Dynamic Presentation – Keeping the Coinbase App fresh in a rapidly changing market
Article Summary
Coinbase needed to update their app in minutes, not weeks, to keep pace with crypto's volatility. Traditional app releases took 10+ days from code freeze to launch.
Engineering Manager Cole Edwards shares how Coinbase built Dynamic Presentation, a backend-driven platform that lets product teams modify app content and layouts in real time without engineering support or app store releases.
Key Takeaways
- Three core services handle content ingestion, presentation logic, and user eligibility checks
- Product owners modify app content via web UI in minutes vs weeks
- Reduced client-side network calls from 10+ to one consolidated backend request
- Standardized component library enables feature reuse across products without new frontend work
- Platform adopted across multiple Coinbase products since May 2023 launch
Dynamic Presentation shifted app logic from client to backend, enabling real-time content updates while reducing latency, data usage, and CPU load for users.
About This Article
Coinbase's Home tab needed constant updates as market conditions changed. The team had to make over 10 network calls to different backend services to check eligibility, which hurt latency and increased the load on users' devices.
Cole Edwards' team created the Product Eligibility Service to pull eligibility logic from multiple backend sources into one place. Product owners can now update eligibility rules through a web UI without asking engineers for help.
With eligibility logic moved to the backend, the app only needs to receive and display the results. This cut data usage, CPU usage, and latency for users. Teams can now make eligibility changes in minutes instead of waiting weeks.