Bancor, a Switzerland-based decentralised autonomous exchange that allows users to convert tokens to other tokens without the involvement of a counterparty, has announced the release of a new cryptocurrency wallet.
According to the company announcement, the wallet will allow "instant on-chain conversion between nearly 100 Cryptocurrencies ", and more will be added on a daily basis. The Blockchain applications that have announced integration with Bancor include major tokens such as ETH, EOS and BNB.
Users can purchase tokens with fiat currency via any major payment card and then use the Bancor Network to convert them to others. The selling point of the protocol is that the conversions are made through smart contracts rather than a system of buyers and sellers, which means that the counterparty isn't looking to make a profit from every trade.
In fact, the Bancor protocol will make new and niche projects available for trading, because their listing won't be dependent on whether an exchange deems them profitable or not.
In a recent interview with Finance Magnates, Bancor co-founder Galia Benartzi said: “in the new Internet of value, where anyone can create a currency, digital wallets are becoming the browsers which allow users to navigate the emerging world of decentralized apps. To be useful, users need seamless and secure interfaces to blockchain-based products as well as on-demand conversion between the tokens that power them.”
Targeted Toward Mainstream Users
In an exclusive email to Finance Magnates, Benartzi wrote that “we built Bancor’s wallet with mainstream users in mind. Rather than focusing just on the needs of ‘whales’, professional traders, or crypto veterans, the Bancor Wallet and the technologies that power it are primarily aimed at creating user convenience for regular people, even those that are brand new to crypto.”
With the new wallet, “users no longer need to send their cryptocurrencies to exchanges if they wish to acquire other tokens,” she said. “Instead, they can convert their cryptocurrencies directly and seamlessly from within their own wallets, and without having to deal with common issues that plague exchanges.”
What common issues? “Complex and lengthy registration, centralized servers storing their money, fake or inflated volume, spreads and fees that traditionally profit matchmakers, and rampant pump and dumps.”
Security and the Bancor Wallet
Galia wrote that “as a decentralized liquidity network, Bancor neither holds nor has access to customer funds, making its network and its wallet more secure. Because a deposit is not required, "the Bancor Wallet paves the way to widespread adoption of dapps". 'Dapps' is short for 'decentralised applications', which are protocols which people can use to interact directly between themselves without the need for a third party.
Additionally, “Bancor’s wallet also went through numerous rounds of auditing by third-party security firms.” Galia said that “we enlisted the help of our community through the Bancor HackMe Bounty Challenge—offering cash rewards to developers who could breach the Bancor Wallet. None of the more than 100 bounty hunters succeeded.”
Of course, “as with any decentralized application, users are responsible for securely storing and retrieving their own passwords. In the near future, Bancor will roll out additional features to its wallet which will further improve consumer experience around security, such as the ability to nominate friends as guardians.
"Like a Vending Machine"
Finance Magnates recently published an exclusive interview with Benartzi, in which she described the project as a kind of vending machine for cryptographic tokens. Like a vending machine, Benartzi said that “Bancor removes the need to match buyers and sellers from the equation--flipping the exchange model on its head by enabling automated token conversions that occur between users and smart contracts.”
"The opportunity for liquidity is a birth-right of a #token and not a privilege. It's the ability to buy and sell this token without depending on its trading volume." In case you missed it, check out @galiabenartzi 's talk at @d10e_conference #Seoul: https://t.co/fU3yVOkydP
— Bancor (@Bancor) March 21, 2018
“Bancor’s smart contracts are always available to buy from and sell to users at efficient and transparent prices which are less prone to manipulation,” she added.
Benartzi believes that user-friendly crypto wallets are integral to the future success of the cryptocurrency industry as a whole: “in the emerging world of decentralized apps, where anyone can create a currency, digital wallets will become the browsers of the blockchain allowing regular people to instantly convert between virtual assets, making transactions as frictionless as loading a web page, and unlocking enormous purchasing power for consumers.”
Bancor, named after an international currency which was proposed by John Maynard Keynes at the Bretton Woods conference in 1944, is a non-profit foundation established in 2017. It made over 135 million USD in its ICO.
