944: Is Coinbase Really Writing Half Their Code With AI?

Syntax - Tasty Web Development Treats

Wes Bos

Tech News, Technology, News

4.9 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 8 October 2025

⏱️ 49 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Wes and Scott talk with Kyle Cesmat about how Coinbase is writing nearly half its code with AI—while keeping quality and security front and center. They dig into tools like Cursor and Claude Code, agent-driven workflows, code review challenges, and how AI is reshaping developer productivity without replacing developers. Show Notes 00:00 Welcome to Syntax! 03:29 Defining and measuring “quality” at a large company 05:05 How AI-generated code is reviewed and shipped at Coinbase 07:35 A developer’s workflow using AI—from ticket to production 10:30 Standard vs. team-specific tools for AI development 12:55 Using MCP servers to power internal AI workflows 14:42 MCP vs. custom agent integrations 17:16 What kinds of code AI is writing at Coinbase 19:48 Which languages and tasks does AI handle best? 21:21 Getting AI to follow existing code conventions greptile 24:36 Brought to you by Sentry.io 25:01 How AI affects hiring, velocity, and developer focus 28:16 AI’s role in speeding up code reviews 31:28 The most valuable AI tool in Coinbase’s stack 33:48 Managing AI costs and model choices 35:10 Security considerations for using external AI models 37:04 How often Coinbase tunes and adjusts its AI systems 39:26 Using AI to write code vs. embedding AI in customer-facing features 42:29 Kyle’s big-picture take on AI as a tool—not a magic bullet Measuring the Impact of Early-2025 AI on Experienced Open-Source Developer Productivity 44:33 The future of hiring engineers with their own “backpack” of agents 45:53 Sick Picks + Shameless Plugs Sick Picks Kyle: UltraShelf Hit us up on Socials! Syntax: X Instagram Tiktok LinkedIn Threads Wes: X Instagram Tiktok LinkedIn Threads Scott: X Instagram Tiktok LinkedIn Threads Randy: X Instagram YouTube Threads

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Syntax. We got a really interesting one for you today. A couple of weeks ago, Coinbase came out and said that they are writing 40% of their code with AI. And I thought that was really interesting because you hear these stories of like, yeah, you have these like brain dead vibe coders pooping out an app in an afternoon. And then you hear stories like Google says like 80% of their code or something. And I talk to people at Google and they say, yeah, we're just converting Angular apps to like a more modern version or something like that. You know, so I'm always so curious when companies come out and say, we are writing X percent of our code with AI, I'm so curious. I just want to be like, but what are you
0:39.0	using? Like, what tools are you using? What are you using it for? What kind of code are you writing?
0:43.1	You know, I want to get into the nitty gritty. So, Coinbase, not a small company, rather large
0:48.8	company, you know, lots at stake, lots of financial has come out and said that they're writing 40% hoping to get to 50% of their code with AI. And I immediately was like, we got to get somebody on. And it turns out, do you remember, Kyle, we went out for beers many years ago in Toronto? I think it was Toronto J.S. It was quite a while ago, yeah.
1:11.6	Yeah. So I went to message you and I was like, oh, I think it was Toronto, J.S. Yeah. Quite a while ago, yeah. Yeah. So I went to message you and I was like, oh, I think I know this guy already.
1:15.6	So welcome, Kyle.
1:17.6	Thanks so much for coming on.
1:18.6	Oh, absolutely.
1:19.6	Yeah.
1:20.6	Thanks for having me.
1:21.6	And yeah, I, you know, remember that time fondly and then ever since that, I think I've
1:26.6	follow you on Instagram for lately
1:28.6	home improvement tips and you know general DIY inspiration so yeah definitely have you know
1:37.0	moved through the the sphere of influence in my personal feed oh that's great but wasn't you
1:43.3	that told me the story about Walmart and
1:45.2	toilet paper? It was. Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, this guy is responsible for the spooky story
1:54.9	episodes that we do every single October, which is, we tell story, horror stories and whatnot. And he told me this. I'm not
2:03.8	sure if we can get into it. But I appreciate you telling us that because it jogged my memory. And I was
2:09.1	like, we got to do syntax on this. It's really good. Yeah. Yeah. A good episode about testing
2:15.0	and production would be a good theme there.
2:20.2	Cool. Well, who are you and what do you do at Coinbase?
2:24.3	So my name is Kyle. I've been at Coinbase for about four or five years now.
	...

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