Wallet’s decentralized web feature will allow users to link to supported Dapps from any browser using a new system called Walletlink.
The San Francisco-based cryptocurrency exchange announced today in a blog post, the open-sourced Walletlink acts as a “secure bridge” between the Coinbase ecosystem and the traditional web.
The feature will enable Coinbase Wallet users to access and administer their funds – separate from their crypto holdings on Coinbase.com – from a desktop Dapp interface for the first time, said Coinbase Wallet product lead Sid Coelho-Prabhu.
Coinbase has long supported the use of decentralized platforms through its mobile wallet app, a feature the company says has garnered hundreds of thousands of users. Now, the company looks to expand access beyond its mobile app to desktop browsers like Google Chrome, Brave, and Opera. Though a user's private keys are still securely stored on their mobile devices.
The company said this saves users from having to install “clunky browser extensions, copying and pasting private keys across devices, and seeing fragmented wallet balances."
Instead, a user scans a QR code that propagates an encrypted link between the wallet app and browser. The system also provides a security feature that pings users on their mobile devices after they make transactions.
The Dapps
The first four Dapps supported by Walletlink offer decentralized financial (DeFi) services for crypto holdings. Coelho-Prabhu said the firm approached the most popular Dapps in the market to launch with the new feature, including Compound, a protocol to earn interest, Maker, an ETH lending service, IDEX, a decentralized exchange, and dYdX, a protocol for margin trading, borrowing and lending.
The company plans to expand access to other Dapp categories. In fact, Coelho-Prabhu said Coinbase Wallet worked with programmers to make the development process from "demoing to integration" as simple as possible.
In addition to Dapps, the Coinbase Wallet software enables access to ERC-20 token platforms, token airdrops and ICOs, as well as collecting non-fungible tokens, online shopping, and P2P crypto transactions.
In February, Coinbase wallet unveiled a cloud-storage backup to safely store user’s private keys.
Coinbase Wallet screenshots courtesy of Coinbase