Coinbase recently upgraded its payment product, retaining Shiba Inu (SHIB) as a result of its EVM compatibility, while removing coins like Bitcoin and Dogecoin.
Coinbase Commerce, the payment-focused division of crypto giant Coinbase, recently made significant upgrades to its underlying protocol.
The division’s product lead, Lauren Dowling, revealed that the new upgrade includes the removal of Bitcoin and other UTXO-based cryptocurrencies, including Dogecoin and Litecoin.
In favor of the aforementioned, Coinbase Commerce is introducing an open on-chain payments protocol that leverages the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM). The new protocol will allow merchants to send and receive assets across Ethereum, Polygon and Coinbase-backed Base network.
1/ Hey folks, I’m the product lead for Coinbase Commerce and want to share some thoughts on how the product is evolving, why we’ve made these changes, and clarify what it means for our asset support strategy moving forward. 👇
— Lauren Dowling (@Lauren_Dowling_) February 17, 2024
The protocol automatically converts the transferred amount to USDC on-chain to eliminate volatility risk and allows merchants to receive payments at a guaranteed rate.
However, the complexities associated with achieving a similar outcome with non-EVM-based coins like Bitcoin, Litecoin, and Dogecoin means Coinbase Commerce will no longer accept these cryptocurrencies via the payment protocol.
However, Coinbase will continue to support Bitcoin, Dogecoin, and Litecoin payments for merchants if they use a Coinbase account.
CEO Brian Armstrong also hinted that the platform may reinstate Bitcoin payments via the Lightning Network in the future when it completes an integration of the layer-2 protocol.
Shiba Inu Aligns with Ethereum’s Interoperability Approach
The latest development involving Coinbase Commerce underlines an important feature for memecoin communities, namely, interoperability.
In the case of Shiba Inu, the team’s decision to build on a widely used network and ecosystem like Ethereum allows for broad interoperability with other products across the cryptocurrency industry.
Meanwhile, Shiba Inu has further aligned itself with Ethereum’s interoperability approach by launching Shibarium, an EVM-compatible layer-2 network. This and other initiatives by the Shiba Inu team ensure the project’s longevity and support mainstream adoption of Shiba Inu.
Tellingly, Shiba Inu remains among the top 20 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization despite its price trading well below its all-time high. The cryptocurrency trades at $0.000009727 at the time of writing, maintaining a $5.7 billion market cap.