Beam, a crypto wallet backed by venture capital giant Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) and the investment arm of Coinbase (COIN), went live on Thursday. Developed by fintech firm Eco, the wallet will support the protocol’s native token ECO and stablecoin USDC. According to an emailed announcement, Beam users can send payments without signing up or performing KYC checks, simply by using a link to a QR code. This is meant to create the closest possible equivalent to using crypto like cash.
The wallet is built on Ethereum layer-2 blockchains Optimism and Coinbase’s Base, the latter of which is set for a public launch next month. Beam was made possible by Ethereum’s ERC-4337 implementation, which could make it easier for users to recover crypto if they lose private keys, and Optimism’s Superchain initiative, which is meant to increase transaction speeds and reduce fees.
Eco raised around $95 million across five funding rounds between September 2019 and July 2021, with Founders Fund, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Pantera Capital among the investors, as well as a16z and Coinbase Ventures. Simplifying the process of sending and receiving crypto is one of several problems which could pave the way for an acceleration in mainstream adoption.