Beam wallet developer Eco has acquired the Web3 shopping app Join, according to a Jan. 25 announcement. The new acquisition will allow Beam and Join to be integrated, facilitating Amazon and Shopify purchases from Beam wallet users. The Beam wallet operates on the Optimism and Base networks.
1/ BIG NEWS: we’ve acquired @join to enable shopping online with stablecoins.
— Beam (@beam_eco) January 25, 2024
It’s time to bring checkout onchain. No more waiting for the rest of the world to catch up.
Want to be the first to spend stablecoins on Amazon? Read on
According to an accompanying X thread, Eco has set up a waitlist to roll out the new feature, which will go live in February. The wallet currently allows users to sign up using just a Twitter login, without needing to copy and store seed words. It uses stablecoins for both payments and gas fees.
Related: Beam wallet CEO claims ETFs are ‘stepping away’ from the ideals of crypto
Tom Dean, CEO and co-founder of Join, claimed that the integration will allow Web3 stablecoin payments to go mainstream, stating:
“We built Join so crypto could be used as currency without waiting for the rest of the world to catch up. The frictionless spending of stablecoins was the first step and integrating directly into Beam propels this vision even further [...] As the crypto ecosystem continues to grow, and we’re looking at the start of the next cycle, this signals that seamless, consumer-friendly crypto payment experiences are finally ready for the global stage.”
Join was founded by Dean, Jawad Ayoub and Brad Crook. It was originally backed by investor Balaji Srinivasan and by a grant from Base. Eco is backed by venture capital firms Andreessen Horowitz, Coinbase Ventures, Founders Fund, Lightspeed Venture Partners and Pantera Capital.
Beam wallet is one of several new user-experience-focused wallets that attempt to eliminate seed words or native-coin gas fees. Others include Immutable Passport, which uses Google or Apple logins, and Kresus, which allows users to sign up with an email address. Worldcoin also created a wallet that pays for users’ gas fees.
