Coinbase, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world, acquired Cipher Browser, a mobile wallet for Ethereum. According to the official announcement, the purchase occurred on April 12th, 2018. The team behind Cipher Browser announced they were joining Coinbase on its official Twitter account: “Exciting news! @CipherBrowser is joining @Coinbase!@petejkim will become head of engineering for @Toshi and we’ll be merging many features of Cipher into Toshi. We’re committed to building the best Web 3 experience on mobile. We can’t wait for what we can all build together!”
Moreover, it was announced that some features of a decentralized app (DApp) for web navigation for the Web 3.0 developed by Cipher Browser would be combined with Toshi, a decentralized mobile web browser created by developers from Coinbase. One of the first features that will be migrated to Toshi is the test network (Testnet) of Cipher Browser.
Rachael Horwitz, the Vice President of Communications at Coinbase, issued an official statement saying that Peter Kim, the founder of Cipher Browser, would be the new head of engineering for Toshi: “Given the similarity of our product visions, we are happy to join forces with Pete, who will become Toshi’s engineering chief along with Sid Coelho-Prabhu, product leader of Coinbase for Toshi. In the coming weeks, we will merge certain characteristics of Cipher in Toshi.”
A few weeks ago Coinbase announced its wallet would start supporting the ERC-20 tokens in the next months, a standard Ethereum protocol that allows the interoperability of tokens inside its blockchain network. Some speculate the acquisition of Cipher Browser might be related with this new service from Coinbase. This is the official announcement: “We’re excited to announce our intention to support the Ethereum ERC20 technical standard for Coinbase in the coming months. This paves the way for supporting ERC20 assets across Coinbase products in the future, though we aren’t announcing support for any specific assets or features at this time. We are announcing this both internally and to the public as consistent with our process for adding new assets.”
Likewise, a few days ago the Coinbase team issued a statement saying it would soon start supporting the tokens from future Bitcoin bifurcations, which means the company plans on diversifying its wallet to support more tokens beyond Ethereum. The company did not mention specific assets at this point: “We’re excited to announce our intention to support the withdrawal of Bitcoin Forks across Coinbase products in the coming months. We are announcing this both internally and to the public as consistent with our process for adding new assets. This change will allow customers to more easily withdraw assets associated with Bitcoin Forks across all Coinbase products. We are not announcing support for any specific assets at this time. As always, we look at technical, operational, and legal considerations when deciding which Bitcoin Fork assets to support and will always state on our website which particular assets are supported.”
Coinbase recently announces new strategies, among them another acquisition. The cryptocurrency exchanges is planning on buying Earn.com, a website known for its application for earning satoshis by completing simple tasks. It is worth mentioning that Earn.com is also evaluating other options besides Coinbase and the acquisition has not been completed yet.
