Coinbase Commerce Halts Support for Native Bitcoin, Stirs Community Backlash
Summary:
Coinbase Commerce no longer supports native Bitcoin and other UTXO coins, a decision announced by the company's product head Lauren Dowling, citing challenges implementing recent enhancements to the EVM payment protocol for Bitcoin. Despite the cut, users can still utilize Bitcoin via Coinbase Commerce if they have a Coinbase account. The move sparked backlash from the community, voicing concerns over how it impedes wider Bitcoin adoption.
In an unexpected move, Coinbase Commerce, a popular payment platform for merchants, no longer supports native Bitcoin and other UTXO coins. The product head of Coinbase, Lauren Dowling, made this statement during a recent online exchange on X (previously known as Twitter).
Explaining the move, Dowling mentioned the challenges they faced during the recent modifications to the EVM payment protocol for Bitcoin. She revealed that their new Commerce product necessitates details of every onchain payment, supports numerous assets (both native and ERC-20s), and allows payments to be automatically transformed into USDC at a locked-in rate beneficial to merchants.
This level of functionality, without the usage of smart contracts and stablecoins, was difficult to achieve within the Bitcoin blockchain. Therefore, the difficult choice of removing support for native Bitcoin and other UTXO currencies was made.
Nevertheless, Coinbase Commerce clients can still employ Bitcoin, given that they have an active account with the cryptocurrency exchange. This information was shared by the CEO of Coinbase, Brian Amstrong, through X.
Moreover, Armstrong elaborated on the introduction of Lightning Network to Coinbase, a promising development that will facilitate commerce payments. The Lightning Network is a innovative protocol designed to ease Bitcoin blockchain transactions, and since 2017, Bitcoin transactions have been implemented through this protocol.
On a broader context, Armstrong believes that for cryptocurrency payments to gain mainstream acceptance online, it is crucial to move beyond layer 1, minimize transaction costs, and slash confirmation times. To that end, Coinbase is striving to hasten this transition.
Bitcoin functions based on the UTXO (Unspent Transaction Output) model to record transactions, which is known for its security and transparency. This is in contrast to Ethereum's account model, which mirrors the workings of traditional bank accounts and is more flexible.
However, this move by Coinbase to eliminate native Bitcoin invoked sharp criticism from the community on social media platforms. Many were concern about how it hinders the adoption of Bitcoin.
One anonymous user, for instance, questioned if Coinbase was assuming every customer was based in the US and thus eligible for a Coinbase account. They also questioned the prerequisite of having a Coinbase account, comparing it to customers needing a Bank of America account for payments to the merchants banking with it.
Published At
2/19/2024 12:36:32 AM
Disclaimer: Algoine does not endorse any content or product on this page. Readers should conduct their own research before taking any actions related to the asset, company, or any information in this article and assume full responsibility for their decisions. This article should not be considered as investment advice. Our news is prepared with AI support.
Do you suspect this content may be misleading, incomplete, or inappropriate in any way, requiring modification or removal?
We appreciate your report.