You Can Now Hold Ether In Blockchain, One Of The World's Most Popular Cryptocurrency Wallets

With the price of Ethereum's token, ether, up almost 4,000% for the year, Blockchain.info, one of the oldest and most popular user-controlled bitcoin wallets, Thursday adds it as a second currency to the service.

The move gives the 16 million Blockchain wallets access to the second-highest market cap coin, which is used to power smart contracts on the Ethereum platform.

Additionally, the wallet, available in 140 countries, now integrates the crypto-to-crypto exchange Shapeshift so users can easily trade from bitcoin to ether and vice versa.

"The reason we decided to add Ethereum is we really feel like Ethereum as a community, ecosystem and technology has really matured," said Peter Smith, Blockchain's chief executive, of the two-year-old cryptocurrency.

While another popular cryptocurrency wallet, Coinbase, began offering ether more than a year ago, Smith said Blockchain has to be more conservative because of the demographics of its users. While Coinbase's customers are more concentrated in North America and Europe, where many people have probably already heard about Ethereum, Smith said Blockchain's user base is more global, with 80% residing outside of the United States. "When we survey our user base, the majority of them don’t know what ether is, haven’t heard of it," he said.

For that reason, he said, "We feel we have a serious responsibility that when we’re offering something, we’re offering something that’s high quality," he said.

Blockchain.info maybe be the most popular user-controlled wallet, in which the holders hold their own private keys, as opposed to a hosted wallet like Coinbase where the company holds the users private keys. "What’s most fundamental to know about our product is our tagline, which is 'Be your own bank.' Our philosophy is not to run a crypto bank, but give people software packages so they could be their own bank," said Smith.

The most popular user-controlled Ethereum wallets now are desktop or web applications, so from the start, Blockchain, which also has a mobile wallet, will likely be the most user-friendly mobile option for people who want to control their private keys.