Momentum 6 Portfolio Spotlight: Ambire Wallet

Overview

Ethereum has been a front runner in decentralized finance since it introduced the idea of smart contracts. We have seen hundreds of Ethereum wallets that seek to make it easy for DeFi users to exchange value. These Ethereum/EVM compatible wallets have several challenges that ultimately lead to user inconveniences. Gas fees on Ethereum-based wallets are only payable in ETH, making it challenging for beginners to get started.

Nonce management and stuck transactions are significant challenges with Ethereum-based wallets. Transactions are sequential, implying that you can’t mine a subsequent transaction if the one before it is impending. Some users are tempted to increase transaction fees believing that the approach will ‘speed up’ the transaction, which is never the case.

Ambire Wallet is a fully-featured new generation cryptocurrency wallet designed for anyone, whether a complete beginner, an intermediate, or savvy in crypto and DeFi usage.

Based on an interview with the team, Ambire Wallet ensures that those who want to get into DeFi don’t have to go through the steep learning curve. Experts in DeFi can also connect their Ambire wallets with various hardware wallets and browser-based wallets as authorized signers. A beginner can sign up using their email & password or a magic link email request and still enjoy security comparable to a seed phrase.

How it works

Ambire Wallet comes with innovative features such as hardware wallet support for Trezor and Ledger, automatic management of transaction fees, the ability to connect with any dApp through WalletConnect, the ability to pay transaction fees using stablecoins, built-in swaps, and cross-chain transfers.

As the first open-source, non-custodial crypto wallet with email authentication, Ambire Wallet is secure and delivers on UX. Users can sign up within 30 seconds and don’t need to write down your seed phrase or even install a web browser extension. Users can also top up with a credit card in minutes and interact with Uniswap or any other dApp.

Ambire Wallet is a smart wallet, which means that each Ambire wallet is a smart contract of its own. Newcomers will find the Ambire wallet is user-friendly as they can recover their accounts using an email. Users can also migrate their digital assets to a hardware wallet without losing positions. Users don’t risk phishing attacks as the built-in swap feature relieves them of the burden of moving to exchanges to swap tokens.

Being a web-based wallet makes it convenient to access at any particular time or place. There are plans for a mobile app soon. Additional security is guaranteed when adding Metamask or Trezor as signers to your account.

How to fund an Ambire wallet

There are multiple on-ramp integrations to make this convenient. Users can either purchase crypto with fiat or send crypto directly to their wallet when they want to fund their Ambire wallet. Users can receive and send tokens on the supported networks; Ambire is connected to various networks such as Ethereum, Avalanche, Binance Smart Chain, and Polygon.

The wallet also displays NFTs under “Collectibles” and tokens for each network on the dashboard. The SushiSwap integration makes it easy to swap tokens effortlessly.

The relayer

‘The relayer’ is a backend service that broadcasts your transactions to the network. The gas abstraction mechanism requires the relayer to manage the gas fees automatically and enable users to pay gas fees in any token. The relayer also keeps the keys found in the email/password authentication combination.

Ambire can function without the relayer when run from the source and set REACT_APP_RELAYER_URL to an empty string, which is complicated for those without coding knowledge. The wallet will lose functionalities like Flashbots, email/password login, tracking transactions, and the ability to pay for gas fees in tokens.

How password/email accounts work in Ambire

Authentication with an email and password on Ambire is similar to the traditional Web 2 setup. However, the authentication mode is non-custodial and works through an on-chain 2/2 multi-sig. There are two keys, with one stored in the Ambire backend through HSM, while the second is in the browser storage and encrypted with your password.

You need the two keys to access funds in the Ambire wallet. An attacker who has compromised the user or HSM won’t be able to access the funds. The recovery process can be initiated with one key, but the procedure is time-locked. If the recovery process was initiated by a hacker or unintended, the other key could stop the process. If the user legitimately initiates a recovery process and has lost one of the keys, the user can wait for the time lock to lapse and access your money.

A confirmation code specific to and derived from a hash of the transaction is needed to unlock the second key. Other authentication approaches such as FaceID and OTP 2FA are also applicable. The second also enforces extra security features such as checking for malicious contracts and calls or enforcing spending limits.

The signers

Signers are the keys that control each account. They can be seen as multiple keys that can open the same lock. Users can invalidate any key after authorizing another one at any time. As a result, users don’t have to move positions or funds if they suspect that their hardware wallet has been compromised. All they need to do is add a new signer, and funds will be secure once again.

The signer settings are specific to the blockchain chosen. However, when creating an account for the first time, users start with the same signers on all the supported chains. The following are the examples of signers available at the moment:

• Email/password signer: Such signers are added by default when signing up for an account with an email/password combination. They come with two private keys that are needed to access the account.
• Software wallets: They are wallets installed as extensions or built into the browser.
• Hardware wallets: One of the best ways to use Ambire Wallet with large sums.

$WALLET

$WALLET is the first governance token for a mass-consumer wallet. Holders of this token can:

• Vote for future developments and put up proposals. The wallet will be community-driven, protecting it from stagnating features-wise like other wallets. The Ambire Wallet user can own it and contribute to its development.
• Get incentivized for usage. The early users of Ambire Wallet get $WALLET through a long-term distribution mechanism instead of quick farming. Based on its design, anyone with a balance in their Ambire wallet will proportionally to their balance receive $WALLET over the next four years.

There will be 1billion $WALLET tokens. The Staking and xWallet options will allow holders to stake their tokens. In return, all the stakers get xWallet tokens, representing their share in the pool with a lock-up period of 20 days.

History

In 2018, Ambire was initially founded as AdEx Network, an open-source solution for decentralized advertising. The company held a successful crowdfunding campaign in 2017 and was processing ad network payments on the Ethereum blockchain one year later.

In an interview, Co-Founder and CEO Ivo Georgiev said that the idea originated when they were looking for a way to monetize Stremio, a product they had created earlier. They tried different ad programs to display ads on the app, but they were not impressed by the results. The team discovered that results from their internal tracking tools and what the ad platforms offered were always different, and they also paid ridiculously high fees.

The team started exploring different technologies to create an ad network. At this time, they discovered that advertising was a viable use case on blockchain technology. It was designed to minimize ineffective reporting, end-user privacy invasion, and ad fraud.

AdEx Network created a lot of amazing products up to the point that they decided to rebrand in 2021 and become Ambire. The rebranding also affected various product names where AdEx Network ad platform became Ambire AdEx, and AdEx Wallet became Ambire Wallet.

Ambire is an Italian verb that means “to aspire, aim, strive.” After the rebranding, the team started focusing on creating a technology that simplifies crypto, allows paying transaction fees in stablecoins and seedless logins, supports atomic bulk transactions, eliminates ERC-20 approvals, and automates gas fee management.

Team

Ambire is a community-driven project where token holders can vote on various areas such as development. However, Ambire is also made up of a team that has worked hard to make it a reality.

Ivo Georgiev, co-founder and CEO at Ambire. Ivo comes from a tech/engineering background. Since he was ten years old, he has been coding and has worked in various fields such as game development, cryptography, video streaming, and Solidity/Ethereum.

Dimo Stoyanov, co-founder at AdEx Network and Stremio. Dimo has experience in UI/UX design and is also a front-end developer. Together with his cofounder, they run the VoD entertainment hub Stremio. He is experienced in product design, brand strategy, and project management.

Roadmap

The wallet launch was on December 16, 2021, marking the beginning.

2022 Q1: Token launch. The year started well with the WALLET token launched on January 29th at a successful Huobi Primelist event. In a record two hours, about 6 million $WALLET were sold, and they started trading immediately on Huobi. Trading $WALLET on a DEX is also possible as a Sushiswap pool was created.

2022 Q1: Mobile app. The team is developing a mobile app available on Android and iOS. It will support similar features such as the Web app wallet and biometric authentication.

2022 Q2: WalletDAO. A DAO owned and governed by $WALLET token holders. WalletDAO will be tasked with governing Ambire development and integrations.

2022 Q3: Card: The card will operate in a semi-custodial way. Users can deposit funds into a vault and access them at any time, except the blocked ‘debt’ amount spent. Users can repay the debt manually by using different funds or using collateral. The card is optional, and users must pass KYC to get it.

2022 Q4: Plugins & WalletDAO. The swap functionality resembles that of SushiSwap. The team will roll out an innovative plugin system that will enable any DeFi protocol to integrate with Ambire. The plugins will be combined with WalletDAO and allow token holders to vote for them.

Wrapping up

Wallets are an essential part of the crypto world. However, most wallets are not user-friendly, as people have to download apps and remember their seed phrases. Ambire is changing the landscape by allowing people to access their wallets on their browsers, log in with email/password combinations, connect with hardware and web app wallets, and still enjoy the benefits of blockchain. This smart wallet is among the first to combine ease of use with security and power.

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