Coinbase Wallet Adds Short, Customizable Addresses to Simplify Sending Cryptos

Coinbase Wallet users can now send cryptocurrencies to "short human-friendly addresses" as well as ones creating using the Ethereum Name Service (ENS).

Product lead Sid Coelho-Prabhu announced Tuesday that Coinbase Wallet now supports customizable wallet usernames for sending cryptocurrencies, rather than traditional long-form ones such as "0x89136a83664fa0673930be34463e444260775dc."

"We believe these improvements will make cryptocurrency much easier to use and help drive adoption with a more mainstream audience," Coelho-Prabhu said in a blog post.

Sent live Tuesday, users can send cryptocurrencies by asking recipients for their wallet usernames like "@walletfan" and use them as the sending addresses. There is also an option to keep usernames private.

To be clear, the short usernames do not replace 16-digit wallet addresses but instead provide a more user-friendly representative that sits on top. A user can send cryptocurrencies using the associated username rather than typing in the full wallet address.

The new support also includes an integration with ENS, allowing Coinbase Wallet users to send cryptocurrencies to .eth addresses.

Launching in 2018, Coinbase Wallet provides users with a service to store and transfer cryptocurrencies to one another. Users have been able to use a decentralized web feature since August 2019.

Coelho-Prabhu confirmed that all cryptocurrencies supported by the app, including bitcoin (BTC), ether (ETH) and XRP (XRP), can now be sent using the new username feature.