Will the Crypto Wallet Exist in 10 Years?
Since the very beginning, our mission at Ethos has been to enable everyone to experience the power of web3. While some may debate whether it is worth bringing crypto to the rest of humanity, we think this is largely due to the immaturity and extreme financialization of such an early technology, which has limited the range of possible applications, and resulted in frivolous use-cases and scams. There is little doubt that our digital lives are becoming more and more important, and that digital technology connects us across the world in unique and powerful ways. Crypto provides important infrastructure to that equation that we believe will be foundational in the near future.
So we set out to make crypto more accessible to more people. This started with removing the significant onboarding friction of having to understand in detail how crypto wallets, seed phrases, private keys, and proper security work. We do this by allowing Ethos users to engage with a dApp through email or social login.
Today, we’re releasing a complete redesign of our Chrome extension wallet for the Sui blockchain. You might wonder why, given the effort we already put into removing the wallet from the new web3 user experience, did we put so much attention toward a Chrome extension wallet? That is a good question.
Many people believe that in order for crypto to gain mainstream adoption, the wallet must be removed completely and the blockchain should exist as the hidden plumbing underneath more traditional, but blockchain-enabled consumer applications and experiences. However, this hides one of the core benefits of using the blockchain. Digital ownership and sovereignty over one’s assets is one of the most powerful aspects of crypto. The wallet provides visibility and control over one’s assets — they are truly yours and ownable in a way that is unparalleled in earlier consumer experiences where there are often third-parties who you must rely on as an end-user. This is too important to obfuscate in many cases, and would eventually confuse the experience if it were hidden completely. That said, you don’t need to throw someone who is new to crypto directly into the deep-end.
As more people engage with crypto, derive value from it, and accumulate assets, the wallet becomes an essential part of the experience.
We were determined to create a Chrome extension that effectively meets those needs, in addition to a mobile wallet and our browser-based wallet explorer. Each of those products represents a slightly different use-case for interacting with the blockchain, and we want each one to serve that use-case as effectively as possible.
For the Chrome extension, that use-case revolves around convenience. A Chrome extension is always with you while you browse the Internet, allowing you to interact with dApps quickly and easily. It enables you to easily view your tokens and NFTs, and should provide convenient ways to get additional information about your assets.
This redesign is just one iteration toward a larger vision of a holistic experience that supports new-to-web3 users all the way through to experienced users, with deep integration between the convenience of the chrome extension, the portability of a mobile wallet, and the extensibility of a full-screen wallet explorer. We have many ideas on how to continuously improve both this existing product experience and new features that will add to the value of the Chrome extension. For now, we hope you enjoy this next step.
Ready to try our improved wallet? You can find the newest version in the Chrome web store.