Last July, Swiss Privacy Tech Company Proton (Makers of Proton Mail) announced that it would be launching its own Bitcoin wallet, the Proton Wallet.
I (along with about 100,000 other users) had early access to the wallet to test it and was impressed by the wallet's user interface. In particular, we were able to allow users to link their email addresses to their Bitcoin addresses so that they would need to enter their email addresses when sending Bitcoin.
Check out my review of the wallet here.
Now that wallets are now available to the public, I would recommend it to anyone who knows who is ready to eventually move Bitcoin from the hands of exchange to their own custody. It is also recommended for those looking to use relatively small amounts of Bitcoin and make semi-regular Bitcoin payments in the chain.
Here are my reasons for recommending a wallet:
- Users are free to use (the user can create up to 3 wallets and each wallet can have up to 3 accounts. This is sufficient for most users. Here we will have more wallets or accounts. Proton charges a fee to create it)
- Setup is easy (you don't need to write down 12 words seed phrases when setting up your wallet. However, doing so is a good habit!)
- Like Proton Mail, Proton cannot access user data in Proton wallets and cannot access user's private Bitcoin key
- Using an email address (it doesn't have to be a Proton email address) to send Bitcoin reduces the chances of entering the wrong Bitcoin address into the receiving field of a transaction
- When sending Bitcoin, you can select the preferred speed for the transaction
- You can use a Proton wallet to purchase Bitcoin via Lamp or Banxa, allowing you to transfer purchased Bitcoin directly to custody
The only drawback to wallets is that it does not support lightning transactions (Breez SDK, Proton team!), it cannot manage UTXOS (a loose change from Bitcoin transactions under LayPerson terms).
However, the latter is not that important, but again, I would recommend this wallet for my new wallet to Bitcoin self-admins. UTXO management is more practical for medium to advanced Bitcoin users.
Overall, Proton has created yet another great product for 100 million users and counting here. This is a good idea to go forward for beginners in Bitcoin.
This article is a take. The opinions expressed are entirely the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.
