#ProofOfKeys is Great, When User Experience is on Par

Published in

blockbutler

3 min readJan 3, 2019

First and foremost, happy birthday Bitcoin!

Today is an important day in blockchain world. It’s the annual Proof of Keys day, that celebrates personal monetary sovereignty by putting you back in control of your money.

Since there’s much written about today’s “celebration”, I won’t go into the particulars. You can read more about #ProofofKeys here:

What hasn’t been discussed as much is the user experience of controlling your own keys.

A big benefit of using a centralized exchange or custodial service is that you are provided with all of the wonderful features that you’d come to expect with financial products —

A slick user interface to manage your accounts
Transaction notifications by email or mobile push
Enhanced 2-factor auth security
An address book so you know where you’re sending or receiving from
Ability to send/receive crypto via email or phone number
Account reports and tax assistance
And more…

When you take control of your own keys, there is no single solution that provides you with all of these luxuries. You’ll need to piece together what you need using other tools.

The good news is that most of them are free.

Here are a few proposed solutions for you if you choose to participate in today’s #ProofofKeys —

Slick user interface

Hardware wallets are going to be your best bet for safely securing your crypto, but you’re going to have to wait to receive it. Trezor and Ledger are the best in the market.

For Ethereum (and 40% of all other tokens), use MyCrypto (newer) or MyEtherWallet.

For Bitcoin, use Electrum (desktop wallet).

Transaction notifications

Use Blockbutler to monitor your addresses for transactions and receive email notifications for any token that’s supported on the Ethereum chain. It’s the first tool that notifies you of new transactions in real-time.

There is no solution for Bitcoin yet.

Enhanced security

As mentioned above, use a hardware wallet, like Trezor or Ledger, for this purpose. It’s the best blend of usability and security.

Address book

Coinbooks is a great free solution for Ethereum platform users.

For Bitcoin, Google Sheets?

Send or receive via email

This doesn’t exist when you control your own keys. You can only use a crypto address, but you could use email to coordinate that ;)

Account reports and tax assistance

Bitcoin.tax is a great tool that’s been around for a while and works great, praised by many.

CoinTracking is another great tool that’s new to the scene, but seems to be building furiously and growing their user base quickly.

If you choose to take control of your keys today or in the future, we hope this article will help you replace some of that wonderful functionality that you’ve come to depend on and expect.

Have any other suggestions for solutions to the above? Please post them in the comments!