Beginner level explanation of wallets. Overview of the different wallets out there.
==My goal for this newsletter is to provide practical insights into using Ethereum protocols and products safely. You will surely fail, as one does when learning anything new, but you will, most importantly, fail safely.==
Title Ideas: What is an Ethereum wallet? An overview of Ethereum wallets.
[insert quote] [insert personal story about the first time I used crypto wallets e.g. exodus]
Introduction I. What is an Ethereum wallet? It’s a user interface for accessing your cryptocurrency so you can send and receive money and access application. It’s a different frame/paradigm that’s unlike a physical wallet or a bank account. A physical wallet has credit cards. A crypto wallet also has accounts that you can create. That first account creation is the public/private key with your seed phrase. Then you can create more accounts but they’re all linked to the top account (probably can exclude this, it’s a little too technical)
II. Basic Mechanics of an Ethereum Wallet
- Public Key Cryptography
- public & private key
- EOA
- Seed phrases
- Mnemonic
- Bip39, Bip32, Bip44 III. Wallet Recommendations
- You probably want some recs (and want to not get rekt!) My guess is that you’ve heard of at least one of the four wallets that I will recommend! II. Wallet evaluation framework
- Open source
- Self custody
- Permissionless (anyone can sign up)
- Audited, code available for anyone to review
- Public bug bounty
- Battle Tested II. The different wallets available?
- Metamask
- Rabby Wallet
- Coinbase Wallet
- Brume Wallet (cupoJoseph) - low fidelity-ish i’m not sure if appropriate for this audience B. There are browser extension wallets
- Metamask - OG. First one. Has portfolio.
- Brave - I’ve tried it to try a new browser extension wallet. I use brave so I tried their wallet. C. Hardware wallet
- For long term storage
| Metamask | Rabby | Coinbase | Brume | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Open Source | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| Self custody | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Permissionless (no account required) note: an argument can be made that social login/email helps onboard new users by providing a familiar flow | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Audited / public bug bounty | Yes (Mobile & Snaps & have a HackerOne public bug bounty) https://metamask.io/files/LeastAuthority-MetaMask-Audit-Report.pdf https://metamask.io/files/least-authority-metamask-snaps-audit-extension.pdf | Yes, slowmist | Not publicly available | No |
| Battle Tested | Yes. 2016. 30M monthly active users as of January | 2021 | No | |
| Key Differentiator | 1. Ease of multi-chain experience (DeFi era) 2. Human readable details around the contracts users are signing | Built-in Tor so your IP address is not tracked. Trad’l wallets send IP address to 3rd parties (Coingecko, Etherscan) which can track you and put your multiple identities together Grassroots project funded by community. https://juicebox.money/v2/p/594?tabid=cycle_payouts |