- Coinbase’s CEO Brian Armstrong admits that coinbase app is broken for user experience.
- This follows the introduction of on-chain activities on Coinbase’s new layer-2 network base.
- The CEO requested X users to submit feedback , promising to have them fixed in the next two weeks.
According to CEO Brian Armstrong, the introduction of on-chain activities on Coinbase’s new layer-2 network Base has shown how “broken” the Coinbase app is for user experience, and he has committed to repairing it.
Founded by Armstrong in 2012, Coinbase helps users buy, sell, and store cryptocurrencies, such as bitcoin and ethereum. According to CNN, Brian Armstrong is currently one of the richest people on earth after Coinbase went public at a valuation of $100 billion. He owned 40 million shares, making him worth $16 billion.
In an X (twitter) post, Armstrong stated that several issues had come to light during “Onchain Summer,” a multi-week festival of product launches, marketing activations, and non-fungible token releases on Base that started on August 9 and runs through August 31.
Armstrong claimed that the incident had exposed the Coinbase app’s user interface’s shortcomings for non-fungible tokens, decentralized applications, and layer 2s.
“One thing #OnchainSummer is exposing is just how broken our UX is in the main Coinbase app for NFTs, Dapps, and L2s today. Sorry to say, but true.
If we face truth, we can get motivated to improve it. These need to be first class experiences, and #OnchainSummer is a great impetus”
— Brian Armstrong ️ (@brian_armstrong) August 13, 2023
The CEO asked X users to respond to the thread in order to highlight the most essential questions, adding that the next two weeks will see speedy improvements on the most pressing issues.
User Comments
Many users submitted complaints, while some thanked Brian for being forthright and honest about the app’s user experience.
A user by the name racer, asked for a quick settlement credit card on-ramp to Coinbase that didn’t need customers to create a separate account. This seemed to have been the most retreweeted comment
Another user by the name Harj Taggar commented that connection with the mobile app to approve transactions can still be abit funky, he tried a couple of times without getting a mobile notification to approve then logged out and back in to the wallet chrome extension and it is then that it worked. Brian Armstrong agreed with this comment, stating that connecting mobile wallet to the chrome extension is still unreliable for some reason, adding that the bug had been more persistent than he expected.
A user by the name Capitalist Ducj said
“Thank you for your honesty, Brian. The other day I commented I was so extremely frustrated with the experience. I still cannot figure out how to switch the CB app to BASE network. I am not giving up on CB I have been with you from day 2 literally”
SatoshMatrix.eth said
“Super painful to send crypto coins through the Web3 option under the coinbase app. Literally doesn’t do anything when I’m trying to send crypto coins to another wallet.
It seems to only let me send ETH but anything else it just get stuck loading”
A user by the name Danish complained that he had to re-input his KYC credentials multiple times, because he had already validated his inputs
User Experience in Crypto
Following that was a request to resolve an ongoing glitch that caused problems linking Coinbase’s mobile wallet to Google Chrome, with Armstrong stating that the bug had been more persistent than expected.
The crypto business has always struggled with user experience. An anonymous Web3 UI/UX designer, 0xDesigner, blamed most of the problem on the owner-centric and irreversible nature of blockchain-based apps in an interview with Cointelegraph.
Despite the fact that app design is hindered by the frequently complex nature of blockchain technology, XGo content manager Kirthana Devaser believes that a sustained emphasis on streamlined UI and keeping blockchain “invisible” in regular user interactions will help drive the next wave of widespread adoption.
