How Coinbase Plans to Make Crypto Transactions Easier

In Brief

• Coinbase is offering its users free Web3 usernames, through a partnership with ENS.
• Using an extension in the Coinbase Wallet, users can claim a “name.cb.id” username.
• Web3 usernames can also form the basis of users’ online identities, Coinbase said.

Coinbase has announced a partnership with Ethereum Name Service (ENS) that will enable its users to claim a Web3 username.

Rather than using an intimidating 42-character address to send and receive cryptocurrency and non-fungible tokens, Coinbase users can now claim a free “name.cb.id” username using their wallet extensions, the exchange said in a release on its website.

Usernames key, says Coinbase
In its announcement, Coinbase said that universal access to Web3 is necessary, “in order to create an open financial system for the world.” To this end, it explained that “fostering adoption of a human-readable username standard is a key part of making Web3 user-friendly for everyone.”

According to Coinbase, a username is the first component that makes up a user’s Web3 identity. Thanks to the new feature, provided by ENS, Coinbase users can now claim a free “name.cb.id” web3 username which they can subsequently use as the foundation of their Web3 identity.

What is ENS?
ENS is an open, distributed, and extensible naming system that works similarly to the domain name system (DNS) used in web browsers. Similar to DNS, ENS maps human-readable addresses such as “name.eth” to a machine-readable address.

These personalized addresses then enable users to manage their cryptocurrency funds and assets by providing a human-friendly interface.
After registrations for ENS domain names reached a record number earlier this year in May, they proceeded to climb another 200% by July.
Earlier this month, just ahead of the Merge, ENS sales surged, placing it atop the daily list of non-fungible token (NFT) collections, according to DappRadar.

Problems on the horizon
Yet, with any innovation comes inherent downsides. For instance, the fact that ENS services are immutable means they are effectively censorship-resistant.

However, if utilized by illegal organizations, such as terrorist organizations or human traffickers, that content cannot later be removed by authorities.

More practically, many would likely struggle with losing the keys to their domain, which like wallet private keys are unrecoverable if lost.
Meanwhile, Coinbase noted this consideration in its announcement, detailing “products like social recovery or the multi-party computation (MPC) technology… creating more forgiving experiences that can enable broader Web3 adoption.”

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