Sid Coelho-Prabhu, Coinbase Wallet Senior Director of Product Management, on Self-Custodying as the Most American Thing | Ep. 352
Sid Coelho-Prabhu, Coinbase Wallet Senior Director of Product Management, on Self-Custodying as the Most American Thing | Ep. 352
Cryptonews Podcast host Matt Zahab recently sat down for an exclusive interview with Sid Coelho-Prabhu, the Senior Director of Product Management for Coinbase Wallet.
The executive discussed why self-custodying crypto is the most American thing now, particularly in the current US political climate.
He went on to explain how making self-custody simple and convenient will result in the next adoption wave, as well as the way the crypto space has evolved over the past year alone.
Lastly, Coelho-Prabhu listed the major pain points the new Coinbase products are solving.
‘There’s Nothing More American Than Self-Custodying Crypto’
There has been a notable shift in the US political scene in regard to crypto. For the first time in history, one of the country’s two dominating parties – the Republican Party – has committed to the right to self-custody.
“I was so excited, I had to pinch myself when I saw the news,” Coelho-Prabhu said. “I never in my wildest imagination thought it would be part of a presidential platform or a presidential debate. And to see that happen is amazing.”
The executive argued that this is the result of a major realization. Politicians are recognizing that one in five Americans owns crypto.
This means that a large number of voters support crypto assets. A politician would be wise to encourage that user base rather than alienate it.
“I’m glad that at least one political party has understood that. To some extent, there’s nothing more American than owning and self-custodying crypto,” Coelho-Prabhu remarked.
Crypto is freedom and economic empowerment, and these should not be partisan issues. Rather, everyone should support each individual’s right to access investments.
A major American political party has declared in its official platform its commitment to "the right to self-custody." Why not both major American political parties? — paulgrewal.eth (@iampaulgrewal) July 8, 2024
As for the Democratic Party, “who knows how the next few months will play out,” he said.
But it’s also important to note that there’s the official party platform on the one hand and individual politicians on the other, getting calls from their own constituents saying that crypto matters to them.
“And so you may see even at an individual level that things start to change,” said Coelho-Prabhu.
You might also like Coinbase Narrows Subpoena to SEC Chair Gensler, Focuses on Communications During Tenure
Through Simple Self-Custody to the Next Wave of Adoption
There are ways to inspire the next giant wave of adopters to enter the space, but some issues need to be fixed first.
Scalability and usability both “suck,” said Coelho-Prabhu. But Coinbase has “fixed” it for its products.
Therefore, “we’ve created, I think, the conditions for the next wave of growth, where app developers can create something,” he remarked.
Developers don’t have to worry about asking Average Joe and Jane to go through a 30-step onboarding process. Rather. it takes only a couple of clicks.
“I think that’s going to kick off the next wave,” argued Coelho-Prabhu.
The new Coinbase Wallet web app gives you a full picture of all of your onchain activity. ⤷ 360° view of your holdings
⤷ Connect all of your wallets
⤷ One-stop shop for trading
⤷ Smart wallet companion
⤷ Tools for onchain creativityhttps://t.co/TGP31Wc3QA pic.twitter.com/WuFvZWSsVS — Coinbase Wallet 🛡️ (@CoinbaseWallet) July 11, 2024
Explaining the issues in more detail, he argued that crypto was practically unusable for a decade.
This is further connected to the high fee prices of an already volatile currency. That combinations is a recipe for a bad experience.
Lastly, when it comes to scalability, things have been changing over the last five years. But there was “a closed-loop system where if an app was popular […], it would become so popular that it would congest the blockchain, and then the blockchain itself would basically freeze or become unusable because of high fees.”
In the last year, “everything has changed. That’s pretty amazing,” Coelho-Prabhu said.
For example, Layer 2 blockchains can now support tens of thousands of transactions. Coinbase itself has launched Base.
This helps solve the issues of scalability and high fees.
1 in 8 Americans sent money abroad last year.
Why? To help their families with daily living expenses. But there are two problems: ✓ Fees are too high ($6 for every $100)
✓ Wait times are too long (literally days)@CoinbaseWallet can help. pic.twitter.com/7NqVzHxXYq — Coinbase 🛡️ (@coinbase) June 20, 2024
As for usability, Coinbase recently launched the Smart Wallet product that greatly simplifies user experience.
Users create a wallet in a few seconds without leaving the website and can automatically spend from that account directly on-chain.
Per the exec, the exchange has over 100 million customers and “probably $100+ billion sitting on Coinbase right now. You can now go and use those on-chain.”
New Desktop App Solving Major Pain Points
Another notable product the exchange has recently launched is its new Coinbase Wallet desktop app.
“I don’t think anyone has really done this where it’s just all in this one portal, and it’s really easy to use,” Coelho-Prabhu said.
The product addresses some of the biggest pain points the team has seen from the users. These include the ability to:
use on-chain assets on the desktop and have the full-screen experience;
manage multiple wallets in one place;
discover what’s new on-chain, the latest trends, trending apps, NFT mints, new coins, etc.
Then, they can transfer between those wallets, trade from any of them, buy crypto, or cash it out.
The @CoinbaseWallet web app is your one wallet for everything. Get a full picture of your digital assets and mint, create, or trade in seconds—all from a single place. https://t.co/YFgiiycBgl — Coinbase 🛡️ (@coinbase) July 11, 2024
There were many moving parts: the team had to add support to almost every wallet in the ecosystem, then add full portfolio functionality, as well as the discovery side of things.
However, “I have to give props to the ecosystem,” Coelho-Prabhu remarked.
“It’s done a really good job for wallet connecting capabilities. There’s kind of universal standards now for how wallets can connect to apps. And in that sense, this is just another app now,” he said.
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That’s not all.
In this interview, Coelho-Prabhu also discussed:
why self-custody matters: be your own bank, store your own money;
building on Base to fix scalability issues;
how difficult it was to build the new Coinbase Wallet desktop app;
Coinbase’s Smart Wallet and the simplicity of using it;
the role of Coinbase Wallet in the broader adoption of decentralized applications;
payments as the possible major narrative for H2 2024;
the second season of Onchain Summer;
what it’s like working for Coinbase;
having a fully remote and hybrid work culture.
You can watch the full podcast episode here.
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About Sid Coelho-Prabhu
Sid Coelho-Prabhu is the Senior Director of Product Management for Coinbase Wallet, the self-custody wallet that serves as a gateway to the on-chain ecosystem.
He joined Coinbase in 2017 to help build a more open financial system.
Before that, Coelho-Prabhu was the CEO and co-founder of Savvy Investments, an online investment advisory and management service.