Coinbase and Binance

Coinbase and Binance are two cryptocurrency platforms and they have similarity in many things. Both have access to similar currencies, allow to buy, sell and trade digital assets,  have user education and so on.  But when it comes to Coinbase Pay and Binance Pay they have many differences. 

Let’s take a deeper look at what they are and how they can be compared.

Coinbase Pay

According to an announcement from Coinbase, its new payments service is a browser extension for the Chrome web browser. It is going to make it “easy and intuitive for anyone” to participate in DeFi or to NFTs. Taking part in both of those areas normally requires users to fund and use non-custodial browser-based wallets such as MetaMask. This way has a high potential for user error.

As a solution to this problem, Coinbase offered its own payments solution: Coinbase Pay. Coinbase Pay makes it easier to fund its existing browser wallet, the Coinbase Wallet, with either fiat or crypto from other wallets.

The integration of the payment system into Coinbase’s wallet thus removes the need to switch between different apps and websites. It makes the process “faster, easier, and more secure than ever before,” according to the exchange.

Binance Pay

In the meantime, Binance Pay – a contactless and secure cryptocurrency payment technology, is based on the exchange’s mobile app rather than any browser extension. This is designed to make payments between Binance users easier.

Primarily, Binance Pay only works between users who have a Binance account with completed identity verification. In this sense it is not a traditional crypto payments system that can transfer funds to anyone.

Earlier last year, Binance said in its announcement that travel booking site Travala, which is owned by the exchange, had become the first merchant to integrate the new payments solution. Since then, other merchants such as CryptoRefills and Coinsbee have been added through the Binance Marketplace portal.

In order to send a payment to someone via Binance Pay a user needs to either scan the recipient’s QR code or paste their “Pay ID” in the form of a username. However Coinbase Pay still requires users to know the recipient’s full wallet address in order to make a payment.

Further, Binance calls its payment solution “instantaneous.” Currently, Binance Pay supports more than 40 cryptoassets. The payments solution doesn’t support direct fiat payments. Although, fiat can be used to top up a user’s Binance Pay balance by going through Binance’s standard options for funding an account.

Meanwhile, Coinbase plans to build new features into Coinbase Wallet.

“We will also continue to expand Coinbase Pay to bring the benefits of seamless fiat onramp to the crypto ecosystem,” according to the exchange.