Farcaster

so i was invited to the beta tester for the new @coinbasewallet and here are my takes on what i liked a lot and what i don't, the problems i have seen so far and the great things i liked a lot. overall, it's a sharp product with solid ideas, but still has critical gaps that need to be addressed before full rollout.

All of your crypto. All of your wallets. All in one place. Your home for everything onchain. wallet.coinbase.com

what i liked the most is that you can cast, review your notifications, and upload images or videos directly from the wallet. the farcaster client is smooth, pretty minimal, reminds me of early x twitter ui. it’s fast, doesn’t get stuck, and one of the best features is how notifications are filtered. only from users, not apps. that’s a major win, especially now that the og client floods you with app activity and buries actual user interaction.

the speed of casting and how responsive the farcaster client is within the wallet is another big plus. i love how that part was handled, clean and direct.

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seeing mini apps featured and categorized inside the farcaster section is also a great idea. navigation becomes more fluid. but here’s the first real flaw:

the login experience for mini apps is unreliable. sometimes it auto connects, sometimes it doesn’t connect at all. the flow breaks randomly, which makes it feel like a wallet-side issue, not the apps themselves. it’s inconsistent and frustrating.

the way funds and collectibles are displayed is solid. visually appealing and informative. however, a major issue: YOU ARE FORCED INTO USING A SMART WALLET.

there’s no way to use your main. that’s a heavy blocker. without the ability to switch easily between your main and smart wallet or export the smart one is bad ux, using the app long term will feel limiting. moving assets between wallets is tedious, adds risk and friction.

at setup, when asked if i had a wallet, assumed it meant my existing main, instead, defaulted to a smart one. and while smart wallets have their appeal, many of us already operate from a public wallet with presence, perks, and reputation across apps. being forced to restart from zero just to comply with one app flow is something i won’t adopt.

would be better to have a seamless way to use or merge both wallets. flexibility is key and the current limitation makes the experience feel incomplete. letting users choose will make this stick, not enforcing a single structure

what i also loved is that you can now create chat groups directly through xmtp inside the coinbase wallet. this is not farcaster based, it’s coinbase’s own xmtp integration and it works great. chat groups feel native, fast, and clean. way smoother than before, where messaging felt like an afterthought.

the utility is solid. you can talk wallet to wallet or to ens user, coordinate with frens, projects, or holders straight from the wallet interface. no extra apps. your messages follow your address, not some web2 ID, which makes the whole experience more aligned with how crypto should be, had used the function on the previous version sometimes so is great this is improved