Shalini Nagarajan

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong acknowledged user experience-related challenges on the platform during the Onchain Summer event, a three-week marketing initiative by Coinbase.



Armstrong said the team identified issues related to NFTs, decentralized apps and layer-2s.



“If we face truth, we can get motivated to improve it. These need to be first class experiences, and #OnchainSummer is a great impetus to have every employee feel that pain ourselves and fix it,” he said on Sunday in a <a href="https://twitter.com/brian_armstrong/status/1690790384757321728">post</a> on social media platform X, formally known as Twitter.



Coinbase staff are testing feature upgrades, he said, and asked users to provide feedback. Armstrong added that the functionality in Coinbase&#8217;s wallet is better than the app, but it still requires enhancements.



<a href="https://blockworks.co/news/coinbase-l2-base-mainnet">Coinbase recently unveiled Base</a>, its layer-2 network on the Ethereum mainnet. The launch garnered unusual success, <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/coinbase-base-success-rea">drawing notable volume</a> from DeFi actions and cross-chain bridge transactions. American giant Coca-Cola also <a href="https://twitter.com/coinbase/status/1690763490674503680">revealed</a> its NFT collection on Base.



Binance&#8217;s CEO, Changpeng Zhao, has similarly <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/cz-acknowledges-bad-user-experience-as-binance-suspends-us-dollar-transfers">acknowledged</a> user experience issues when the platform halted USD bank transfers earlier this year.



As crypto platforms continue to mature, they often grapple with user experience (UX) issues. The combined effects of rapid evolution and limitations of the decentralized systems they interact with make these platforms less user-friendly than some web users are accustomed to, limiting broader acceptance.



Chris Ostoich, chief operating officer of Transient Labs, <a href="https://twitter.com/chrisostoich/status/1690919749360738304">said</a> that the crypto sector has for a long while treated UX as a secondary concern across various platforms. He believes that if Coinbase pioneers improvements, many others will be inspired to follow suit.



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Armstrong says Coinbase app user experience needs work

Ben Strack

WisdomTree has rolled out its new financial app that mixes crypto, digital funds and tokenized physical assets such as gold.



The company — a fund group with $93.6 billion assets under management — has vocalized its bullishness on tokenization and blockchain-enabled wrappers over the last two years.&nbsp;&nbsp;



WisdomTree had <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/wisdomtree-launching-crypto-app">first revealed in January 2022</a> its intention to launch the “blockchain-native” mobile app, called WisdomTree Prime. The app went live in 21 states Wednesday.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



In addition to tokenized gold, users of the app can buy and sell bitcoin and ether, as well nine WisdomTree digital funds. The company’s in-house transfer agent keeps a secondary record of investor ownership of the digital funds’ shares on the Stellar or Ethereum blockchains.&nbsp;



Every dollar, ounce of gold or unit of blockchain is based on tokenization technology and moving value around on a blockchain, said Jason Guthrie, WisdomTree’s head of digital asset product.



Behind the app’s gold-trading mechanism, for example, WisdomTree is utilizing “a little private corner” of the Stellar decentralized exchange (DEX), using tokens issued for the liquidity of the firm’s end clients. By using a DEX, it offers near-instant settlement.&nbsp;



“The idea really being that we get a familiar experience and lay it on top of this new technology innovation for storing and moving value around to try to smooth the edges off that experience today,” Guthrie told Blockworks.&nbsp;&nbsp;



By having dollars, gold, crypto and funds on a common infrastructure, WisdomTree’s hope is to “de-silo the investing and financial experience,” the executive noted.



Though the firm could choose to add exposures to the app, it sought to keep the app’s offerings focused on the “building blocks” of a cross-asset portfolio, Guthrie said.&nbsp;



“One of the big issues we see with a lot of the brokerage services today — definitely with a lot of the crypto providers — is the sheer number of things that exist on the platform and the fact that it’s an intimidating and confusing experience for your average person,” Guthrie said. “So we think there’s an opportunity to deliver something that is more focused.”



The launch signals the latest development of financial companies wading deeper into crypto, coming a month after <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/blackrock-clout-bitcoin-etf-approval">BlackRock filed with the SEC to launch a spot bitcoin ETF</a>. WisdomTree has tried to launch such a product previously, and <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/bitcoin-etf-invesco-wisdomtree">renewed its bid in June</a>.&nbsp;



But unlike BlackRock’s surprise ETF filing, WisdomTree Prime was talked about for about 18 months.&nbsp;



<a href="https://blockworks.co/news/wisdomtree-set-to-launch-fund-with-real-world-focus">Regulators approved WisdomTree’s Short-Term Treasury Digital Fund</a> (WTSY) last year. Executives on various company earnings calls have said that <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/wisdomtree-triples-down-on-future-blockchain-focus">blockchain-enabled digital wrappers are the future of asset management</a>.



“Regardless of how different consumers use it…by being first in tokenizing the underlying exposures and by being native to the blockchain in our design, WisdomTree will deliver unique and better functionality,” <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/wisdomtree-ceo-we-will-be-first-to-bring-passive-investing-to-the-blockchain">CEO Jonathan Steinberg said in April 2022</a>. “Nothing can potentially scale faster than a successful mobile app.”



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‘Blockchain-enabled’ WisdomTree consumer app goes live in 21 states

Ornella Hernandez

Apple Inc. reportedly plans to allow alternative app stores on its iPhones and iPads next year in response to looming regulatory changes in the European Union. 



The move, <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-12-13/will-apple-allow-users-to-install-third-party-app-stores-sideload-in-europe" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reported</a> by Bloomberg, would let iOS users download third-party software to their devices, bypassing Apple’s up-to-30% commission on in-app purchases — a policy that also affected NFT-related apps.



In September, the tech giant <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/apple-allows-nft-sales-on-its-app-store-but-theres-a-catch" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">enabled developers of current apps to sell non-fungible tokens in-app</a> and new apps to trade NFTs within them. 



Those developers who made over $1 million annually through the ‌App Store‌ were subject to Apple taking a 30% cut, while developers making less than that paide 15%. Additionally, Apple made it so that NFT-related transactions on an iPhone or iPad could only be made in US dollars and not cryptocurrency.



In less than a month, Apple ended up <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/apple-takes-bite-out-of-app-store-nfts-in-hunt-for-revenue" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">backtracking on its Web3 policy and restricting content and functions</a> associated with license keys, augmented reality markers, QR codes, cryptocurrencies and cryptocurrency wallets. NFT-related functions in-app, such as sales, mints, listings or transfers are still allowed.



The new shift for Apple to support external apps from third-party marketplaces may benefit Web3 developers and expand the use of NFT-related applications and mobile crypto payments.&nbsp;



Apple would be complying with Europe Union’s (EU) Digital Markets Act (DMA), an antitrust legislation approved by the EU parliament in July. While the new law takes effect in early 2023, companies aren’t required to fully comply until 2024.&nbsp;



The company still has to decide whether to allow third-party developers to use their own payments infrastructure or make them use Apple’s payments setup, per Bloomberg.



Once in effect, the policy change would likely be featured in Apple’s iOS 17 software update, scheduled for next fall.



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Apple to Add Flexibility for App Developers, Including in Web3

Sebastian Sinclair

<div id="highlights-block_62392567a347d" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>CBA&#8217;s managing director of blockchain and digital assets said feedback over the ability to buy crypto via the Commbank app had been &#8220;overwhelmingly positive&#8221;</li>
 <li>Ten cryptoassets are currently available for purchase on the bank&#8217;s app, including bitcoin and ether</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Australia&#8217;s largest bank by total assets has experienced a significant uptake of crypto activity on its app since it first allowed users to buy and sell digital assets last year.



Speaking on the first day of Blockchain Australia’s five-day Blockchain Week conference in Sydney, Commbank&#8217;s Sophie Gilder, managing director of Blockchain and Digital Assets, said the response to the bank&#8217;s app had been &#8220;overwhelmingly positive.&#8221;



The reception of its app follows Commbank&#8217;s 2019 issuance of <a href="https://www.commbank.com.au/guidance/newsroom/world-bank-and-cba-blockchain-bond-201905.html#:~:text=The%20International%20Bank%20for%20Reconstruction,recorded%20using%20distributed%20ledger%20technologies." target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">blockchain bonds</a> via secondary market trading and marks a significant step in the country toward user adoption of the underlying technology.



Gilder, along with several other representatives from Macquarie, Visa and JPMorgan, said business decisions around crypto products were being driven largely by consumers in a &#8220;rapidly evolving&#8221; environment.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">&#8220;About 900,000 of our customers have transferred money to crypto exchanges over the last two years,&#8221; Gilder said. &#8220;One in three Australians have a banking relationship with CBA. So we see this activity happening, our customers are already there, already in this space. You can say it&#8217;s already mainstream based on our stats.&#8221;</blockquote>



Gilder also said that while the feedback had been generally positive, the bank app&#8217;s biggest complaint came from customers who had not yet been let into the pilot.



CBA announced back in November it would be launching its crypto <a href="https://www.commbank.com.au/articles/newsroom/2021/11/CBA-to-offer-crypto-services.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">pilot program</a>, granting select customers the ability to buy, sell and hold digital assets directly through the bank&#8217;s CommBank app. After launching in December, the bank became the first of its kind in Australia to offer crypto products directly to its customers.



To assist in the app&#8217;s design and custody service, crypto exchange Gemini and blockchain analysis firm Chainalysis were brought in. Ten cryptoassets are currently available for purchase, including bitcoin and ether.



Chainalysis&#8217; suite of tools allows the bank to &#8220;analyze exactly what&#8217;s happening on the blockchain,&#8221; Gilder said. &#8220;Five years ago, you may not have had that level of confidence.&#8221;



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