Coinbase announced Monday it will sell, trade and mint NFTs as part of its expansion from its cryptocurrency-based roots. Although details are scarce about how Coinbase NFT will accomplish all this, the company sees a great opportunity. Coinbase's NFT service was a great way to help millions of people get bitcoin, and we hope that it can do the same for NFTs. Sanchan Saxena, vice president of product at Coinbase, writes.
Social engagement seems to be the big idea. Coinbase will curate your personal NFT feed and show you the NFTs that you have on your profile. This will allow you to connect with other like-minded digital cats, punks and apes fans.
Coinbase NFT will launch with Ethereum-based ERC-721 & ERC-1155 standards. All NFTs will be available on-chain and plans to add multi-chain support shortly after launch. Coinbase NFT is similar to OpenSea's current NFT marketplace.
TechCrunch points out that Coinbases plans seem to lack any Layer-2 scaling integration. This is a popular way to reduce the environmental and financial impact of trading and minting art on Ethereum blockchain. NFTs have been criticized for replicating some of the inequitable or speculative aspects of the real-world market art, but they also pose a lot of environmental issues due to the amount of energy required to operate the Ethereum blockchain.
Although Coinbases plans may change in the future, if you are interested in another NFT showroom/trading area, there is a waiting list that allows for early access.
