Kraken, the second largest cryptocurrency exchange based in the U.S., has introduced its own digital wallet. This move allows Kraken to compete with market leader Coinbase in terms of product offerings and places them among other prominent wallet providers such as MetaMask, Ledger, and Trezor.

Starting from Wednesday, the latest “Kraken Self-Custodial Wallet” will be accessible to both existing Kraken users and newcomers, according to an exclusive report by CoinDesk. To begin with, this wallet will accommodate eight different blockchains: Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, Optimism, Base, Arbitrum, Polygon, and Dogecoin.

A blog post on CoinDesk reveals that Kraken, a well-known exchange, plans to make its digital wallet open-source. This allows developers to examine and enhance the code. Additionally, Kraken offers monetary rewards through an open-source grant program for those who discover weaknesses, enabling them to fix any issues found.

According to Kraken, the wallet will only gather the essential data required to operate effectively as a digital wallet. This approach adheres to the privacy preference of numerous crypto users. By channeling user actions through Kraken’s own system, the company safeguards IP addresses and conceals identity and location details from external entities.

The Coinbase Wallet provided by Coinbase is widely used, while Binance and OKX, two major cryptocurrency exchanges, also offer wallets that can be integrated into their respective platforms.

Eric Kuhn, Kraken’s Wallet Product Director, spoke with CoinDesk and emphasized the importance of self-custodying assets for over a decade. Kraken Wallet was developed adhering to key crypto tenets, which include user privacy and open source coding. The team behind Kraken Wallet is excited about on-chain advancements and aims to provide users with a tool to engage with these developing ecosystems.

Kraken has been building out its suite of products over the last few months.

In November, Kraken was reportedly holding discussions with several layer 2 projects regarding the development of their own layer 2 blockchains. This conversation took place not long after Coinbase announced the launch of its rollup chain, Base, in August.

In simple terms, the failure of Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX crypto exchange in 2022 served as a reminder of the risks associated with keeping cryptocurrencies on centralized platforms. This event may have contributed to the growing interest of exchanges like Kraken and Coinbase in offering products based on blockchain technology directly.

“Kraken Wallet is our contribution to the decentralized finance movement, where users hold their own cryptocurrency keys. This is a crucial aspect of permissionless access to financial systems. While we respect other wallets, our goal is to create the ultimate open-source, secure, and private crypto wallet,” Kuhn expressed.

Read more: Kraken Said to Seek Partner to Help Build It a Layer 2 Blockchain Network

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2024-04-17 18:15