Announcing Coinbase Wallet login

Coinbase Wallet is a popular and easy-to-use multichain wallet for Web3. How can you use it to log into Skiff?

Login screen with multiple crypto wallets and Coinbase highlighted.

We at Skiff are thrilled to announce that Coinbase Wallet can now be used to log into Skiff. We’ve long had Coinbase Wallet as an option for adding wallet aliases to your mail account, but this new integration brings a full login experience for Coinbase Wallet users.

What’s Coinbase Wallet?

Coinbase Wallet is a self-custodial wallet product that works on Android, iOS, and web browsers. It allows users to store, send, and receive assets on Ethereum and all EVM-compatible chains, as well as Solana, Bitcoin, and more. This means your wallet will store addresses for all of these chains, including an Ethereum address, a Bitcoin wallet, and more. Coinbase Wallet is developed by Coinbase, one of the leading digital currency exchanges with over 100 million users worldwide.In this blog, we’ll cover how Coinbase Wallet works, briefly review its privacy and security features, and how you can use it to sign into a Skiff account.

How does Coinbase Wallet work?

Generally, Coinbase Wallet works similarly to other popular, self-custodial browser and mobile wallets, including MetaMask and Rainbow. An Ethereum wallet is a digital wallet that allows you to store, send, and receive Ethereum. You can think of it like a bank account for your Ethereum. Just like a bank account, you need a wallet to store Ethereum or interact with smart contracts.There are many different types of wallets, including many non custodial wallets, where users manage their own public keys and private keys. Your private key is like your bank account number - it allows you to sign messages, send digital assets, and transfer your funds to a new account. If someone else gets your private key, they effectively own your wallet. For more security minded users, a hardware wallet (like Ledger or Trezor) could yield additional security.A self-custodial wallet means only users have access to their private keys - never a tech company or exchange, including Coinbase. In this way, the wallet functions like a password manager, where each cryptocurrency address has an associated secret (private key) that is stored encrypted with a user’s password. Similar to other self-custodial wallets, Coinbase Wallet provides a seed phrase that can be used for migration and backup.Coinbase Wallet has become quite popular given its ease of use and possible integrations with a Coinbase account, which adds many different use cases. For example, you can easily transfer ETH to and from a linked Coinbase account, and you can also buy and sell NFTs (Coinbase recently launched an NFT marketplace). Furthermore, because Coinbase Wallet is a self-custodial Ethereum wallet, you can easily transfer wallets in and out of the wallet using a 12 word recovery phrase. We’ll briefly cover some similarly popular wallets but encourage you to do your own research when choosing a wallet.

Coinbase Wallet privacy and account features

Similar to MetaMask, Phantom, and other leading browser-based wallets, Coinbase Wallet is completely non-custodial - meaning users, and not corporations, control their private keys. This is a critical security distinction for multiple reasons, including user privacy, account control, and recovery.Privacy: By making Coinbase Wallet non-custodial, Coinbase has no way to access, recover, or repurpose user funds. This follows directly in the crypto ethos of decentralizing financial control to users.Account management: On Coinbase Wallet, you can link a wallet with your Coinbase account, allowing you to easily transfer funds between the two. This feature is unique to Coinabse Wallet and is not necessarily possible on another wallet, like MetaMask. However, even when the two accounts are collected, the Coinbase Wallet address remains completely non-custodial, so all exchanges and transfers must be recorded by the Ethereum blockchain.Account recovery: Account recovery is a major challenge for non-custodial wallets as users are the only ones who have access to their private keys. If a private key is lost, misplaced, or compromised, an exchange (like Coinbase.com) cannot help users recover their account. As a result, Coinbase Wallet contains some backup features, such as a sync with Google Drive and iCloud.We at Skiff never recommend backing up your crypto wallet seed phrases to cloud storage that is not end-to-end encrypted. Instead, use a security minded, end-to-end encrypted cloud storage platform like Skiff Drive. We also wrote a lengthy blog post comparing encrypted cloud storage providers.

Tutorial: Sign up now

To sign up for a Skiff account using Coinbase Wallet, first install Coinbase Wallet. Then, visit the Skiff signup page and click “Connect Wallet.” From there, select Coinbase Wallet, and you will be prompted to sign an attestation phrase proving you own a particular wallet address. Then, you’ll download recovery information and immediately be redirected to your inbox, drive, and workspace.Now, authentication is complete, and you can enjoy fully private, end-to-end encrypted mail, drive, and collaboration based on your wallet.