Leading digital currency startup Coinbase has announced a number of product changes that will be rolled out in the coming weeks.
Coinbase product manager Ankur Nandwani made the announcement in a blog post. Nandwani listed four major changes which includes removing support for bits, diabling SMS account access, disabling user payment pages and network transaction fees.
Starting March 21st, 2017, Coinbase will discontinue support for bits as a bitcoin unit as well as SMS support for accessing Coinbase accounts. The exchange believes that its iOS and Android app can provide much better experience.
In addition, Coinbase will also discontinue support for user payment pages, effective March 21st, 2017. Nadwani said:
“When we launched Payment pages in May 2014, we were just beginning the development of our mobile apps and there was no easy way for customers to receive payments. Coinbase mobile apps now enable customers to easily receive payments.”
Furthermore, Coinbase will discontinue payment paying network transaction fees for on-chain transactions starting March 21st, 2017. Nandwani explained that the exchange has been paying network fees since its inception on behalf of its customers to support the growth of bitcoin and ethereum networks. However, Coinbase has now more than 6 million users, meaning that network transaction fee has now become a significant cost.
“Fees will be assigned dynamically based on the current network conditions and will be paid by customers when they send an on-chain transaction. Transactions between Coinbase accounts will continue to be off-chain and free”, he added.
