By
Temitope Olatunji
April 18th, 2024
Newcomers to cryptocurrencies will now be able to purchase bitcoin through Buy Widget, aa new product developed by the California-based bitcoin wallet provider.
Coinbase has introduced a new way for clients to easily buy bitcoin with their debit cards. The company has developed Coinbase Buy Widget, a configurable service that allows new users of virtual currency to acquire up to $5 worth of bitcoin without the need to create a full account.
“We are very excited about this new product,” the company said in a blog post. “The Coinbase Buy Widget offers newcomers to bitcoin an easy way to try out more applications, helps developers grow their communities, and helps novel bitcoin use-cases flourish.”
The system instantly transfers bitcoin to the address provided by the app. The customers will be charged a 3.75% fee for each transaction realized via the widget.
For new users, the product offers a debit card form and a simple way to open a Coinbase account. For those who are already using Coinbase, the purchase of bitcoins requires no more than three steps to be finished.
The Coinbase Buy Widget has a limit of $50 and when the limit is exceeded users will be required to create a full Coinbase account. However, the company is going to increase the threshold and integrate more payment methods in the near future.
Also, the Coinbase Buy Widget enables developers to add digital currencies into their apps and websites using Coinbase Javascript SDK. “Developers who want their users to buy bitcoin into their apps can now do it with just a couple of lines of code instead of a full blown OAuth integration,” the company wrote.
The Coinbase Buy Widget was launched in partnership with three developer companies, a video platform PopChest, an adventure game Hammercoin and the Brave browser, which integrated bitcoin payments this April.
Brave’s chief executive, Brendan Eich, said the widget will be useful for customers who hadn’t used virtual currencies before. “We intend to let users “bring their own BTC” to self-fund their wallets and auto-micropay their favorite websites. The Coinbase Buy Widget will make it easy for Brave users to buy bitcoin, even if the user has zero experience with cryptocurrency,” he said.
The similar comments were given by Valerian Bennett, the CEO of a micropayments platform PopChest. “Our viewers can instantly get all the benefits of bitcoin without previously possessing or even knowing anything about the digital currency. This is a game changer for PopChest,” he said.
“With Hammercoin, our next generation bitcoin-powered minecraft experience, our most frequently asked question was “How do I get Bitcoin?” Most of them were buying for the first time, and there was no easy answer,” said Cristián González, CEO of Mego Games. “With the Coinbase Buy Widget there’s finally a way that makes users comfortable.”
Amid the launch of the new widget, Coinbase has unveiled a new report prepared in partnership with ARK Invest, an investment company focused on disruptive technologies. According to the report, investors should view bitcoin as a new kind of asset class. Analyzing the bitcoin’s investability, what is the main characteristic of an asset class, the research stated that its trading volume significantly increased and achieved about $1 billion a day in April.