San Francisco based bitcoin startup Coinbase has just soft-launched a new buy widget for third-party developers to embed Coinbase buying functionality directly on your website or application.
As many bitcoin users know, when you buy your first bitcoin, the task can seem a bit daunting. Making the process of buying bitcoin as seamless and smooth as possible is always a first priority for bitcoin exchanges on the market. Some do it better than others. And Coinbase is attempting to make it even easier and spread out with the Coinbase Buy Widget.
The Buy Widget is an embeddable and configurable hosted widget that delivers three key features: 1) allows users to purchase bitcoin using debit cards, 2) instantly delivers bitcoin to an address specified by the user or the application, and 3) is a butter-smooth user experience. Developers can embed the widget using Coinbase’s Javascript SDK by passing certain parameters and signing them with your secret key provided by Coinbase.
Without ever leaving the developer application, users can get bitcoin delivered directly into the address provided by the app. For new users, the Buy Widget flow features a very familiar debit card form and a seamless way to create a Coinbase account. For existing Coinbase customers, the purchase can be completed with as few as just 3 steps.
The Buy Widget is currently limited to customers in the United States using debit cards. To enable instant buys with limited KYC, the Buy Widget supports buys up to $5 per day. Each user has also a lifetime limit of $50 after which they are asked to set up a full Coinbase account. These limitations are only temporary and Coinbase will be adjusting them and adding more payment methods over time to increase limits.
As part of the soft-launch, Coinbase has partnered with a few other startups which have the buy widget already enabled, such as Brave Browser, Hammercoin, and Popchest. The widget isn’t yet widely available to everyone. Developers interested in signing up will need to fill out this application to let Coinbase know you want to use it.
Coinbase recently re-branded their exchange and launched the Global Digital Asset Exchange (GDAX), which is a digital currency exchange focused on multiple currencies including bitcoin and ethereum.
