The Default Coinbase Referrer Is Their Director of Data Science

There is some concern on Reddit over how the Coinbase Director of Data Science is the default referrer when users sign up for a new account. Going through the official Coinbase join page will – allegedly – fill in the referrer as Supranamaya Ranjan. It is rather odd to see a company staffer make additional money from every new user purchasing US$100 or more worth of Bitcoin.

An Interesting Coinbase Referral System

Any self-respecting company trying to become a global player will offer an affiliate program at some point. Users who are dealing with financial transactions don’t mind spreading the word on platforms they like. If they get paid to do so, that only sweetens the deal.

But the Coinbase platform is doing things a bit differently than most. Whenever someone follows the regular signup link – without a referral ID attached – they will be automatically referred to the company by Supranamaya Ranjan. For the people who have never heard this name before, Ranjan is the Coinbase Director of Data Science.

While there is nothing wrong with this approach on paper, it does seem rather strange. After all, every new Coinbase user who purchases US$100 of Bitcoin – or more – earns the referrer US$10. It is doubtful Ranjan is not making enough money from Coinbase itself, so this “default referrer” tactic seems a bit odd.

Granted, there are several plausible reasons as to why this is the case. First of all, the company had to ensure the referral system works as it should, and setting up a default referrer will do the trick just fine. Secondly, this only appears when visiting the Join page through toe sponsored link in the Google Search engine. Most users refer their friends directly, so they would not give the “credit” to someone else.

In the end, “issues’ like these are only trivial at best. Coinbase offers anyone the same opportunity to refer friends and family to make some additional money. The default registration gives credit to one of their own staff members, and there is nothing “evil” about this tactic, albeit it is a bit strange.

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