Coinbase Buying Earn.com
In the latest news, the San Francisco, California based cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase is reported to the buying a social network called Earn.com, also located in the Bay Area of San Francisco. This platform lets its users earn cryptocurrency by completing tasks online as well as replying to emails.
While Coinbase has not revealed how much it would be paying for its fifth acquisition, the social media company has already raised more than $120 million in a series of funding rounds.
Coinbase’s Chief Executive Officer Brian Armstrong announced this deal via a blog post on April 16. As a part of the deal, the Earn.com’s Chief Executive Balaji Srinivasan and co-founder will be appointed Coinbase’s first Chief Technology Officer.
Why Earn.com
Coinbase said that it had acquired Earn.com for its talent pool. The co-founder Srinivasan himself comes will an impressive set of skills. Before he established his own startup, Srinivasan was a general partner with the venture capital company Andreessen Horowitz. He is still a member of the firm’s board. Srinivasan also comes with an impressive set of qualifications – a Bachelor of Sciences, Master of Sciences as well as a PhD in electrical engineering as well as Master of Sciences in chemical engineering from Stanford University.
Earn.com actually started off as 21 Inc., best known for developing the 21 Bitcoin Computer. This computer was basically a Raspberry Pi that had been connected to a Bitcoin ASIC, which could build miners into devices already being used. In October 2017, the company rebranded itself to Earn.com and closed its computer line, informing customers that they would be terminating support for the 21 Bitcoin Computer.
The focus of the company then shifted to monetizing emails and social media channels. The company also developed its own cryptocurrency based on Ethereum called ERC20 – the Earnable Token. The idea was that when people completed tasks on Earn.com, they would be paid in ERC20 tokens. There was no ICO launched and users simply earned tokens for signing up.
Srinivasan took a company that was floundering in a debt of about $80 million and turned it around to a fast-growing, cash-flow positive startup with revenue being generated in the millions.
Next Steps
Last month, Coinbase announced that it was going to provide support for ERC20 standards on all its trading platforms.
Additionally, Coinbase’s plan is to scale up Earn.com across the exchange’s huge user base. And while even Srinivasan did not reveal the value of the deal, he did say that what was returned to the company’s shareholders was in excess of the capital that was initially invested.