If you think about it, Proton has always been a crypto company — cryptography, not cryptocurrency — but the Swiss-based company best known for its secure email, VPN and storage services is now launching its first crypto product.
It's a cryptocurrency wallet called Proton Wallet that's designed to make it easy to get started with Bitcoin. The wallet only supports Bitcoin for now, but the company says it plans to add support for more currencies in the future, depending on user feedback.
Proton Wallet is a self-custodial wallet, which means that users maintain control over their private keys. When sending cryptocurrency to another wallet, you must authorize the transaction using a public/private key pair.
Cryptocurrency exchanges like Coinbase, Binance, and Kraken handle that complexity for you: they hold the cryptocurrency on your behalf and can sign transactions without you knowing the private key.
Like MetaMask, Ledger hardware wallets, or many self-custodial wallets, Proton uses your recovery phrase as a backup for your private keys. For example, if you set up a Bitcoin wallet via Proton on a device and then lose the device, you can restore your Bitcoin wallet by entering your recovery phrase on another device.
Recovery phrases are a great backup to protect your crypto assets since they can be easily written down and stored in a drawer or notes app. However, they are not perfect as cryptocurrency users are often the target of phishing campaigns asking for your recovery phrase (which you should never share), but no security model is perfect.
This special design ensures that Proton cannot access customers' digital assets. And even if Proton is compromised or ceases operations, users can recover their assets and move them to another wallet. Proton Wallet is open source and has been audited by a third party, the company said.
The wallet is available in early access only to users who subscribe to the Proton Visionary Plan, but the company plans to roll it out to all Proton users in the future. The Visionary Plan costs $39.99 per month (or $29.99 per month if paid annually) and provides access to premium versions of all of Proton's products. Proton Wallet is available as a web app, as well as for iOS and Android.
What sets Proton Wallet apart from other cryptocurrency wallets is that it is integrated with the Proton ecosystem, which has over 100 million accounts. This means that Proton Wallet users can send cryptocurrency to other Proton Wallet users simply by entering their email address – no need to copy and paste lengthy public keys. Proton has also partnered with third-party on-ramp companies (currently Banxa and Ramp) to allow customers to easily purchase Bitcoin using fiat currency.
“Bitcoin's social value has been hindered by the difficulty of transactions and security concerns, both of which we designed Proton Wallet to address. Proton Wallet's ability to support Bitcoin via email makes bitcoin transactions as easy to use as PayPal, while preserving Bitcoin's decentralized and non-custodial nature,” Proton co-founder and CEO Andy Yen said in a statement.
Proton Wallet has another interesting privacy-focused feature: the public address is rotated every time a user sends or receives assets from a new user, which means that it is not possible to use a blockchain explorer to trace all past transactions associated with a particular public address.
The company realized the benefits of Bitcoin when it was running its first crowdfunding campaign in 2014. New customers could sign up for a premium account using PayPal as a payment method, but PayPal temporarily froze Proton's account after too much money was flowing into it. The company opted to accept payments by credit card and Bitcoin for the remainder of its crowdfunding campaign.
Overall, similar to the password manager Proton Pass, Proton isn't reinventing the wheel with this cryptocurrency wallet. But it's another solid option for those looking to create their first cryptocurrency wallet. However, cryptocurrency tends to be a controversial topic, so let's see if Proton Wallet will tarnish Proton's brand image in the future.