Coinbase Launches On-Chain KYC Verification to +100M Users

The largest U.S. exchange by volume on Thursday introduced Coinbase Verifications, allowing over 100M users to attest to account and country credentials on-chain, the company said on X.

The service is based on Coinbase’s Layer 2 network, Base, and uses Ethereum Attestation Service, an open source standard, to ensure verifications are “public and composable,” the exchange said.

Verifications Climb

There are over 9,300 verifications by Coinbase, just one day after the product went live. Data compiled by Dune Analytics show that’s 15% of all verifications on EAS.

A broadly adopted decentralized identity, or DID, standard has long been a key missing piece for web3. DIDs can help better protect against Sybil attacks and enable basic use cases, like unsecured loans for individuals or improved governance models.

“This is going to change the game for airdrops and on-chain marketing/referrals,” said Haseeb Qureshi, managing partner at VC firm Dragonfly.

Coinbase joins a long list of organizations attempting to solve the DID problem, for example Proof of Humanity and Fractal ID. And while IBM and Microsoft have also made efforts to establish DIDs, Coinbase is the largest company to introduce the service using a public blockchain.

While the identification service doesn’t work globally as Coinbase operates in limited countries, Qureshi said he believes “we’ll see a network of these KYC providers operating together.”