Coinbase has announced that its crypto wallet product will now support encrypted messaging. This new feature allows any two Ethereum addresses to communicate, as long as they are both connected to the same messaging protocol, XMTP. Coinbase is not the first crypto wallet provider to offer this type of messaging, but it is the largest, with 1.3 million users, Coinbase’s wallet is the most popular.
Coinbase is enabling users to easily port their conversations from any of the ~450 applications built on XMTP to Coinbase Wallet, said Director of Product Management Siddharth Coelho-Prabhu. Its infrastructure allows Coinbase Wallet messages to be fully permissionless and interoperable while giving users the freedom to fully own their messages and transactions through their personal, on-chain identity.
Unlike asset transfers, messages sent to and from crypto wallets are not recorded on a blockchain. XMTP messages are sent across a permissioned network of nodes controlled by XMTP Labs. The company is working to decentralize this network over time.