryptocurrencies. Other standard fees may apply, and will be shared during Coinbase Card sign-up.

The Coinbase Card is issued by MetaBank®, N.A., Member FDIC, pursuant to a license from Visa U.S.A. Inc. The Coinbase Card is powered by Marqeta.

Now get your paycheck deposited into Coinbase was originally published in The Coinbase Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Web3 Will Be Driven By Crypto’s Networked Collaboration

September 23, 2021 Coinbase

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And What We Can Learn From The Linux Development Model

By Harry Alford, Business Development Manager, Coinbase Cloud

Where Web 1.0 was the Static Web, and Web 2.0 is the Social Web, Web 3.0 will be the Decentralized Web. It will move us from a world where communities contribute but don’t own or profit to one where they can through collaboration. By breaking away from traditional business models centered around benefiting the corporation, Web3 foretells the possibility of community-centered economies of scale. This collaborative spirit, and its associated incentive mechanisms, attracts some of the most talented and ambitious developers working in technology today, unlocking projects never previously possible.

Web3, as Ki Chong Tran once said, is “the next major iteration of the Internet, which promises to wrest control from the centralized corporations that today dominate the web.” Web3-enabled collaboration is made possible by decentralized networks that no single entity controls. What might we expect in these nascent developmental stages of a technology that is collaborative instead of competitive?

In closed-source business models, users trust a business’s people to manage funds and execute services. With open-source projects, users trust the technology to perform these tasks. In Web2, the bigger network wins. In Web3, whoever builds the biggest network together wins.

In a decentralized world, not only is participation open to all, the incentive structure is designed so that the more people who participate, the more everybody succeeds.

Learning from Linux

Linux, the open-source software created in 1991 that is behind a majority of Web2’s websites, was paradigm-shifting for how the Internet (Web2) was developed and provides a clear example of how collaborative processes have the power to drive the future of all technology development. Linux wasn’t developed by an incumbent tech giant, but by a group of volunteer programmers utilizing networked collaboration. Networked collaboration is when autonomous people freely share information without central control, supported instead by code or blockchains.

In The Cathedral And The Bazaar, author Eric S. Raymond shares his observations of the Linux kernel development process and his experiences managing open source projects. During the rise of the Internet, Raymond depicts a time when the popular mindset was to develop complex operating systems carefully coordinated by a small, exclusionary group of people — “cathedrals.” Cathedrals are the traditional corporations and financial institutions, with long releases that take even longer to perfect.

Linux evolved in a completely different way according to Raymond, explaining, “quality was maintained not by rigid standards or autocracy but by the naively simple strategy of releasing every week and getting feedback from hundreds of users within days, creating a sort of Darwinian selection on the mutations introduced by developers. To the amazement of almost everyone, this worked quite well.” This Linux development model, or “bazaar” model as Raymond terms it, assumes that “bugs are generally shallow phenomena” when exposed to an army of hackers without significant coordination.

The open development policy of Linus Torvalds, who conceived the Linux kernel, was far from cathedral-building. Linus’s users were his co-developers. Cultivating a community while leveraging collaboration scales innovation up to a degree of intensity matching the users’ complexity. Linus did a lot of things right, like releasing early and often, growing a beta list of users, sending announcements encouraging participation, and he listened to (and gave credit to) beta testers.

As Linux represents software built by networked participants rather than a single cathedral, Web3 represents an Internet run by vast swathes of networked participants instead of Web2’s version dominated by a controlling few.

Proof of stake: the collaborative testing ground of Web3

Crypto is a technology model for building projects where the user is centered rather than the companies. The incentives for making something secure and usable are made possible by everyone. One area where every user maintains some level of participation is on proof-of-stake protocols — which are also the fastest growing industry sector. Upgrades to the Ethereum network could turn crypto staking into a $40 billion industry by 2025, according to JPMorgan. With proof of stake, there are levels of participation that prevent the “cathedral” from happening.

Even though there’s a team behind every chain, ultimately, the design of a decentralized network means that they will not have absolute control. At different levels of participation, multiple groups of users play critical roles in harmony with key features like governance and scalability.

As developers transition away from proof of work for greater power efficiency and scalability more protocols will implement a version of proof of stake, in which users stake tokens (cryptocurrency) to run validators for a particular network. Whether service providers or retail users, commercial or institutional, users are incentivized to secure the network by locking up tokens and are rewarded in the form of the network’s native tokens. Validators can be slashed for misbehavior like double signing blocks or downtime. Penalties include loss of existing funds and missing out on future rewards. Staking is your voice, good behavior is encouraged to increase the number of participating users, and the network can flourish securely without the need for centralized control.

Since proof of stake protocols are in relatively early-stage development and are newer than proof of work protocols like Bitcoin, frequent upgrades take place. Operators and co-developers are relied upon for network updates and proposals. For instance, Polkadot, a Web3 platform, is a sharded protocol that enables blockchain networks to operate together seamlessly. Polkadot utilizes user-driven governance to upgrade the network. The loose coordination is “on-chain and enacted autonomously, ensuring that Polkadot’s development reflects the values of the community and avoids stagnation.” When the network sees limitations of current staking parameters, they impose restrictions to ensure the stability of the network. The community changes the terms of service, not the company.

Rewards are the incentive mechanism for people who run nodes, but not every chain draws users for the primary purpose of making a financial return. There needs to be memetics, culture, socialization, and purpose for people to use the network. Blockchains will continue to be abstracted away in Web3. The millions of customers buying NFTs from OpenSea, the first NFT marketplace to pass $1 billion in monthly trading volume, probably don’t care that it supports Polygon, “a popular Layer 2 Ethereum blockchain that boasts a more energy-efficient structure that will allow OpenSea to entirely eliminate gas fees for creators, buyers, and sellers on that blockchain,” according to Techcrunch. Nor do they ultimately care that Degenerate Ape Academy is built on Solana, a proof-of-stake blockchain. The collectors only care about adding rare pictures of cartoon apes to their portfolios. They participate in what offers the memetic value to them that is created by other users on top of the underlying protocol. Unbeknownst to most crypto gamers and art collectors, the more usage there is, the stronger the network becomes.

While abstraction might temporarily bring new users into the space, institutional users want to be reassured for the long-term by solid technology, which means, in some cases, the blockchain supports cathedrals. Provenance is a proof-of-stake blockchain network developed by Figure, a home equity line of credit originator, to help financial service industry needs by providing a ledger, registry, and exchange across multiple financial assets and markets. The chain is run and operated by large financial institutions like Franklin Templeton and Caliber Home Loans.

Financial institutions, despite their traditional practices of centralizing control, are incentivized to run nodes because they receive transaction fees. They’re also incentivized to participate because certain aspects of their business are cheaper using Web3 and blockchain technology than through their old Web2 processes. Even as a cathedral, they have unique incentives powered by a proof of stake protocol.

As decentralized teams play less of a role in managing the protocols, the individual participants manage the protocol requiring only minor organization. However, participants will still need to be incentivized to participate in securing, using, and building on the protocol. All of these examples amplify what makes the bazaar and Web3’s networked collaboration so successful — an alliance of autonomous users receiving constant stimulation while working towards a common goal.

In this case, the medium is the blockchain: network that stores, transfers, and exchanges value. As Raymond stated, “Linus was keeping his hackers/users constantly stimulated and rewarded — stimulated by the prospect of having an ego-satisfying piece of the action. Rewarded by the sight of constant (even daily) improvement in their work.”

Linux was a catalyst for the creative thinking that’s manifesting itself in Web3, today and in its exciting future. Cathedrals, however, still exist and it’s unclear if Web2 will fully transition to Web3. How can technology truly belong to the people and Web3 be wholly driven by networked collaboration? Does it have to be zero-sum? It’s a leap of faith. Cathedrals that enable rent-seeking behavior, and are so ingrained in Web2 economic and business models, will need to continue to embrace the bazaar, bending towards how these communities work from the bottom-up, not top-down.

Web3 might not be the final answer, but it’s the current iteration, and innovation isn’t always obvious in the beginning. Loot “started with lists of fictional gear, aided by ample decentralized imagination.” As long as talented builders are incentivized to collaborate, Web3 can open up a whole new world we’ve never dreamed possible.

The bazaar model partially remade the commercial software world in its image like crypto’s networked collaboration will inevitably do to traditional business models. Centralized organizations will not win without embracing decentralization to some degree, and those that do will be decades ahead of their competition while possibly doing some good.

Networked collaboration harnesses the brainpower of communities and has plausible promise. We’ve seen an explosion of interest in crypto that continues to parallel, if not follow, the principles laid out by Linus Torvalds. The future of the Internet will belong to the “people who leave behind the cathedral and embrace the bazaar.”

Web3 Will Be Driven By Crypto’s Networked Collaboration was originally published in The Coinbase Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Coinbase now supports security keys for 2-factor authentication on mobile

September 13, 2021 Coinbase

By Shilpa Dhar, VP of Product Management, Coinbase

At Coinbase, every customer is opted into two-factor authentication (2FA) automatically. This higher level of security is not the default for many traditional financial institutions and other technology platforms. But at Coinbase, we believe this extra step helps us keep our customers and their funds secure, including by providing protection against account takeovers (ATOs), which are usually caused by phishing campaigns, SIM swaps, or support scams.

We want to ensure that all our users can leverage secure 2FA methods to access their accounts on Coinbase. That is why we are rolling out hardware security key support for 2FA when logging into Coinbase through your mobile device (support for desktop is already available).

Have you ever signed into an account and been asked to take a second step to verify your identity? That’s 2FA. Activating 2FA is critical in keeping your online accounts secure, but not all 2FA methods are created equal. Hardware security keys are arguably the most secure 2FA method (with SMS verification being the least secure). This is because security keys don’t require you to type out a code that attackers can find ways to intercept.

Hardware security keys are encrypted USB devices that you can register with your Coinbase account as a strong form of physical 2FA. Once registered, you’ll be prompted for your security key when logging in. You then plug in the key, or tap via near field communication (NFC), to your mobile device to securely access your account.

It’s small enough to carry on your keychain, so you have access to it all the time. You can also set up multiple keys (which is best practice), so you can keep a backup in case one is lost. They will cost extra, starting around $45, but hardware security keys enable phishing-resistant security against bad actors, as evidenced by the fact that we have observed the strongest defense against ATOs for users that use security keys as their 2FA method.

How to get started

First, you’ll need a security key that works on both your mobile device and desktop. YubiKey is a trusted brand that works on desktop and mobile devices, and provides different products depending on the type of device you have, including the YubiKey 5C NFC (Android + iOS NFC) YubiKey 5C NFC (Android + iOS NFC), YubiKey 5Ci (iOS + Android), YubiKey 5C (Android)
Then, sign into Coinbase on desktop and go to your settings page
Click on the security tab and scroll down to the 2-step verification section
Select the option that says ‘Security Key’ and follow instructions to set it up
Once you’ve completed set-up, you can use that security key as your 2FA on both the Coinbase website and mobile app (see how to use a YubiKey device here)

*Coinbase prompt to use your security key for 2FA on mobile*

Now our customers anywhere around the world can secure their Coinbase accounts with a security key on both desktop and mobile. We started rolling out security key support for 2FA on mobile last month, and all eligible customers will have access by the end of year. Security keys for 2FA are not currently supported on Coinbase Pro or Coinbase Wallet.

Coinbase now supports security keys for 2-factor authentication on mobile was originally published in The Coinbase Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

More ways to trade: now use dark mode and privacy mode

June 30, 2021 Coinbase

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This week, we’re rolling out dark mode in the Coinbase app to customers around the world to make it easier and more delightful to trade and HODL at any time. Plus, we’re giving you more privacy options with the ability to hide your account balances from view.

More delightful trading at any time

The crypto market is open 24/7 and millions of customers trade around the clock. Staring at a bright digital screen can be overwhelming during low-light hours or at any point in the day. Dark mode makes it easier for you to use the Coinbase app at any time, in your preferred lighting. Crypto markets don’t rest but now your eyes can.

Flexible display settings

You can easily manage dark mode in the Coinbase app:

Open the app and tap Settings
Scroll down to the Display section
Select a setting under Appearance

Dark mode automatically matches your phone’s system settings, so if you already use it on your phone then there’s no need to turn it on.

More privacy options

As crypto becomes a bigger part of your life, you open the Coinbase app in an increasing number of situations. We understand that you don’t always want your balance information prominently displayed, so we’re now allowing you to hide your balance information.

Simple set up

To hide your balance:

Open the Coinbase app and tap Settings
Toggle on Privacy Mode
Tap and hold your Portfolio balance at any time to hide your balance

As you interact with the cryptoeconomy in more ways at more times, we want to make your experience easier and more delightful. We’ll continue to listen to you and adjust the Coinbase app to better suit your lifestyle.

More ways to trade: now use dark mode and privacy mode was originally published in The Coinbase Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

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