Uniqueness in the World of Crypto Wallets

"Uniqueness", as defined by Snyder and Fromkin in 1977, is "a positive striving for differentness relative to other people", in other words, it is our individual need to feel special and different from others - but not too special and different, just the right amount. This theory, which evolved to become what psychologists call the need for uniqueness (or NfU), has also been at the center of happiness and consumer behavior studies since its inception, helping businesses to better understand how to provide the most unique experience to their users while at the same time keeping a simple and friendly UI. This is what ChangeNOW, the company behind the NOW Wallet, has been striving to achieve with its wallet app.

Custodial Wallets Make a Difference

Even those of us who are not particularly tech-savvy clearly understand what a wallet is: a device where you keep (or store) money, cards, physical tokens, or a picture or two, among other small personal belongings. The same is true for crypto wallets: you can store money, cryptocurrencies (fungible tokens), and "the picture or two", or "other", in the form of non-fungible tokens (NFTs). There is one caveat though - these wallets are not physically holding those cryptocurrencies and tokens, they do store public and private keys that enable you, the user, to carry out transactions with your coins and tokens. As opposed to a physical wallet, though, a crypto wallet can be either hot (one that connects to the internet) or cold. Crypto wallets are also divided into custodial and non-custodial wallets. Custodial wallets, despite belonging to you, keep the private keys and funds under the control of a third party. Non-custodial wallets, on the other hand, delegate control of the private keys and funds to the users. Ultimately, the decision about which is better comes down to what you want. Non-custodial wallets provide a much higher level of anonymity and are much safer if you can safeguard your private key. Custodial wallets relieve the user of some personal financial responsibility but tend to be more vulnerable to hacking, and they do require the user to really trust the custodian. 

What Are My Options?

There are a plethora of wallets to choose from, some paid, some free, most with mobile apps, and many exclusively hot/cold. Let's check what some options for 2022 are:

Exodus Wallet

Provided with a flashy interface (perhaps even too flashy), this wallet does a great job at being a central hub for all of your cryptocurrencies and other crypto assets, like NFTs. The list of benefits continues: Exodus also provides the users with swapping between more than 130 currencies, FTX and Lightning Network integration, meaning lower fees and faster transactions, respectively. 

This integration, however, comes at a cost, although FTX integration does translate to speedy exchanges, lower spreads, and a better minmax exchange range, it also requires the user to abide by a more strict KYC (Know Your Customer) process, which seems to undermine the "no account required" advantage first presented by Exodus. 

Another potential drawback is the inability to withdraw USD directly from the USD wallet in your FTX portfolio in Exodus. To do so, the user would have to exchange crypto to USD through the FTX Exchange app in Exodus and it would then reflect in the user's FTX USD wallet. After doing so, one could then withdraw USD from FTX.

Jaxx Liberty Wallet

Jaxx Liberty Wallet is the evolution of the previous Jaxx wallet app that came to provide its users with extra security layers. Unfortunately, like other decentralized wallets, Jaxx Liberty is not immune to cryptojacking, or to the user connecting the wallet to a phishing website. Despite that, it remains a great and more traditional wallet option: it is well organized, offers a sober UI experience, and provides a separate pricing tab, as well as buy/trade options across multiple cryptocurrencies. It is also possible to customize your tabs and check crypto-related news. 

As mentioned above, it is quite a traditional wallet, as such, it offers fewer cryptocurrencies than more modern wallets. Also - forget new trends like NFTs or staking options.

Coinbase Wallet

As far as security goes regarding a hot wallet, it does not get much better; it has an intuitive UI and is backed by a well-known exchange. Coinbase Wallet can store non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and digital collectibles, provides staking of Tezos, Cosmos, or ETH, and supports over 500 crypto assets. On the other hand, specialists have voiced privacy concerns regarding their "over-intrusive" KYC protocol and use of private data. Being backed by a centralized exchange also comes with its fair share of disadvantages as users report higher fees when buying/trading currencies.

NOW Wallet

Last but not least, the team behind NOW Wallet has learned from the mistakes made by the other wallets in the market. As our top non-custodial pick, NOW Wallet supports all tokens on six different blockchains: Ethereum, BTC, Polygon, AVAX C-Chain, TRX, and KLAY. This translates to a really wide range of possible digital assets to choose from. This alone puts it as the greatest contestant to Coibase wallet.

What Exodus makes hard - exchanging crypto for fiat - NOW Wallet makes it as easy as possible while allowing you to set the best network fee for your exchange. No intermediary or outside integration is required. 

Moreover, you can access your NFT wallet at any time in NOW Wallet if you are interested in trends, collectibles, and limited edition digital assets. NOW Wallet, developed by the experienced ChangeNOW team, also allows users to stake NOW and BNB tokens to generate an additional 25% in annual revenue.

Furthermore, one of the defining aspects of NOW Wallet is its WalletConnect feature, which brings to its users the best and most innovative tech that the Web3 revolution currently gives us: easy access to Ethereum, BSC, AVAX C-Chain, and Polygon dApps (decentralized apps), which combine smart contracts and a frontend user interface via QR codes. That experience, with all of the other existing perks, is currently unmatched by other wallet providers.

Conclusion

If you are looking for a simple and effective wallet experience, any of the above will serve you well, from the more traditional service provided by Jaxx Liberty to the safe and stable character of Coinbase, or the young extravagant approach of Exodus. However, if you are looking for that avant-garde feeling of uniqueness... well, then you already know where to go.