Brian Armstrong Envisions Coinbase to Eventually Become a ‘Super-App’

Armstrong envisions that Coinbase, currently a centralized crypto exchange with various crypto products, will eventually become a “super-app,” helping the Web3 economy. The term “super-app” is used for Web2 applications like Tencent’s (SEHK: 700) WeChat, which provide a vast array of services to users including financial services to booking doctors’ appointments.

In Asia for “some time [..] people have apps that they use [for] digital money in all kinds of areas of their life,” he said at the State of Crypto Summit organized by Coinbase and the Financial Times in New York, on Thursday.

“I think that in Coinbase, this case, we want to be that super app, but it’s all going to be based on these decentralized protocols,” the Armstrong said adding that the app will be used not just for money and assets, but also for social interactions.

A decentralized application – or dapp – is like digital apps found in mobile devices but with added feature of using blockchain technology. By decentralizing, dapps can create a digital economy of peer-to-peer services that keeps users’ data out of the reach of large organizations behind it, eliminating monopolistic market.

The SEC accused Coinbase, one of the largest crypto exchanges in the world, of operating as an unregistered broker, exchange and clearing agency at the same time, soliciting customers, handling orders, allowing for bids and acting as an intermediary all at once, in violation of federal securities laws.