Coinbase, a leading cryptocurrency exchange, is set to introduce a cutting-edge smart wallet for its users. This innovative Coinbase Wallet aims to enhance user convenience by streamlining the onboarding process, eliminating gas fees, and doing away with the need for recovery phrases.
Smart wallets simplify the user experience by allowing individuals to create a new wallet and join a blockchain network without the hassle of downloading a new application or receiving a recovery phrase. Instead, the smart wallet will seamlessly integrate with popular apps and utilize various authentication methods such as Face ID, Google Chrome profiles, fingerprint ID, or Yubikey for onboarding through a secure passkey stored on the user’s device.
This smart wallet will provide users with self-custody and enable payments from their Coinbase Wallet or Coinbase account. Additionally, developers will have the option to cover gas fees by sponsoring transactions through a paymaster.
A companion web app will serve as the main platform for users, offering features like asset and identity management, buying, sending, swapping, nonfungible tokens, and transaction history. Coinbase guarantees a smooth and intuitive experience throughout these transactions.
Initially, the smart wallet will support networks such as Base, Ethereum, Optimism, Arbitrum, Polygon, Avalanche, BNB Chain, and Zora. This smart wallet will be available free of charge for both users and developers. Coinbase announced in a post on its Canadian blog that current users can expect to access the new wallet in the coming months once all migration tools are finalized.
While smart wallet technology is not new, companies like Loopring and Argent pioneered it in 2020. Ethereum developer Vitalik Buterin endorsed the concept in the following year, highlighting the security benefits of “social recovery” features that eliminate the need for recovery phrases.
The breakthrough technology for smart wallets on Ethereum, known as “account abstraction,” was introduced with the ERC-4337 standard in March 2023. Buterin reiterated the advantages of smart wallets in a blog post in June 2023.
Coinbase began offering smart wallets to developers in March, signaling a growing adoption of this innovative technology.
(Source: Coinbase Wallet)