Rishi Dean, Director of Product Management at Coinbase, announced that the new DApp wallet and browser would be available first to a small subset of users in the US on Android. The new feature will “expand to all users and platforms soon,” the blog post reads.
Along with the mobile browser, Coinbse also introduced a hot co-custodial wallet. This means that the private key is split between the customer and Coinbase. “Ultimately, this means if you lose access to your device, the key to your DApp wallet is still safe, and Coinbase can assist in recovery through our live support,” Rishi Dean wrote.
Coinbase product director assured that such a model is highly secure and much more resilient to loss or theft, as there is no single holder of the complete key. Although the wallet lives in the app, it’s segregated from the user's primary balance, so Coinbase can't move funds on the customer’s behalf. However, on-chain transactions, such as transferring funds in or out of the DApp wallet, will incur gas fees.
Following the recent crypto market crash, Coinbase stock plunged 50% since May 5, trading at $61 at the moment of writing. The company’s Q1 2022 report revealed that revenue had dropped 27% to $1.17 billion, down from $1.6 billion in Q1 2021. Despite the figures, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said he’s “never been more bullish on where we are as a company.”
