If Brave can help open it up more, that’s likely a positive which will help others join the crypto party.Pros: Brave is an excellent browser to be used as a data-intensive browser. Whether the new Brave wallet will be simpler for end users remains to be seen.Īs you can hear in the interview with Eich, there are still massive complexities in the crypto space which not only limit who can participate in the space, but also provide significant space for fraudsters and con artists to flourish. “Users can store redeemed BAT from Brave Rewards in the Brave Wallet after going through the custodial process, but the two features are otherwise not connected,” Brave says. While Brave offers BAT (Basic Attention Token) crypto to its users who opt in to watching ads, the default BAT wallet is separate. “People are getting fake Metamask extensions by mistake or by being tricked and they're installing them, and then they're putting their precious crypto in through their key that they remember. take over the entire canvas or the user interface, you cannot be sure that you can put trusted user interface elements that cannot be impersonated or spoofed by the page up,” Eich says. “If you use an extension, you're kind of at the mercy of Google's rules for that extension in Chrome, and you cannot. (Brave is based on the Chromium codebase, which Google Chrome is also built on.) Other browser-based cryptocurrency wallets are generally built as browser extensions in Chrome. In 2022, Brave will integrate the Solana chain and make Solana - a high-volume and low-cost alternative to Ethereum - the default for distributed apps on Brave.įor Eich, building the wallet into the browser is essential for security.

Support for Bitcoin and Solana will arrive “rapidly,” CEO Eich says. While the Brave wallet will start with support for Ethereum and EVM-compatible (Ethereum Virtual Machine) chains. and any light- fingered people in your house.” “That's self custody: you're the custodian, you have to secure it against burglars.

grandpa putting money in the mattress, or people keeping cash in a lockbox at home,” Eich told me. “I guess you could think of self custody like.

It’s worth noting that self-custody wallets can be harder to use and higher-risk than managed wallets: if you lose your secret key phrase and can’t access your cryptocurrency, it is gone for good.