Crypto doesn’t have to be complicated. But it often is. Thanks to complex onboarding, multiple initiation steps, the need to constantly retain gas to cover network fees, and countless other impediments, crypto is bewildering to newcomers and frustrating to even seasoned participants.
Despite these challenges, getting started in crypto is getting easier. This is thanks in part to the efforts of wallet developers, who are utilizing new technology to simplify the trickiest part of crypto: onboarding. The following wallets have taken an ingenious approach to web3 onboarding by eliminating the seed phrase, the bugbear of many crypto users. Instead, they use alternative authentication methods including web2 login to provide an alternative to the much maligned private key.
Core
Core is a popular wallet for multi-chain thanks to integration of dozens of blockchains including Bitcoin, Avalanche, and Ethereum. The wallet makes it easy to transfer assets between chains, connect to dapps to trade and deposit tokens, and to keep track of your holdings through a built-in portfolio. But perhaps best of all is Core’s seedless design that makes onboarding a much more pleasurable process.
Normally, upon installing a non-custodial wallet (Core is available for desktop, mobile, and web browser) you’re required to write down a 12-word seed. This represents your private key and if you lose this, you risk losing permanent access to your wallet. Core solves this by allowing social login using Google or Apple, for example, which makes the process feel more like launching a web2 app.
Add a secondary authentication method, to ensure redundancy, and you’re good to go with Core. You can now make your first crypto transaction and you haven’t been prompted once to write down a 12-word seed phrase. And that is the beauty of a seedless wallet such as Core.
Zengo
There’s more than one way to design a seedless wallet. Zengo’s implementation, for example, is radically different from Core’s, but it’s equally adept at banishing the need for a seed phrase. A mobile wallet with multi-chain support, Zengo eliminates the seed phrase “vulnerability” as it describes it through the use of multi-party computation. The technical description of MPC is that it allows two or more parties to jointly compute a function output without revealing their inputs.
In practice, this means that the private key is broken down into multiple shares, each of which is stored by a separate entity. This makes it easy to recover access to an accidentally deleted wallet but at the same time prevents phishing because a single share can’t be used to access the wallet. Aside from seedless support, Zengo also supports NFTs, DeFi, and gaming, making it a good all-rounder, even if it doesn’t cover as many chains as Core.
Fuelet
Many of the new seedless wallets on the market make use of account abstraction. Fuelet is one of them. Available for mobile and as a browser extension, Fuelet is every bit the modern web3 wallet. There’s clean UI, seamless dapp integration, and a nicely crafted portfolio checker. Designed for modular blockchains, Fuelet serves as a non-custodial wallet for Fuel. This is great for users of Fuel blockchain, but does of course limit Fuelet’s suitability to most web3 users.
Nevertheless, as a seedless wallet, Fuelet is a fine example of how much web3 onboarding has improved in recent years. It supports social recovery and the ability to pay for network fees using any token. You can also set an optional daily limit, just like a web2 banking app, and there’s support for batched transactions. While it loses points for not being a multi-chain wallet, there’s no disputing that Fuelet provides a greatly simplified crypto experience.
Bitizen
Bitizen is a true multi-chain wallet, supporting 15 chains including 30 DEXes and numerous bridges and dapps. As a result, it’s easy to move your assets around and to participate in DeFi activities like LP’ing and lending. Like Fuelet, Bitizen makes use of ERC-4337 which supports account abstraction. This allows gasless transactions to be provided, which vastly enhances user experience, but just as importantly, it enables seedless design.
The wallet’s developers are adamant that seed phrases are the non-custodial wallet’s greatest weakness, and are determined to remedy this. Instead, Bitizen makes use of threshold signature scheme (TSS) and multi-party computation (MPC). This ensures that private keys are never created, stored or shared at any point. If the future of web3 wallets is seedless, Bitizen’s future is intertwined with the trend towards alternative web3 security and authentication.
Creso
ERC-4437 isn’t the easiest term to remember, but if you’re shopping for a seedless wallet, it’s one you’ll start to recognize. Most of the wallets advocating seedless design make use of ERC-4437’s ability to deliver account abstraction and with it freedom from the cumbersome and frequently forgotten seed phrase. Creso is yet another wallet that taps into this technology, combining it with a pleasing UI that makes entering the world of crypto for the first time far less daunting.
Creso allows web2 logins to be used, replacing the seed phrase with options such as Google, Twitter, and Apple. 2FA can optionally be used to further enhance security. For abstracting complexity, Creso is to be commended. It makes the web3 wallet as minimalist as possible while retaining all of the essential features users expect.
Summary
Not everyone hates the seed phrase. But even long-time users who’ve learned to live with it will concede that there are inherent drawbacks to being compelled to jot down 12 unique words every time you create a new wallet. Whether you’re a veteran user tired of encrypting seed phrases, or a new user baffled by the very concept, a seedless wallet provides an alternative way to secure your crypto assets.
As wallets such as Core and Bitizen demonstrate, it’s possible to maintain custody of your coins without complexity. Seedless design simplifies everything.
