Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase said on Monday that it has acquired Earn.com, makers of a paid email product that lets people earn bitcoin for replying to emails or completing surveys.
As part of the deal, Earn.com co-founder Balaji Srinivasan will join Coinbase as its first ever chief technology officer. Srinivasan will also take on an evangelist role for Coinbase and cryptocurrency at large, "educating the world and recruiting crypto-first talent to the company," Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said in a blog post[1].
Earn.com formerly operated as a bitcoin mining company under the name 21.co Last year it rebranded itself as a social network and is now regarded as one of the few practical blockchain applications to gain meaningful traction.
Srinivasan said in a separate blog post[2] that Earn.com is a cash-flow positive business with a multimillion dollar revenue run rate and "hundreds of thousands" of users. As part of Coinbase, Srinivasan said Earn.com will continue to operate as a standalone business but will work to scale its model across Coinbase's user base.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Srinivasan said in his post that "the total value of cash, cryptocurrency, and equity returned to our shareholders is now in excess of the capital invested in the company."
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