Coinbase has launched its new smart wallet with partners such as DeFi lending protocol Moonwell, offering them freebies they can pass onto consumers to get more people on-chain. 

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Coinbase’s “on-chain summer” has kicked off with the launch of its new smart wallet. This interview with Luke Youngblood, founding contributor to Moonwell, gives a peek at how it’s sweetening the pot for developers and users alike. 

In this episode, Youngblood describes how smart wallets are different from traditional wallets, how they do away with past security issues, and the more minor potential risks that still do exist with smart wallets. He also gives details on the ways that Coinbase is trying to use its smart wallet to get users on-chain: making it much easier to transact on-chain directly from their Coinbase accounts, subsidizing gas costs for certain dapps, and making sure everything is web-accessible. 

Plus, he explains why Moonwell chose Base, how it is branching out to non-crypto native DeFi users, such as populations that only have mobile phones and not desktop computers in geographies like Africa, Latin America, and Asia, and how the DeFi lending protocol differentiates itself from bigger ones that have established a beachhead on Base. 

Show highlights:

• How smart wallets differ from traditional wallets and embedded wallets
• Why Luke is excited to be working with Coinbase smart wallet
• What happens if the user loses the device linked to their smart wallet
• How hard it would be for a hacker to try to get access to the assets in this smart wallet
• How Coinbase is initially paying for user gas fees on dapps like Moonwell and other launch partners
• How Coinbase’s Magic Spend feature enables users to transact onchain straight from their Coinbase accounts
• How Coinbase might keep paying gas fees for some dapps even after the initial launch period
• Why the smart wallet is also accessible via the web, and not just through an app
• Why Moonwell has focused on lending and borrowing
• Why Moonwell chose to build on Base as opposed to, say, Solana
• Moonwell’s plans to grow 
• How having access to Coinbase’s user base changes Moonwell’s strategy for attracting users

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Guest |  

Luke Youngblood

Links |  

• Previous coverage on Unchained:
• Coinbase Smart Wallet: Coinbase Launches Its Smart Wallets, Dubbing It Crypto’s ‘IPhone Moment’
• Wallets: 
• Why (Almost) Everyone in Ethereum Is So Excited About a Wallet-Related Proposal
• What Are Externally Owned Accounts (EOAs) in Ethereum?
• An Introduction to ERC-4337 (Account Abstraction) Standard
• Base: 
• How Ethereum’s Dencun Upgrade Could Lead to the Rise of Millions of Layer 3s
• Dencun Day One: Ethereum Layer 2 Networks See Drastic Drop in Transaction Fees
• Base Daily Transactions Spike to 2 Million Post Dencun Upgrade 
• Why Base’s Creator Thinks Social Apps Will Be a ‘Huge Part’ of the Layer 2 Blockchain’s Success
• Base TVL Hits $4 Billion as Transactions Per Second Surpass Ethereum
• 3 Reasons Why Layer 2 Network Base Has More Than Doubled Its Total Value Locked This Year
• Ethereum Layer 2s:
• Ethereum L2 Networks Reach Record High of 7 Million Distinct Addresses

Unchained Podcast is Produced by Laura Shin Media, LLC.  Distributed by CoinDesk. Senior Producer is Michele Musso and Executive Producer is Jared Schwartz. 

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