6 ms·

Adding ERC20 Support to Coinbase

135 points by caoxuwen 9y ago

earlz 9y ago
Good on Binance for finally putting a fire under Coinbase
- hw 9y ago
  Coinbase is just playing catch up at this point. They started years ahead of Binance and it's surprising how far behind they are now in comparison to Binance. Chalk it up to regulation or them just resting on their laurels, but with Binance coming up with fiat-crypto pairs and setting up their operations and banking in Malta, it will only be a matter of time before Coinbase's advantage as a fiat onramp to altcoins becomes irrelevant.
  - proofofmoon 9y ago
    Fiat onramps will remain important because they drive the majority of mainstream adoption. Setting up a fiat on-ramp in an alternate jurisdiction invites a poker Black-Friday style government intervention (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Scheinberg#Accounts_seized https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Scheinberg#Ac...).
  - repomies6999 9y ago
    I think people routinely under-estimate how difficult these fiat-onramps can be to operate. Lots of regulation and compliance.
swyx 9y ago
Does this mean token trading is coming to Coinbase?
- wmf 9y ago
  the GDAX team will wait for additional regulatory clarity before we decide which ERC20 assets to support on GDAX. ... Coinbase will only list assets after they are listed on GDAX Basically no.
- paulsutter 9y ago
  This will be for the upcoming flood of SEC registered security tokens, not the existing ICO tokens which the SEC frowns upon
  - wmf 9y ago
    But GDAX/Coinbase probably isn't a compliant securities exchange and they may not be able to afford to become one.
    - mancerayder 9y ago
      Even with the institutional funding they seem to be getting? If you're right, I'd be surprised because it's reasonable to assume funding and collaboration would include some demand of that nature.
  - repomies6999 9y ago
    Flood? I'm not that convinced rhat there will be a lot of entrepreneurs willing to go through the sec process for their token.
    - charlesdm 9y ago
      You're thinking too small. Think smaller and larger cap stocks deciding to go public through a token instead of through an IPO (where they generally lose 5 to 10% of their capital raised to an underwriter, and as was seen with the Dropbox IPO, was priced way too low)
      - np_tedious 9y ago
        This probably makes sense. I've wondered looking at coinmarketcap.com which tokens every could possibly be adding. The top by market cap are: EOS (a placeholder until they're mainnet goes live), TRX, and USDT. None of which seem like good candidates for coinbase or even gdax listing
        9y ago
LAMike 9y ago
Will they use ZRX?
ada1981 9y ago
Hmm... so does this mean coinbase users will be able to send / receive erc20 from their wallets? We are about to launch an actual tropical Island with an erc20 token and this would be good news.
- CryptoPunk 9y ago
  No, it doesn't look like all ERC20 tokens will be supported by default. This is paving the way for trading pairs and wallets for ERC20 tokens, which will be followed by Coinbase selecting specific ERC20 tokens to be added to its list of digital assets that it allows users to trade and hold with their Coinbase account.
  - ada1981 9y ago
    Understood, thank you.
- polyomino 9y ago
  Don't forget to add a music festival... And a theme park for good measure.
  - ada1981 9y ago
    The entire thing is a theme park. Took a trip out there 2 months ago and it was by far the biggest adventure of my life. Right now it's shaping up to have a cooperatively run intimate festival once a year, where we will build infrastructure that will stay year after year. Though someone did suggest a zip line from the mountain to the ocean... I'm really humbled that this land has been made available for this project and I'd like to use it in service of adventure, healing, inspiration and community.
- a_d 9y ago
  “We are about to launch an actual tropical Island with an erc20 token and this would be good news.” Super interesting comment. How can I learn more about your project?Are you doing this as a reg D offering? (With Securitize or polymath?) Definitely one of the most interesting thing I have heard in a while :-) therefore curious to learn more... (I have been thinking of a similar project, but didn’t move beyond research)
B1narySunset 9y ago
Will this impact services like Radar Relay in any way?
- rargulati 9y ago
  It's hard to say, but likely no. Radar Relay is a decentralized exchange. Coinbase is a centralized exchange. They're competing for mostly different sets of folks. If Coinbase actually releases ERC20 token trading, it would have more of an impact on exchanges such as Kraken, Binance, and Pol.
geeostation 9y ago
Hopefully they'll get to alternative tech such as DAGs like the block lattice of Nano or Tangle of Iota. Nano in particular could use a fiat ramp as the first and only crypto to be instant and feeless. Nano could be the one that takes cryptos mainstream - which is Coinbase's mission statement as well
- tobltobs 9y ago
  > Nano ... as the first and only crypto to be instant and feeless. Nano, the perpetuum mobile of the Crypto world.
- CryptoPunk 9y ago
  DAG-only chains are very experimental and have unresolved game theoretic vulnerabilities. IOTA resolves it for now with a centralized coordinator while Nano seems to just be counting on no one attempting to exploit its vulnerabilities until its developers come up with a solution. They are not ready for major commercial use and there's no guarantee they ever will be. If a DAG-only protocol can be shown to be secure, it could be a major breakthrough for distributed ledger scalability.
- profalseidol 9y ago
  They will if there's volume.

135 points by caoxuwen 9y ago

earlz 9y ago

Good on Binance for finally putting a fire under Coinbase

hw 9y ago
Coinbase is just playing catch up at this point. They started years ahead of Binance and it's surprising how far behind they are now in comparison to Binance. Chalk it up to regulation or them just resting on their laurels, but with Binance coming up with fiat-crypto pairs and setting up their operations and banking in Malta, it will only be a matter of time before Coinbase's advantage as a fiat onramp to altcoins becomes irrelevant.
- proofofmoon 9y ago
  Fiat onramps will remain important because they drive the majority of mainstream adoption. Setting up a fiat on-ramp in an alternate jurisdiction invites a poker Black-Friday style government intervention (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Scheinberg#Accounts_seized https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Scheinberg#Ac...).
- repomies6999 9y ago
  I think people routinely under-estimate how difficult these fiat-onramps can be to operate. Lots of regulation and compliance.

swyx 9y ago

Does this mean token trading is coming to Coinbase?

wmf 9y ago
the GDAX team will wait for additional regulatory clarity before we decide which ERC20 assets to support on GDAX. ... Coinbase will only list assets after they are listed on GDAX Basically no.
paulsutter 9y ago
This will be for the upcoming flood of SEC registered security tokens, not the existing ICO tokens which the SEC frowns upon
- wmf 9y ago
  But GDAX/Coinbase probably isn't a compliant securities exchange and they may not be able to afford to become one.
  - mancerayder 9y ago
    Even with the institutional funding they seem to be getting? If you're right, I'd be surprised because it's reasonable to assume funding and collaboration would include some demand of that nature.
- repomies6999 9y ago
  Flood? I'm not that convinced rhat there will be a lot of entrepreneurs willing to go through the sec process for their token.
  - charlesdm 9y ago
    You're thinking too small. Think smaller and larger cap stocks deciding to go public through a token instead of through an IPO (where they generally lose 5 to 10% of their capital raised to an underwriter, and as was seen with the Dropbox IPO, was priced way too low)
    - np_tedious 9y ago
      This probably makes sense. I've wondered looking at coinmarketcap.com which tokens every could possibly be adding. The top by market cap are: EOS (a placeholder until they're mainnet goes live), TRX, and USDT. None of which seem like good candidates for coinbase or even gdax listing
      - 9y ago

LAMike 9y ago

Will they use ZRX?

ada1981 9y ago

Hmm... so does this mean coinbase users will be able to send / receive erc20 from their wallets? We are about to launch an actual tropical Island with an erc20 token and this would be good news.

CryptoPunk 9y ago
No, it doesn't look like all ERC20 tokens will be supported by default. This is paving the way for trading pairs and wallets for ERC20 tokens, which will be followed by Coinbase selecting specific ERC20 tokens to be added to its list of digital assets that it allows users to trade and hold with their Coinbase account.
- ada1981 9y ago
  Understood, thank you.
polyomino 9y ago
Don't forget to add a music festival... And a theme park for good measure.
- ada1981 9y ago
  The entire thing is a theme park. Took a trip out there 2 months ago and it was by far the biggest adventure of my life. Right now it's shaping up to have a cooperatively run intimate festival once a year, where we will build infrastructure that will stay year after year. Though someone did suggest a zip line from the mountain to the ocean... I'm really humbled that this land has been made available for this project and I'd like to use it in service of adventure, healing, inspiration and community.
a_d 9y ago
“We are about to launch an actual tropical Island with an erc20 token and this would be good news.” Super interesting comment. How can I learn more about your project?Are you doing this as a reg D offering? (With Securitize or polymath?) Definitely one of the most interesting thing I have heard in a while :-) therefore curious to learn more... (I have been thinking of a similar project, but didn’t move beyond research)

B1narySunset 9y ago

Will this impact services like Radar Relay in any way?

rargulati 9y ago
It's hard to say, but likely no. Radar Relay is a decentralized exchange. Coinbase is a centralized exchange. They're competing for mostly different sets of folks. If Coinbase actually releases ERC20 token trading, it would have more of an impact on exchanges such as Kraken, Binance, and Pol.

geeostation 9y ago

Hopefully they'll get to alternative tech such as DAGs like the block lattice of Nano or Tangle of Iota. Nano in particular could use a fiat ramp as the first and only crypto to be instant and feeless. Nano could be the one that takes cryptos mainstream - which is Coinbase's mission statement as well

tobltobs 9y ago
> Nano ... as the first and only crypto to be instant and feeless. Nano, the perpetuum mobile of the Crypto world.
CryptoPunk 9y ago
DAG-only chains are very experimental and have unresolved game theoretic vulnerabilities. IOTA resolves it for now with a centralized coordinator while Nano seems to just be counting on no one attempting to exploit its vulnerabilities until its developers come up with a solution. They are not ready for major commercial use and there's no guarantee they ever will be. If a DAG-only protocol can be shown to be secure, it could be a major breakthrough for distributed ledger scalability.
profalseidol 9y ago
They will if there's volume.