This time we are putting the lens on Blockchain.com, to see if aside from having perhaps the best URL in the cryptosphere, whether their service and products are of industry-topping quality too.
Home to over 60 million free wallets that have transacted over $6.2 trillion in total, the Luxembourg-based operation is the biggest and most trusted wallet provider in the world, launching all the way back in 2011. Their exchange service launched in 2019 and is still in its early days, offering just 40 market pairings, so in this article, we will lean our attention more towards the wallet than the exchange.
The Positives
Security is paramount to this wallet and exchange, which are yet to be hacked or compromised. They boast three levels of security that are cleverly designed to stop unauthorized access and requests.
Mobile app and a web browser platform give users options about how they want to control and access their funds and trading opportunities.
‘You’re the custodian, you have control’ is how they assure users that their keys are completely theirs.
Fiat-to-crypto purchases of Bitcoin and Ethereum can be made directly from the wallet by debit card, credit card, or bank transfer in GBP, USD, EUR and CAD (card only)
This is an HD wallet (hierarchical deterministic) which means it generates a new address for each transaction, giving another layer of security to users
Users can exchange cryptocurrencies directly in their wallet without having to visit the exchange, which of course has a higher fee for the convenience, but is a blessing for beginners who get overwhelmed by trading views.
The wallet UI is completely intuitive and easy to use, it would surely pass the grandma test. The exchange, not so much, as it’s quite a solid and comprehensive exchange, keeping things traditional for traders.
In 2020, they introduced interest accounts where users could gain up to 5% interest on certain crypto.
API developers love Blockchain.com with tens of thousands of them taking advantage of its excellent features to support their crypto-projects.
The entire service is available in 25 languages so that international users are not excluded from their offering.
Blockchain introduced their own stablecoin, USD Digital (USD-D, formerly known as USD PAX), which allows users to securely hold crypto that is pegged to the US dollar.
Users have some level of control over their mining fees for in-wallet trades, with more patient people being able to set transactions as ‘low priority’, meaning they wait longer for the block to be mined and pay less as a result.
The Negatives
Whilst it’s not particularly their fault, they (or their users) seem to be a major target for malware, phishing, and man-in-the-middle attacks. There are many threads on forums around the crypto-web discussing how inexperienced users have been easily stolen from by hackers.
The platform is not great for those who want to protect their anonymity.
Ticket request is the only form of customer support, with no phone or live chat features available.
Which cryptocurrencies can you find on Blockchain.com?
Strangely for Blockchain.com, the coins that can be held in their native wallet and the coins that can be traded on their exchange are not the same. This essentially means that you will need to open another wallet for the coins that their wallet doesn’t support, or risk keeping them in the exchange’s hot wallet, which, whilst not hacked before, is not advisable for traders on any exchange. If the exchange is compromised and your funds are in a hot wallet, they can be stolen by hackers.
The (cold) wallet supports:
Bitcoin
Bitcoin Cash
Ethereum
Stellar
Algorand
USD Digital
Tether
In the exchange, you will find all of these cryptocurrencies in different market pairings.
Aave
Algo
Bitcoin Cash
Bitcoin
Digital Gold
Enjin
Ethereum
Litecoin
Origin
Paxos
Tether
Stellar
Ripple
USD Digital
yearn.finance
Can this discrepancy risk me losing funds?
Having a wallet that doesn’t hold the same coins as the exchange is a little confusing, but it won’t end in lost funds, as some people worry. If you try to send crypto, let’s say Origin (OGN), from the exchange to the wallet, the first issue is that you won’t find an option to generate an Origin recipient address.
Let’s say that you then open a wallet elsewhere to send your Origin to. You’re going to pay a mining fee every time you move those funds, but it’s still safer than the hot wallet. If you’re worried about making a mistake on the address, most wallets have a clipboard function to ensure that typos don’t happen. If you do make a typo, it will result in a non-existent address and the funds won’t send. The address has to exist for the funds to leave the account. Remember that your wallet keys are long complex mixtures of letters and numbers with infinite combinations, so the odds of a typo resulting in someone else’s address and gifting them your crypto are highly implausible.
Some more information on fees
Maker and taker fees for the exchange are below:
Makers who are trading over a billion in a month don’t pay any transaction fees – good to know (if that applies to you, give us a call).
As mentioned previously, trades done within the wallet from one crypto to another, or for sending crypto out of the wallet, will result in a mining charge that is constantly variable. The blocks that must be mined are changing all the time depending on how many miners are active and also how large your transaction is.
The final say
We are a fan of what Blockchain.com is trying to achieve on their ‘road to 1 billion wallets’, and believe that they will continue to provide a great service to their customers. With incredibly low trading fees and impressively high security measures, traders big and small should feel secure using their products.
Originally published on http://bitcoincashafrica.com/
