Last July, the Swiss Privacy Tech Company Proton (Makers of Proton Mail) announced that it would launch its own Bitcoin -Tevebog – Proton Wallet.
I (along with about 100,000 other users) got early access to the wallet to test it out and were impressed with the wallet’s user interface. I especially liked that it allows you to link a user’s E -mail address to their Bitcoin address, so you only have to enter the E -Mail address when sending Bitcoin.
You can read my review of the wallet here.
Now that the wallet is available to the public, I would recommend it to everyone I know who is finally ready to move their Bitcoin out of the hands of an exchange and to their own custody. I would also recommend it to anyone who wants to make semi-regular Bitcoin payments on-chain with a relatively small amount of Bitcoin.
My reasons to recommend the wallet are as follows:
- It’s free to use (users can create up to three wallets and have up to three accounts in each wallet, which is sufficient for most users – more about this; to create more wallets or accounts, Proton charges a fee)
- It is easy to configure (you are not required to write down the 12-word seed seed when you create the wallet; however, it is good practice to do so!)
- Like Proton Mail, Proton has no access to Proton Wallet user data, nor do it have access to users’ private Bitcoin keys
- Using an E -Mail address (which does not need to be a proton posting address) to send Bitcoin reduces the probability of entering the wrong Bitcoin address in the recipient field in a transaction
- You can choose the priority rate of a transaction when sending Bitcoin
- You can buy Bitcoin via ramp or Banxa using Proton -Tevebog, which allows you to transfer the Bitcoin you buy directly to your custody
The only disadvantages of the wallet are that it does not support lightning transactions (consider Breez SDK, the Proton Team!), And it doesn’t let you control your UTXOs (loose change from Bitcoin transactions, in Layperson’s terms).
However, the latter is not super important, as I would recommend this wallet again to those new to Bitcoin -even custody. UTXO management is more of a practice for moderate to advanced Bitcoin users.
All in all, Proton has created another fine product here for its 100 million users and counting, and it is one that I would recommend to Bitcoin Newbies that move on.
This article is one Take. Opinions expressed are completely the author’s and does not necessarily reflect BTC Inc or Bitcoin magazine.