The views expressed in this article are based on my personal experience and in no way should be taken as financial advice. The readers are advised to do their own research before making any investment decisions.
I got initiated into cryptocurrencies about a year back. My initial interest was to make investments in good coins and maybe do a little bit of trading to generate additional income. So, I opened an account on a centralized fiat to crypto exchange and on a couple of other crypto to crypto exchanges. Having no previous experience in this space it took me a while to get a hang of these exchanges and figure out how to send, receive, store and track the status of my transactions. This even though I come from a technical background having worked in the software industry for close to 2 decades. I also came to realize with time that my funds were not safe on the centralized exchanges as I did not have control over my private keys (It took quite a bit of research on my part to understand what these private keys are and why we need to have these in our control). And while doing transactions between the exchanges and some of the wallets I was using, I was always fearful that I may lose my funds by pressing a wrong button or selecting the wrong option from the many available. For most of the population across the world, I would assume the primary interest in blockchain/cryptocurrencies would be as an investor or trader (leaving out the small percentage who would be interested in understanding the underlying technology or its uses). From the perspective of an investor or trader, I would want tools that are simple, easy to use, intuitive and with the shortest possible learning curve. It is from this perspective that I find PINT cryptocurrency wallet as one of the best if not the best that is available to the cryptocurrency community.
From someone who is still not initiated in this space, a wallet is a basic tool that we need to send, receive and store our cryptocurrencies/tokens. Just like we need a platform to get into or out of a train. Now there are many options that are currently available in the market. The selection of the right wallet is a time consuming and cumbersome task as it involves technical functionality/jargon that a layman will find hard to understand. All the blogs and articles available on the internet use highly technical jargon which to a common man may sound like Greek or Latin. My objective in writing this article is to simplify the technical jargon into language easy for a layman to understand.
So here is why I find PINT wallet an excellent wallet to use irrespective of whether you are new or old in the cryptocurrency community.
Cost – The first consideration is always cost. Talking from my personal experience, when I understood that my cryptocurrencies were not safe on centralized exchanges and that I needed a hardware wallet (that’s what most of the youtubers and articles I found said) to keep my funds safe. I logged into amazon and checked out the price of these hardware wallets and ordered one immediately (the price of a hardware wallet being upwards of USD 140). The next best option for users who are unwilling to shell out money for a hardware wallet is using a software mobile wallet that pretty much provides the same functionality as a hardware wallet. Yes, PINT is a free to download wallet that you can download and install in a flash (it’s only a 4.4 MB file). Currently only the android version is available on the android play store and the company is working to launch the iOS version soon.
Ease of use – Downloading, installing and setting up PINT hardly takes any time. The first thing that strikes you is the simple layout of the buttons and fields. It’s so easy to use that even a child would be able to use it without a hassle. Plus, since it’s a mobile wallet your funds are always handy. You practically have you bank in your pocket.
Security – Security is one feature that no user would want to compromise on when it comes to money. PINT is a highly secure wallet. While setting up the wallet the user is prompted to note down the 12-word phrase (master seed) and keep the 12-word phrase at a safe place after noting it on a paper. You also need to set up your PIN that you would need to enter to validate each transaction. Now even if you lose your mobile phone it wouldn’t matter since you still have your private keys. Neither can your funds be stolen or hacked. PINT is also what in technical jargon is called HD (Hierarchical Deterministic) wallet. Without complicating things for the layman, this algorithm makes your wallet safer. There are only a few software wallets that have implemented this important feature.
Multicurrency Support – Most investors generally invest in multiple coins, create a portfolio and would want to hold their coins till they go up in value. The biggest hassle is that these coins either need to be stored in a secure single currency wallet or left on exchanges (the user needs to remember the passwords of multiple wallets). PINT supports multiple currencies and tokens. The current version supports BITCOIN, BITCOIN CASH, ETHER, DASH, LITECOIN, DOGE, GOLEM, 0x, OMISEGO and POWER LEDGER. The team behind the wallet keeps adding more currencies based on the feedback from the community.
SWAP functionality – PINT has integrated the SWAP functionality provided by Shapeshift. SWAP is a functionality that makes it easy for the user to swap between 2 coins with out having to do it through an exchange. It’s a time saving functionality and saves a lot of hassle for the user.
Monitoring transaction status – Using PINT its easy to monitor the status of the transaction on the blockchain. The user simply needs to click on the transaction record in the list of transactions and it automatically opens the transaction details on the blockchain explorer.
Highly competitive Team – BITFIA the company behind PINT wallet has a policy of hiring the best talent and has a highly experienced and competitive team behind it. The team have a very clear roadmap in terms of additional features like multi-signature access, hardware integration, ICO launcher etc and integrating new platforms and applications to the wallet over the next few months.
All the above put together make up a compelling case for any cryptocurrency enthusiast to spend 5 minutes to download PINT, play around to get a feel of the wallet and the functionality it provides and once comfortable start using it for keeping their cryptocurrencies safe.
- Kuldeep is one of the Early Backers of BITFIA the company behind PINT wallet