By Ethan Kushner, Director of Marketing at Kimera Technologies
Crypto is quickly evolving from a market for solely investing in currencies, to a full-fledged marketplace with a thriving ecosystem comprised of applications servicing every conceivable need. Increasingly the crypto wallet finds itself at the heart of the crypto ecosystem as enterprises, and by extension customers, are now realizing that they need to adopt a wallet as part of their core business competencies. The wallet is the place where commodities, transactions, and customer assets (or in other words – coins) converge just like a traditional FIAT wallet.
Just as in the FIAT world, consumers are going to require easy and secure access to their wallets. Payment methods will need to be quick and non-cumbersome. Therefore, the crypto wallet must be versatile, secure, and easily accessible. Accessing the wallet and fulfilling transactions will need to take seconds, not minutes. The transaction needs to be as quick as a credit card swipe, or a tap on an NFC device.
Benefits of a custodial wallet
The answer for addressing future market needs is the adoption of a custodial wallet. A wallet that gives its users resourcefulness coupled with flexibility and security. The purists among crypto users may cringe at the thought of giving away control of their private keys to a custodian, however, imagine going to a merchant that accepts crypto as a payment method, only to take out a “cold” wallet, then connecting it via a device to a payment provider and fulfilling the transaction. All in the name of holding on to one’s private keys. What works for buying and selling crypto sitting comfortably behind a desk in front of a computer, just won’t cut it when looking to buy goods and use crypto in real-time, day-to-day uses.
It seems that in the near future the custodial wallet is going to become the perfect solution for a market ready to take off. However, for this type of wallet to become truly accepted as the “go-to” platform of the future, it needs to be a true performer, it needs to shine.
For one, the wallet needs to be able to support multiple assets. As there is an abundance of cryptocurrencies on the market today, the wallet must support the top preforming coins of the hour like bitcoin, ethereum, stellar, cardano, and litecoin to name a few. A wallet that supports multiple coins brings with it versatility, and more importantly choice for the consumer. And after all, that is what customers like: the ability to choose. Another important aspect to consider is language. For a wallet to shine, it must be multi-lingual and ready for a global audience. It also must be ERC20 compliant and accept tokens as a means of buying or selling goods.
Above all, the wallet needs to generate a sense of security. From a secure log-in process that ensures password safety and includes 2-factor authentication to ensuring the integrity of transactions, with a full audit trail of each transaction, customers need to know that the wallet and platform behind it will keep their data secure, just like a bank’s vault.
One of the major obstacles facing the crypto ecosystem is that everyone is looking to develop their own wallet. That will make managing one’s assets cumbersome, far from the flexibility and ease-of-use people should be looking for. Having multiple wallets held by multiple applications can quickly become an administrative nightmare. However, enterprises can find a way to shorten their time-to-market by selecting a wallet vendor that offers their solution as a white-label.
Why white-label?
White labeling can become the perfect answer for enterprises in need of a wallet. Developing a core technology is both time and money intensive. Companies focusing solely on the development of wallets bring a unique advantage that goes far beyond the ability to individually brand the wallet. In order to make their wallet stand out, they invest their development efforts in ensuring that the wallet has all the functionality needed to truly shine. They need to be reactive to changes in the industry. Developing the wallet is their core business. Making a truly exceptional wallet is their business. Making it user friendly and intuitive ensures customer engagement, so it becomes a win-win situation for all parties. They need to make sure that the wallet is connected to exchanges, can accept and covert back to FIAT, and depending on the type of white-labeling, also manage an enterprise’s customers on a wallet-by-wallet basis.
Enterprises also may want to look for a white-label wallet provider able to deploy their service virtually instantaneously. By extension a white-label wallet can also become a single-entry point for multiple enterprises looking for their “own” branding but sharing the resources of the management platform. So, in a whimsical manner, a wallet provider can intuitively become the glue that makes commerce easier.
Choosing the right wallet is as important as developing the front-end application. Choosing the right wallet can be the difference between long-term user engagement and non-consumer adoption. Choosing the right wallet is about making the right business choices for enterprises and consumers.
About the author: Ethan Kushner is the Director of Marketing at Kimera Technologies, the developer of a state-of-the-art fully secure and intuitive crypto wallet.