Binance’s New Web3 Wallet Has One Fatal Flaw

TL;DR

• There’re a few features in Binance’s new self-custodial wallet, that could increase the ‘ease-of-use factor’ in the crypto space.

• The sign up process is super easy, and a bunch of the common Web3 features/services are contained within the app.

• the wallet has one fatal flaw: Users can only create/access the wallet through the Binance app…

Full Story

Picture a sea of parents, sitting in a conference room.

A man in a lab coat enters, placing phones in front of each parent/test subject.

He challenges them to set up a crypto wallet, unassisted, while following these rules:

1. No squinting

2. No holding the phone at arms length

3. No grabbing your reading glasses from atop your head

(See gif ).

This should be the official litmus test of whether a tech product is easy enough to use, and we will die on this hill.

Unfortunately for Web3 users – wallet tech ain’t there yet!

…but, in the words of Justin Bieber circa 2010 “Never Say Never.”

There’re a few features in Binance’s new self-custodial wallet, that could increase the ‘ease-of-use factor’ in the crypto space.

For example:

• It doesn’t require users to note down a random 12-word password

• Users can earn interest and take loans against their holdings, in-app.

• It has an ‘Air Drop Zone,’ where users can discover any unclaimed crypto rewards they might have missed.

Point is: the sign up process is super easy, and a bunch of the common Web3 features/services are contained within the app.

We love that!

…unfortunately, the wallet has one fatal flaw:

• Users can only create/access the wallet through the Binance app…

  (Eeeew!)

  This means they still need to give over personal details/ID to Binance, and still rely on Binance to access their crypto (very centralized).

If we can get the process down to:

Download mobile app → input email/create password → Boom! You have a wallet.

Then we could be on to something.