Waves wallets for Swop.fi

In this article, Vladimir Zhuravlev, Waves developer advocate, explains the use of the Waves ecosystem’s wallets on Swop.fi.

Wallets play a major role in the blockchain space. You need them not only for crypto storage, but also for token transfers and swaps, as well as for interaction with decentralized applications (dApps). Similarly, to use Swop.fi, a DeFi app built on Waves, a user needs to connect their wallet using a respective button.

Two types of wallets can be connected, Waves Keeper and Waves Exchange. In this article, we’ll discuss the specifics of these two wallets, also used in most other dApps on Waves, in the context of Swop.fi.

Waves Keeper

Waves Keeper is a browser extension that can be installed, for instance, in Chrome.

This product was created based on the principle “simpler, more reliable, better.” Waves Keeper, available in the top right corner of the browser window, opens when a PIN code is entered and displays balances of blockchain accounts — which could actually be multiple. This is a full-fledged wallet, which works in a compact format of a browser extension, and you don’t need a separate app.

On the main screen, a list of accounts and their balances in WAVES is displayed. When you select an account, you’ll see a pop-up window with its attributes, including address, public key, private key and backup phrase (seed phrase).

For basic operations, there is no need to use a private key or a seed phrase. For instance, to receive funds to your account, it’s enough to share your address with the sender. If you use apps, such as Swop.fi, Waves Keeper will do everything for you. All you’ll have to do is to sign a transaction or reject it.

Still, Waves Keeper remains a very secure service. Users’ private keys are stored encoded with a PIN code. And even in the encoded form, they never leave the app’s local storage.

I consider Waves Keeper to be the best option for the Waves ecosystem’s new users. It’s sufficiently simple and secure. Vitalik Buterin once said, discussing blockchain wallets:

The reality is a system that requires you to expend less effort on not losing your stuff is a better system.

Waves.Exchange

Waves.Exchange offers much broader functionality: in addition to using a wallet, on Waves.Exchange, you can swap crypto on a p2p exchange, trade in stablecoins and make investments to collect a passive income.

The functionality of Waves.Exchange is so broad that a user can even issue their own cryptocurrency, using just one form. To avoid getting distracted from discussing Waves.Exchange as a wallet, I won’t go deep into the exchange’s features. It’s enough to say that it’s a powerful tool for interaction with a number of functions offered by the Waves protocol.

The Waves.Exchange wallet is quite user-friendly. Just like Waves Keeper, it supports multiple accounts — you can switch between them in the upper right corner of the screen:

In the Wallet tab, you can see your funds, without having to additionally interact with the blockchain:

Incidentally, a Waves.Exchange account can also be used for transactions in external apps, thanks to the extension Waves Signer. Let’s consider an example of interaction with Swop.fi, where by clicking “Connect wallet,” a user can log in using their Waves.Exchange PIN code:

Waves.Exchange enables transactions with an account stored on the exchange, in external apps without sharing private information or a need to deeply understand blockchain implementation. And you still won’t have to use a private key or a seed phrase.

Finally, I should mention an option implemented in Waves.Exchange’s recent update, which became a breakthrough in the Waves ecosystem — email authentication.

Now, you can log in to Waves.Exchange using your email, which adds another protection layer against losing a user’s funds. The only drawback is that email authentication allows a user to operate with just one account, and switching between accounts is not available for now.

We’ve considered two wallets in the Waves ecosystem. Both will work well for fund storage and interaction with dApps by new users.

While Waves Keeper is simple but quite functional, Waves.Exchange offers a much broader functionality, while remaining sufficiently secure, but it’s easier to get lost in it than in Waves Keeper.

Certainly, these two wallets are not the only existing options for interaction with the Waves blockchain. There are good solutions, created by the community, like Muna Wallet, which positions itself as a service equally convenient for experienced crypto users and those who have little experience with tokens, or WavesFX, which enables storage of funds in a desktop app, which makes a loss of them impossible.

Overall, the Waves ecosystem is so diverse that each user will certainly find a wallet that’s most convenient and suits their needs.

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