Coinbase rolls out on-chain credential verification

Coinbase announced a feature on Nov. 9 that allows users to attest their account and country credentials on-chain and access additional benefits.

Coinbase’s help pages indicate that issued verifications are meant to serve as a “trusted badge” that grants access to on-chain apps and benefits. Coinbase said that verification will initially provide users with a badge in Base’s Guild — the membership program for its second-layer network, Base — plus access to a private Discord channel.

Coinbase added that verification will soon provide access to gasless (i.e., feeless) transactions, plus access to other participating apps on the Base network. Those upcoming apps include three DeFi platforms: Index Coop, Perennial, and Volmex.

Community data from Dune Analytics suggests that Coinbase has issued over 9,700 attestations to more than 6,200 unique recipients since late October.

Coinbase explains participation requirements

The remainder of the help page provides more details. It notes that verifications can be tied to any self-custodial Ethereum (EVM) wallet address but cannot be transferred to other addresses. A separate section notes that the verification can be associated with up to three addresses, including Metamask and Coinbase Wallet addresses.

Coinbase said that attesting one’s country of residence is optional but noted that it may be necessary to do so to gain access to certain apps. It also assured users that their information will not be published on-chain without their consent.

In order to verify an account on-chain, users must have a Coinbase account that is not subject to buying, selling, and trading restrictions, Coinbase said.

Coinbase added that it ultimately aims to allow third parties to issue verifications using the service and expand the ways in which users can be verified.

Verifications are issued through the Ethereum Attestation Service (EAS), an Ethereum community project also used by other projects, including Optimism.