Proton releases a self-custody bitcoin wallet | Proton Wallet is open source and has been audited by a third-party firm, the company said
Proton releases a self-custody bitcoin wallet | Proton Wallet is open source and has been audited by a third-party firm, the company said
Proton's first cryptocurrency product is a wallet called Proton Wallet that's designed to make it easier to get started with bitcoin.
Proton isn’t reinventing the wheel with this crypto wallet. But it’s another solid option for people looking to create a crypto wallet for the first time. However, cryptocurrencies tend to be a polarizing topic, so let’s see if Proton Wallet doesn’t hurt Proton’s brand image in the future.
- More information: Proton Blog Article
But... Why? Who asked for this? Instead of stuff like this, can we get feature parity with at least the Android app when it comes to the Linux VPN app?
92Why do you need a VPN app? Using wg-quick from the command-line on Linux is dead-simple. I've hated every VPN app I've used, but I don't hate wg-quick. Take advantage of WireGuard support being baked into the kernel. :)
5
Crazy. There are already millions of Bitcoin wallet apps for small amounts and quick transfers. And anyone smart is storing significant amounts on hardware wallets.
Release the Linux Drive app please
57Contacts for phones too
Like what is the start here... The market is super saturated for this and password manager.
12
Seems like Proton is branching out into a lot of new areas lately. Possibly too many? I'd prefer it if they'd work on improving their current offerings first...
53I don't think doing this means they aren't working on their other offerings. Both Drive and Pass have recieved very highly requested features in the past couple weeks.
15The problem is that all of these new products take a LOT of time, money, and dev resources. Those are all a limited supply. There are super duper basic Calendar features that they could be working on instead.
12
So why does Proton work on multiple products at the same time? Simply because:
- throwing more bodies at existing efforts has a point of diminishing returns and then a point when it even becomes counterproductive
- given the lengthy minimum time it takes to perfect services, starting earlier lets us deliver more to the community over the long term
That's why we bring new services to market earlier than some of you would like, but I can also say that it's never done if we believe it would compromise an existing effort.
1
Wow excuse my zoomer language but... Who asked?
42It makes sense if you look at their broader offering. They're basically building alternatives to Google products, and this seems to be an analogue to Google Wallet, but with crypto instead of credit cards.
It's a really low-cost way to add services to your suite. There are tons of FOSS crypto wallets out there, so it's basically just copy paste, audit, integrate, and ship.
1
I really didn't see anyone asking for this, hopefully it didn't take too many resources to create. Even though I don't understand it being made I'll probably still switch to it, because Exodus feels like it's getting more and more bloated and annoying to use.
edit: I just realized this wallet only seems to support bitcoin? Why on earth would they do that? Most people holding a significant amount of Bitcoin are storing it in a hardware wallet and rarely transferring it. It sucks to use for actual transactions.
29Minimal Viable Product. They shiped it with only one coin to avoid having to spend too much time on implementing every possible coin protocol. But they says that they will add more of them in the future, and, maybe, even fiat currencies.
21
I stopped using Brave when and because of crypto bs.
I stopped using proton a few months ago because the price was just too high and my need too small. I needed a reasonably priced family plan for email on my domain, not another cloud drive.
I think this decision will hurt them as others come to this conclusion
17I never switched to Proton for exactly this reason. I'd much rather use a service that does one thing really well than one that does 20 things okay.
It's all just to keep you locked into your subscription. Now they want you to keep other money tied up in it too.
10It did email really well. And it had the best VPN. Didn't like the calendar or drive Didn't touch the password manager.
3
I don't think it will hurt them, because I think the majority of Proton users want exactly what you didn't. There are lots of options for email using your domain, but I don't know of any cloud suite providers that respect your privacy like Proton does.
Also, I am surprised that with the amount of different plans they offer none do what you wanted well. I thought they had a family plan for just mail without the other services, but they only have a business one and $7 per user is not a great price.
8Tutanota is kind of a protonmail competitor but it's been years since I looked into it idk how they're doing
3
Yep, I've been a paid user for years and reconsidering my choice to invest my time and money in Proton lately, and this one hit hard. Crypto? WTF Proton.
Focus on getting the basic shit working instead of jumping on bullshit scams like AI and crypto, both of which are eating up enormous amounts of energy for very little good as well.
People still can't sync their fucking contacts. It's 2024.
6Tbh I think it's cool, and since most ppl wanted proton to release stupid things like another browser or another encrypted chat app, a wallet fits right into that while being something that doesn't need that many manhours to be maintained.
I think this will benefit them, proton is more mainstream than you might expect
(also, unlike brave, they are a profitable business without vc and a non-profit org, so there are no intentions to sell your data)
4How will it hurt them? If you don't want a Bitcoin wallet, don't use it. It's not like offering one takes a significant amount of resources or drives up the cost.
1I’m not a customer, but I personally avoid any company offering that mentions crypto and/or AI. I’m guessing I’m not alone based on some responses here. They are just the latest buzz words to try to inflate company value and I’m tired of them.
I started migrating off from Google products (homepage, chrome, drive soon) and my laptop does not have windows anymore for example. It’s hard to get customer trust back after it is lost.
2
You know, people are mad at this for some reason, but while I don't see myself using this ever, I'm really glad a more privacy conscious alternative to the google ecosystem is growing.(Even if this product of theirs doesn't compete with them, many others do)
13The reason people are mad with this is because Proton's longstanding services are lacking basic features for months and years already with no update in sight, and in less than a month after a (now) controversial poll, Proton introduces AI and crypto wallet in their portfolio.
35Hmm... Is that a problem with their more recent endeavors? I myself have only used their email and pasword manager services and I find their feature sets to be sufficient.
Also, marketing containig the letters "A" and "I" does not invalidate the product. While I absolutely despise seeing AI plastered everywhere, it is true that ML algorithms are often incredibly useful (even if LLMs aren't)
2
It kind of does compete with Google Wallet, just with crypto instead of credit cards. It's low hanging fruit to add an analogue to a Google service on their platform.
1
Why must companies feel like they need to be everything to everyone? Proton would be absolutely awesome if it stuck to it's "We're better than GMail" plan and provided stellar email and calendar.
Leave the VPN and cryptowallets and all that "not email related" crap to it's own app/company/environment.
12Permanently Deleted
1There are separate mail and VPN plans. What are you upset about?
3
Eh, having a more complete package is how you defeat Gmail. People don't use Gmail because Gmail rocks, they use it because of all the other crap it comes with, like Google Drive and Calendar. So at a minimum, they should provide those with their email. But a lot of customers want VPN, and they already have a bunch of server infra for email and calendar, so why not add VPN?
If you look at their product stack, it reads like a set of alternatives to gsuite. Here are some less obvious ones:
- Pass - alternative to Google single sign-on
- Wallet - crypto alternative to Google Wallet
- VPN - Google One VPN
If they follow this trend, they'll make privacy-friendly alternatives to Meet and Gemini (Scribe AI?). Maybe eventually they'll build/integrate an office suite to compete with Docs and Sheets (maybe OnlyOffice or Collabora).
They want to be privacy-friendly Google, building replacements for anything that can be self-sufficient (i.e. can be sold at a profit).
1Their brand has been privacy-focused alternatives to the most important parts of online life.
- Email / identity
- Passwords
- VPN
- Calendar, etc
Now with their crypto and ai products it feels like they're not focusing on regular users any more.
1
Proton would be absolutely awesome if it stuck to it's "We're better than GMail" plan and provided stellar email and calendar.
You're saying that like those have now gotten worse than they were before.
1
Time to switch...
7I could see this being better if it supported a variety of currencies. Like Monero. No reason in particular.
/hj3I used to use Bitcoin core for my wallet. But the block chain is just too huge to really make that feasible nowadays. (Also I don't own any crypto now.)
2Also see: (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crypto_AG)
WaPo... "The Swiss firm made millions of dollars selling equipment to more than 120 countries well into the 21st century. Its clients included Iran, military juntas in Latin America, nuclear rivals India and Pakistan, and even the Vatican.
But what none of its customers ever knew was that Crypto AG was secretly owned by the CIA in a highly classified partnership with West German intelligence. These spy agencies rigged the company’s devices so they could easily break the codes that countries used to send encrypted messages."
More... https://www.cryptomuseum.com/manuf/crypto/index.htm
"In 2014, it came to light – from released documents of the Friedman Collection – that there had been some kind of Gentleman's Agreement between Hagelin and the NSA from 1951 onwards. As part of this deal, Hagelin would not sell secure machines to certain countries. And in February 2020, ZDF, SRF and The Washington Post revealed that in 1970 the company had been secretly purchased by the BND and the CIA, and that from 1994, CIA had been the exclusive owner [12]."
1I have to assume that some sort of market research led to this decision... but it is an odd one.
1common proton l
-1Possession of any cryptocurrency should be punished by 5 years in prison. The only use case is paying ransoms to North Korea, and the side effects are destroying our climate
-4