Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong has shared ten emerging ideas in the crypto space that excite him, adding that he wants to put these ideas “out in the ecosystem.”
The CEO shared these ideas in a 20-minute monologue on Twitter Spaces.
Brian Armstrong’s Favorite Crypto Innovations
Coinbase and its CEO, Brian Armstrong, have had a relatively good week. Coinbase’s stock value saw a significant surge on the back of renewed hopes for a Bitcoin spot ETF approval. Perhaps it was this buoyant week that prompted Armstrong to take to X and talk about ten emerging ideas that excited him. During the session, Armstrong reiterated that he would love to see these ideas being taken up by others and implemented in the ecosystem. Armstrong added in his post on X, stating,
“I’m sharing the 10 ideas I’m most excited about in crypto right now. If you’re building something in crypto or thinking about doing so - check it out. We’re building lots at Coinbase, but we don’t have time to tackle everything. So, I figured I’d share these. Bear markets are the best time for building - why not start today?”
After Armstrong posted his views, he was joined by Ryan Selkis, the co-founder of Messari, a crypto market intelligence firm, who posted a response to each of Armstrong’s ideas.
Armstrong And Selkis Trade Ideas
In the first of his ideas, Armstrong proposed a decentralized coin that tracks the Consumer Price Index (CPI), thus providing stability and inflation resistance. This is unlike traditional fiat back stablecoins or volatile cryptocurrencies. He also stated that a CPI-linked flatcoin could enable smart contracts to maintain purchasing power and act as a hedge against inflation. Armstrong also suggested tracking entity reputation on the blockchain as a way to tackle fraud, pointing out that no reputation system was associated with the Ethereum Name Service. He proposed an algorithm similar to Google’s PageRank to provide a trusted identity and prevent fraud. To this, Selkis replied that he had invested in a couple of projects in this field.
Regarding on-chain advertising, Armstrong suggested that they could charge advertisers only when a particular action is completed instead of just displaying an ad, adding that smart contracts could enable pay-per-action advertising. Selkis agreed with this, stating that he has not seen many on-chain ads. Coming to on-chain capital, Armstrong stated that tracking the net accumulation of capital goods could increase access to fundraising. He also suggested tools to help projects form entities, register securities, and connect with investors.
Armstrong also suggested the creation of a decentralized, global marketplace for labor that pays using crypto. To this, Selkis replied,
“This is related to my personal number one, on-chain payroll. In fact, if I had known this still wouldn’t be a solved problem, I would have started this company and not Messari in 2017. I am shocked it hasn’t been built yet.”
Armstrong also alluded to the need for bringing better privacy to layer-2 transactions. This includes projects such as Optimism, Arbitrum, and Polygon. He also suggested building a fully decentralized peer-to-peer on auditable smart contracts. These, according to Armstrong, could act as a great censorship-resistant solution for escrow, reputation, and dispute resolution. Next, he discussed on-chain games, allowing users to own their in-game NFT assets. However, Selkis expressed criticism, stating,
“I know this is big, but I just can’t get excited for GameFi. You can’t torture me into getting excited about it, but I’m open to change my mind if there’s something that is fun first, then financialized.”
He also emphasized on tokenizing real-world assets, which could help markets more liquid by encoding standardized metadata. Lastly, Armstrong talked about Network states, adding that they could be run like decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs). He also called for creating governance, fundraising, access control, and services tools.
The Coinbase Ventures Summit
Armstrong closed his monologue by inviting listeners to attend the first-ever Coinbase Ventures Summit, which will be held in October in Malibu, California.
“We’ll bring together a small group of builders to discuss these ideas and others.”
Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.
