On Friday (June 26), Coinbase announced that “Coinbase Earn“, its educational service that rewards users for learning about different cryptocurrencies, has added support for Compound (COMP).

What Is Compound?

Compound is “an algorithmic, autonomous interest rate protocol built for developers, to unlock a universe of open financial applications.”

Compound v1 launched on the Ethereum blockchain on 28 September 2018. Originally, its smart contract-enabled money market allowed for lending in five different cryptoassets — Ether (ETH), TrustToken (TrueUSD), 0x (ZRX), Brave Attention Token (BAT), and Augur (REP) — with an algorithmically-adjusted (based on demand) publically-stated interest rates for borrowing and lending these cryptoassets.

On June 15, ERC-20 token COMP, which is Compound’s governance token, went into circulation for the first time after Compound started distributing it to all users of the Compound protocol.

On June 23, COMP started trading on Coinbase Pro (i.e. the COMP-USD and COMP-BTC order books went into full trading mode), and yesterday (June 25), COMP went now live on Coinbase Consumer (i.e. at Coinbase.com) and in the Coinbase iOS and Android apps.

Currently (as of 07:50 UTC on June 26), COMP is trading at $245.35, up 9.4% against USD in the past 24-hour period, and up 67% in the past 7-day period. Compound’s $660.78 million market cap (based on circulating supply) makes it the 24th most valuable cryptoasset and the most valuable DeFi token.

What is Coinbase Earn?

Coinbase Earn was originally launched in “invite-only mode” on 19 December 2018, giving a few lucky users the chance to learn 0x (ZRX) as they learn about it.

Here is how Coinbase explained the motivation behind Coinbase Earn back then:

“Coinbase Earn allows users to earn cryptocurrencies, while learning about them in a simple and engaging way. The idea is for users to understand more about an asset’s utility and its underlying technology, while getting a bit of the asset to try out.”

The basic idea is that in each lesson, you watch a short video (usually a couple of minutes long) after which you can perform educational takes (such as taking a multiple-choice quiz) for which you are rewarded a certain amount of crypto (usually, around $2 in a particular cryptocurrency for each lesson that you prove you have learned by passing its associated quiz).

Although Coinbase Earn is available now in the 100+ jurisdictions in which Coinbase operates, only eligible users (those who have passed KYC Levels 1 and 2) in the following jurisdictions can currently join Coinbase Earn and start earning crypto: United States (excluding residents of New York or Hawaii state), United Kingdom, many countries in the European Union (Belgium, Switzerland, Denmark, Ireland, Germany, Iceland, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden), Canada, Singapore, Australia, Hong Kong, New Zealand, South Korea, and Taiwan. Users in other jurisdictions in which Coinbase operates can join a waiting list, and they will get notified when Coinbase becomes available there.

Until today, Coinbase Earn had supported eight cryptoassets (0x, Basic Attention Token, Zcash, Stellar Lumens, EOS, Dai, Tezos, and Orchid).

Coinbase Earn’s Support for Compound

In a blog post published earlier today, here is how Coinbase described the ninth cryptoasset that it wants its users to learn about:

“Compound (COMP) is an Ethereum token that governs the autonomous Compound protocol. The protocol allows anyone to borrow and lend Ethereum tokens through a decentralized market. Lenders earn interest on the crypto they supply to the protocol and borrowers pay interest to borrow it.”

Coinbase users can earn $9 in COMP tokens for completing Coinbase Earn’s Compound Protocol course, which offers three video lessons:

  • Earn Interest With Compound ($3)
  • Borrowing Crypto With Compound ($3)
  • What is the COMP Token? ($3)

One thing worth keeping in mind is that depending on the jurisdiction where you are based, you may need to declare on your tax return any “crypto earnings” from Coinbase Earn as personal income even though the amounts of crypto you earn may not seem that big.

Featured Image Courtesy of Compound Labs