Coinbase: Coming Social Media and Finance

Over the past year we discussed how the combining of social media and finance is well underway. This is something that was Elon Musk brought to the forefront with his purchase of Twitter and the filing for money transfer licenses.

He is not the only one doing this. We know there are projects within the cryptocurrency industry that also are part of this. Here is where we see the combination of the two taking place.

Now there is another entrant into the game. Coinbase is delivering wallet services to a number of social messenger applications. This is the latest in an ongoing trend.

It is also an attack on the banking sector. We are seeing massive disruption happen in real time.

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New Money Transfer Services?

According to an article on Coinjournal, Coinbase is rolling out a payment service on popular applications WhatsApp, iMessage, and Telegram. This allows people to send money global with instant settlement.

This is revolutionary. It makes services like Moneygram obsolete along with all the back in infrastructure. The banks have long maintained a monopoly, being responsible for most of the global transfers.

It is a sign of how powerful digital wallets can be. While Coinbase is a centralized entity, it does further extend the reach of cryptocurrency.

This is not a novel concept. WeChat has many payment and financial features built into it, something the Chinese have adopted in large numbers. This is moving to another level with the combination of crypto payments.

Coinbase's entry brings a relatively large player into the market, especially from the crypto space. This entity is truly looking to take on the banking system, and doing it from inside Wall Street. Technology is attacking many industry, with the financial sector at the forefront of that assault.

The key to this service, according to what is being reported, is the price. This is allowing for the transfer of money for free. This is much different than what the existing system charges.

Of course, this still does place a financial intermediary in the process, something that cryptocurrency was designed to eliminate. Here is where we see further evidence of Wall Street hijacking crypto.

Nevertheless, the process is starting to unfold where these two industries are merging.

The Attention Economy

It is hard to speculate where the next phase of crypto evolution comes from. Payments are simply one area of financial services. While it is large, there are other areas, in terms of numbers, which are bigger. This is something I would expect the industry to enter.

However, this all starts with attention. An upcoming article is going to discuss the tribal mentality and how it is the future. This means that a lot of what is taking place now will end up being counterproductive.

For the timing being, we should focus upon the idea of where attention is going. This is what will determine success as things evolve. Loyalty is going to be the currency that has value in the future. Networks will be popping up everywhere. Here is another example of a payment network that few were expecting.

Yet here it is.

This will become commonplace. Social media services will also be a given. Those entities that can expand the offering to their userbase could remain relevant. Any platform that believes it is just social media will end up crashing down.

Digital wallets alter everything. For all the conversation surrounding central bank digital currencies (CBDC), what gets overlooked is the revolutionary aspect to the wallet. I am on record as stating that CBDCs will be epic failures. The digital wallet, however, is going to take over.

Coinbase is doing a smart thing with this new service. By providing it free of charge, they are trying to garner eyeballs. They want more people on their platform, using the ecosystem. This is a smart move by that company. All platforms need to realize they have to increase the services provided, especially financial, if they want to remain relevant going forward.

So far, this is something that cryptocurrency has not done. For all the talk about the progress of the industry, there are still few services offered to the masses. That is where the next phase of development needs to concentrate.

In Conclusion

Purists can hate on Coinbase all they want. However, Brain Armstrong is very knowledgeable and has an idea of where things are going. The recent issue with Binance means there is a huge opportunity.

We can take a lesson from him in regards to building. Ultimately, success comes down to the services provided. The merging of finance and social media is underway. It is not good news for the banks. However, it is also a warning to social media platforms.

Now is the time to build services into the different ecosystems. Those that can cater to their audience will have a future.

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