If you’re a hashgraph enthusiast, your Twitter timeline may have looked a little “blue” this weekend. #HelloCoinbase has taken over, and that’s super exciting, but what the heck is it, why does it exist, how did it happen, and what’s next? Happy you asked.
One word comes to mind when I think about HBAR and Coinbase: confusion. We see all sorts of wacky and wonderful assets listed on the crypto behemoth (with over $550 billion quarterly trading volume), but we don’t see HBAR. Of course, there are many powerhouse exchanges that do list HBAR, but in the current crypto zeitgeist, Coinbase is seen almost as a gatekeeper; a right of passage. Its platform also provides the greatest accessibility to most folks in the crypto ecosystem.
So why has HBAR not been listed? Corporate politics? Technical difficulties? At the end of the day, the reason doesn’t really matter. Recently on their Reddit AMA, the HBAR Foundation was asked this very question and the answer they provided highlights the need for a strong community movement:
“Unfortunately, the only answer we have is that we don’t know. As with most integration or listing decisions, it’s always a balance of prioritization. [It’s about] convincing Coinbase of the retail value of HBAR…”
Reddit AMA April 11th 2022
It’s clear the HBAR Foundation is doing everything they can to make HBAR as accessible as possible, but that only goes so far. Getting through that “Coinbase gate” will requires the Hedera community to make some serious noise and even though #HelloCoinbase continues to build incredible momentum, there was already a ground swell forming months ago…
Enter Crypto Danny on Twitter. For 131 consecutive days (as of writing), they have tweeted for Coinbase to list HBAR, which has snowballed into a bit of a fun meme. At the same time, builders, startups and NFT creators like myself have continued to highlight how beneficial a Coinbase listing would be. On April 7th, I stumbled across a bit of insight in a Discord server posted by Patches, CEO of Turtle Moon. It was regarding a discussion about ways to make it easier to sell NFTs on Hedera:
“Cross chain payments would be great, but also turns you into a dex and has mountain high legal implications if in the US. I really think a giant campaign to get hedera listed on Coinbase would be easier. That way it’s 2 steps. Buy HBAR, send to HashPack and you’re ready. I think a simple hashtag for the community to rally around is the spearhead to the campaign, try to get it trending…”
Patches
When I’m not threading together PixelRug NFTs, I work out of a creative agency. As soon as I read the words “a simple hashtag for the community to rally around”, my marketing brain lit on fire. I dropped what I was doing (I think I may have actually canceled a meeting) and I started brainstorming what this campaign would be. We would have to put down the pitchforks and elevate the conversation; the power would come from sheer repetition and an eye grabbing visual. Something simple, truthful and versatile. Something friendly and welcoming (but also cheeky).
Last year Christian Hasker, head of Hedera marketing, stated that the community should aim to “augment” the marketing efforts of Hedera. Looking at the Coinbase situation it started to become clearer: #HelloFuture would just be augmented to #HelloCoinbase, a friendly greeting instead of a desperate cry. A show of confidence that HBAR can stand on its own as an asset: we want it, you need it! Right away after sharing this with Patches, the light bulb switched on and I began designing a powerful visual asset. I took the hashgraph graphic, added the ℏ and Coinbase logo, then gave the poster a visual treatment similar to engineering handbooks of the 60’s (I’m a fan) and after some revisions we had it.
The announcement was drafted up and like a bolt of lightning, Patches sent the beacon to Discords far and wide. I connected with everyone I knew. The stage was set, the plan was locked in and for the first time, the entire Hedera community would push in the same direction to get HBAR listed on Coinbase. We never could have anticipated how powerful this movement would be. Friday evening, Hedera Discord servers started bubbling with excitement everywhere, almost bursting at the seams, and you could feel a bit of magic brewing. Then it went live.
Within 24 hours, #HelloCoinbase was trending on Twitter, had taken over the official Coinbase topic and was shared by major influencers. Currently, the campaign is still running and shows no sign of slowing down with over a million reached. Although it clearly has the attention of the HBAR Foundation and folks inside Hedera, they have really done all they can. As more high profile entities and enterprises embrace #HelloCoinbase, this will grab the attention of Coinbase. It’s a simple equation: will this be a successful financial product offering for Coinbase? Let’s answer simply “yes”.
So we got a jpeg to trend on Twitter, where do we go from here? That’s the thing: this is a marathon, not a sprint. It’s actually important that we don’t go too heavy too fast, we want to keep these embers burning as long as possible. If we have Coinbase’s attention, they’re going to watch how this unfolds. There will be a time to throw gas (ha) on the fire, but that time isn’t now. The best thing we can do is keep #HelloCoinbase as simple, repetitive and consistent as possible.
Also Hedera and HBAR Foundation, if you’re comfortable, please hop on board with our lighthearted community movement. This is the kind of thing Coinbase wants and it’s the way many assets got listed on their exchange, despite technical challenges. If you could share our poster, doing so would galvanize the entire population of retail HBAR investors and get a Coinbase listing. #HelloCoinbase is the grassroots retail social proof you’ve been waiting for to make it happen!
As for the Hedera community, I think we kind of blew ourselves away. It’s truly incredible to see how supportive we all are of each other, I think it makes us very special. Let’s keep beating this steady drum, have some fun and show Coinbase how welcoming and warm our community is. Through all this, I think the real gains we’ve made are all the great friendships.
Keep an eye on HelloCoinbase.com for more updates.
By Brandon Davenport, Doerksen & Davenport Inc.
Notice: This is a community submitted article and may or may not reflect the views of Hbar News.
