Major US-based crypto exchange Coinbase is taking a swing at both traditional payment companies and crypto-native competitors with the introduction of Coinbase Pay. The new solution, however, differs from existing payments solutions from competitors like Binance, for example, as the former is a way to fund Coinbase's browser-based wallet with fiat, while the latter is a way for users to fund accounts with fiat and send crypto to others for free.
Let's take a look at what these two solutions are exactly.
According to an announcement from Coinbase earlier this week, its new payments service is a browser extension for the Chrome web browser meant to make it “easy and intuitive for anyone” to participate in decentralized finance (DeFi) or to trade non-fungible tokens (NFTs).
Taking part in both of those areas normally requires users to fund and use non-custodial browser-based wallets such as MetaMask -- which Coinbase described as “a cumbersome process that involves multiple steps” and has a high potential for user error.
To solve this problem, Coinbase offered its own payments solution that it says makes it easier to fund its existing browser wallet, the Coinbase Wallet, with either fiat or crypto from other wallets.
This differs from other wallets such as MetaMask, which cannot be funded directly with fiat currency from a debit or credit card.
The integration of the payment system into Coinbase’s wallet thus removes the need to switch between different apps and websites in order to fund the wallet, making the process “faster, easier, and more secure than ever before,” according to the exchange.
Meanwhile, Binance Pay, the payments system rolled out by rival crypto exchange Binance last year, is based on the exchange’s mobile app
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