Brian Armstrong – the CEO of Coinbase – has garnered a patent for a new product that will allow users to email bitcoin to each other.

Coinbase Paves the Way for Emailing BTC

The patent was filed in March of 2015 but didn’t garner approval until now. Crazy how long it can take to get the green light on new developments, isn’t it? The product is built to make crypto payments through email addresses linked to various wallets. The sender initiates an order to send money to a specific email address and the transaction takes about two days to complete.

The product also works to increase security by storing a person’s unused cryptocurrencies in an offline vault that can only be accessed by a wallet’s corresponding email address. It’s the equivalent of cold storage, which is often considered a safer and stronger alternative to hot wallet addresses.

The one downside to the product is that it does nothing to alleviate customers of Coinbase’s present fee-setting system. While all mining fees will be paid by the exchange itself, sending money to external wallets is likely to cost the sender a little something on the side, which means Coinbase is probably going to be raking in serious profits so long as people utilize the new feature.

At the time of writing, the release describing the new product only mentions sending bitcoin and discusses nothing of additional cryptocurrencies. It’s unknown if crypto senders will be able to send digital assets other than bitcoin, though considering Ripple supports multiple virtual currencies, this seems like a strong possibility.

Furthermore, there doesn’t seem to be any limitations in place regarding the types of email addresses a person could utilize, so it may be that all addresses regardless of provider (Google, MSN, Yahoo, etc.) can be utilized to send and receive digital money.

Armstrong explained in a statement:

The vision of Coinbase is creating more economic freedom for every person and business in the world over the next ten years.

Regardless of how the system works, Coinbase does seem to be taking the initial goals and properties of cryptocurrency to heart. Digital assets were built to allow people to cut ties with standard financial institutions. While banks are arguably the backbone of modern-day society, many have failed to provide the services necessary for the survival of poorer or less fortunate citizens in America and abroad.

Keeping Everyone in Mind

Crypto is designed to give these people the chance to purchase goods and services without having to succumb to credit checks or other protocols that invade their privacy or that could potentially bar them from attaining the tools they might need.

Last October, Coinbase made the Y Combinator top 100 list of startups. It was the only cryptocurrency or blockchain-focused company – other than SFOX – to make the cut.

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