Robinhood has just announced the upcoming arrival of its non-custodial wallet designed for Web 3.0. This one will allow to not pay transaction fees anymore, it will also be easy to access, even for beginners.
Robinhood introduces its new wallet
North American trading platform, Robinhood, is accelerating its transition to Web 3.0 by officially announcing the upcoming arrival of its non-custodial wallet:
Trade and swap crypto with no network fees. A web3 wallet from us. Get early access: https://t.co/qonXj80BEB pic.twitter.com/qLjByPA4ty
– Robinhood (@RobinhoodApp) May 17, 2022
It will be a digital wallet that allows full control of one’s cryptocurrencies, similar to MetaMask or Frame for example. But here, the user experience will be a big part of it, so that it will be easy to use for a beginner.
It will have the basic features you’d expect from a non-custodial wallet, namely the ability to interact with decentralised finance applications (DeFi) to trade or grow your crypto-currencies, as well as storage and the ability to view your non-fungible tokens (NFT), all on different blockchains.
If nothing seems transcendent to the competition so far, the value proposition lies elsewhere. Indeed, it would seem that Robinhood’s wallet would make it possible to avoid paying transaction fees. The application would then work with third-party liquidity providers, but does not reveal more information on this subject for the moment.
Possible security caveat
Despite the supposed qualities of Robinhood’s new product, there are two possible downsides to this promise, although there is no way to confirm this 100% at the moment. These would be the lack of compatibility with a Ledger-type hardware wallet and an exclusivity for use on mobile.
It is important to point out that nothing in the current communication explicitly states this assumption, but nothing contradicts it either, which leaves the field open to questioning. This leaves room for questioning. This could lead to a security problem.
In the case of a non-custodial wallet that is not protected by a hardware wallet, the funds are completely vulnerable, as the wallet’s recovery phrase is stored on the user’s machine. This can then be a point of attack, as we saw recently with an investor who lost $655,000.
This type of risk is even more present on mobile phones, as we are likely to connect to all types of unsecured Internet networks while on the move.
Without questioning the work of Robinhood, this is an issue that needs to be monitored. However, we must emphasise the firm’s ability to make financial investments accessible to everyone, and it is initiatives such as these that will accelerate the democratisation of our ecosystem among the general public.
If no release date has been communicated yet, it is however possible to register your email address on a waitlist, in order to hope to obtain an anticipated access.
