My introduction into cryptocurrencies, was back when you had to have separate wallets, for each and every coin that you held or was looking to invest in. For those of you who shared the same experience, would really understand the benefits of Multi-Wallets. For those of you have just gotten into this wild forest of cryptocurrencies, Multi-Wallets are a trail well trodden and a good place to start before exploring the deep forest. So lets get into it!
What are Multi-Wallets?
Multi-Wallet as the name implies, is a wallet that can store various different types of cryptocurrencies in a single software without the need to keep different wallets for all the different coin that you hold. But you should not confuse these to Multisig wallets. Multisig wallets are for applications where there is a need for multiple people to hold and control a cryptocurrency holding, on the other hand, Multi-wallets store cryptocurrencies, that you personally own and you have complete control over your funds.
Do I Need A Multi-Wallet?
So, this is completely up to you. I highly recommend you get one if you are going to be trading an holding various coins. as a multi-wallet will help you easily manage your private keys, in this sense you can think of multi-wallets as your password manager.
Additionally, one major advantage that I have seen with multi-wallets is that there is no need to sync to a blockchain of a particular coin. These multi-wallets probably run a few nodes that they can access the blockchain through. This is something that you don't find in a majority of wallets for individual coins. There you would have to wait for the wallet to sync by either waiting for a few hours or by accelerating the process by downloading a blockchain snapshot. This can also take up a lot of space on your system as you start investing in multiple coins.
But Why Should I Use Atomic Wallet, When There Are Others?
A really good question,one that you must always ask. The Atomic Wallet Writing Contest has introduced an influx of many articles on it and I must disclose that I am also writing for the same thing. But, for the sake of change and to stand out, I have decided to take a rather different approach. Instead of simply accepting that it is the best, I felt that it would be better if we work form a completely opposite notion. The best way to prove something is Good or Bad is to work with an completely opposite, possibly negative notion, and try to disprove all the negative aspects. This approach will also appease to those who are generally cynical with all things Crypto.
So, to assess the Atomic Wallet, I shall look into the following aspects and rate them accordingly,
- Features
- Open Source rating
- Availability and Accessibility of Information
- User/Customer Support and Responsiveness
I chose these parameters ,as I felt that having these qualities will instill confidence in Users and thus allow the user to have trust in them. So, with no further delay, lets get into it.
Features
The 4 main features of Atomic Wallet are
- The Wallet
- Exchange
- Staking and
- Buying Crypto with Fiat
The wallet supports more than 500+ coins and tokens with a rather intuitive and simple UI. This is a great advantage for beginners who might struggle with other wallets where some information has to be obtained via command line or through file manipulation. This simple UI also prevents users, especially beginners from making mistakes. The Wallet displays the coin name, your balance, its value, its price, 24h change and even its chart. You can see fro yourself below.
The Exchange is a partnership between Atomic Wallet and ChangeNow and Changelly. This is a big plus point for the atomic wallet towards being beginner friendly. It prevents the need for users, especially beginners, to have to transfer funds back an forth between exchanges and incurring transaction charges. Though some say that the exchange fee might be on the higher side, but considering the efficiency and the lack of significant transaction charges, this might be excused.
The Staking menu allows users to stake currently 11 coins like Cosmos and Tezos. Out of the 11 coins, 7 coins have individual articles on how to get started staking them, which can be found on in their Knowledge Base/Staking Section.
In the Buy Crypto section, I find that it allows users to swap fiat for a few selected cryptocurrencies. This is a great strategy to create an ecosystem where all necessary services that any novice would ever require, effectively keeping them engaged within their ecosystem, needing only to leave if they wish to engage in trading. Hence, for the features it offers, I give it a 9/10
Open Source Rating
Being a Multi-Wallet, managing multiple tokens and coins, has a great responsibility of managing and storing all the private keys securely. This is a great task in security and hence their wallet is not open-source. They do claim to use open source libraries which can be found on their Github page. They also do actively search for bugs experienced by users and have a Bug Bounty program mentioned in their announcement page on bitcointalk. For its Open source, I give it a 7.5/10.
Information Availability and User Support
Source: Atomic wallet knowledge base
Feeling this article going too long, I felt it would be best if I combine the last two sections. Regarding availability of information, their main source of official information is their knowledge base. This is a great resource and is also mentioned in almost every site for more information. This is a great relief and something that is expected of all cryptocurrencies' websites. Their knowledge base contains in total 132 articles on various topics and general questions regarding their services.
On the topic of their user support, the first thing I searched for was their sub-reddit. And to my surprise, it was rather active. With over 2.3k members , there were at least 3-4 posts almost everyday. This was the most active wallet sub-reddit I have ever seen! While scrolling through a lot of post by users advocating Atomic Wallet as their favorite and preferred wallet, I noticed some of them had issues while using the wallet. On the surface, this would be enough to bring a smile on those looking to dig up dirt, but while looking at the comments, I found that there was a response from u/atomicwallet. I was rather shocked, the Atomic wallet team seems to monitor their subreddit and ready to help users to resolve theri issues. Finding a team which actively supports the user is almost too good to be true, but in this case it is. For its user support and availability of information, I give it a 10/10.
Conclusion
Overall, it gets an average of 8.5/10, losing points only for it being closed-source. On the whole, the Atomic Wallet ecosystem is really user-friendly and is something that I would recommend to any beginner to use, without a doubt. It is a great Multi-Wallet, and one thing that i have noticed is that, compared to other Multi-wallets out there in the market, I have not seen one with these many tokens and such an active reddit community. The Atomic Wallet team has really worked hard to create a sense of confidence and security to its many users, despite being launched quite recently. I really hope that this article and many others, especially those part of #AtomicWalletTutorial will help those looking to get into the crypto market and for those experienced to feel safe and help manage their portfolio more easily. I also wish that the Atomic Wallet Team maintains this confidence that it has brewed in the hearts of its users.
