How We're Working to Tackle Crypto’s Biggest Pain Points
How We're Working to Tackle Crypto’s Biggest Pain Points
Crypto can be confusing, overwhelming and downright scary for anyone, whether they are tech savvy or not. Managing private keys, multiple wallets, passwords and dodging phishing sites and even the fear of getting hacked, has often been too intimidating for average people to take a real foray into Crypto.
While the casual investor relies on a third-party custodian, we all know that unless you control the private keys, you don’t control the crypto. Ironically, it’s these barriers to entry which are also the underlying qualities that gives crypto its revolutionary value.
Since Ethos began, we’ve been focused on tackling the biggest barriers to entry into crypto, while streamlining the utilization of it in the real-world as we play our part to help catalyze a revolution to a more fair and free new economy. We do this by building products which are simple, safe and secure, yet dynamic and innovative.
In this article we highlight the biggest pain points in crypto, and our approach in solving them.
1) Crypto is Too Complicated (and Intimidating!)
Ain’t that the truth! Imagine that you’re trying to buy Bitcoin so you can buy altcoins from an exchange, only to then have to figure out how to download four different wallets. Once you have those wallets, you have to keep them updated plus manage the private & public keys. The process to acquire crypto right now takes too many steps, so it’s no surprise that people just give up and walk away from the possible benefits.
In fact, every person that works for Ethos has personally overcome these hurdles and intimately understands the struggles consumers are facing.
The idea was simple – if we give users the power to safely and simply store, track, send & receive crypto, then it can be a more integrated part of their daily lives. The Universal Wallet gives users the ability to send crypto as easily as they could with PayPal or Venmo, thus increasing the likelihood of exchanging crypto among peers.
Soon you will be able to swap and purchase coins and have them directly show up in your wallet. Making it a one-stop shop for acquiring, accumulating and storing.
Benefits include:
- Store your tokens, coins and digital assets safely and securely on your mobile device.
- You’re in complete control thanks to your PIN and biometric data (i.e., fingerprint) combined with safe and secure leading encryption techniques.
- Generate new wallet addresses and manage multiple wallets at the touch of a button.
- Sending and receiving just got breezier. Do you have a friend that wants to send you crypto? No problem, you are just two-clicks away from pulling up your wallets public address and QR-code!
Securing your assets doesn’t have to be panic-inducing. Ethos has smoothed out the barriers so you can focus on making wise crypto investment decisions.
2) Centralized Storage
As we just covered above, being able to safely and securely store assets in a simple (even beautiful) way has been a pain point since the early days of crypto. With traditional assets like fiat currency, our current financial system is structured in a way that pushes us to participate in centralized storage – forcing us to hand over full control (or self-custody) of our assets.
The consequences of such a system have been at times grave. Case in point, the financial crisis of 2008 left banks unable to provide consumers with ready access to their funds, requiring a government bailout to keep the broken system afloat. Unfortunately, the crypto space has seen a similar push towards centralized systems of storage and asset exchange, and at times the outcomes have not been pretty.
Mysterious disappearances of digital assets on exchanges like Mt. Gox, Bitfinex, and a multitude of other centralized crypto exchanges have shown time and time again that entrusting custody with 3rd parties is often ill advised and risky.
If it’s so dangerous, then why are people doing it?
Frankly put, because it’s easy. Instead of needing to manage multiple unique cryptographic private keys and regularly updating software wallets that have confusing user interfaces, it’s easier and less scary to have that done for you. But at what cost?
We saw the challenges people were facing and decided that if we were to truly advocate for financial empowerment, there needed to be a better solution that enables decentralized storage and self-custody. Enter the Ethos Universal Wallet. The capabilities of this mobile-first smart wallet smooth out and simplify the process for you, so that you can maintain control. One wallet, your assets, with you in complete control.
3) The fees are too high!
Whether you are buying crypto or trying to sell crypto to fiat, the fees are plentiful! It’s undeniable. If you’re storing your assets on a centralized exchange that does not offer Crypto-Fiat services, you likely need to pay a fee that exceeds the mining costs to just get your coins off the exchange. If only it stopped there – those fees are quickly followed by additional fees tacked on by the Crypto-Fiat exchange provider, often far exceeding 1% of the total balance being converted to fiat.
A low cost, self-custodied solution has yet to surface in the market. Until now. Through the powerful partnership between Ethos and Voyager, we enable a new era of crypto-fiat trading. We venture to solve the multiple layers of crypto dilemmas, by mitigating losses to conversion fees and all the many concerns over whether or not you will be paid what is rightfully yours when airdrops or forks occur to an asset you own.
Together, Ethos and Voyager bring forth crypto solutions in real terms.
4) It’s a Scam
There is often a gut reaction to assume the worst of things we don’t understand. Most especially when it involves people making or losing money. At Ethos, we understand that our users want to truly feel comfortable and confident navigating the cryptoverse. That’s why we have been working hard to build out a wealth of educational content.
From our video series that can be found here to the coin profiles in the app, we are building out resources to educate newcomers and veterans on the underlying technology, and what different projects in the space are building!
Our coin profiles will soon feature an enhanced rating and review system as well as links to the official websites, social accounts, githubs, and other resources vital to understanding a blockchain project. The Universal Wallet will be a central hub of data, allowing you to develop a deeper understanding of what different blockchain projects are building and how others view those endeavors.
5) Poor to No Customer Support
A common complaint voiced about most industries is the experience of contacting customer support. The crypto space is no exception, and may in fact be known for exceptionally poor customer support. Whether it takes days to hear a response to your inquiry, there’s an inability to provide a solution to the problem or there is simply no response at all, most of us leave feeling uneasy or frustrated.
When you raise a support ticket through Ethos Customer Support, we have customer support reps responding within 10 minutes. We believe that ongoing education and open lines of communication are key to providing a high level customer support experience. Our support reps and community moderators have meetings twice a week, regularly speaking with our Chief Product Officer, head of IT & Security and Marketing Director to stay up to date with the latest developments at Ethos and have all their questions answered. At Ethos, we genuinely pride ourselves on having the best 24/7 customer support team in the industry.
We know that providing security should not stop at building formidable technology. Beyond exceptional management and enthusiastic support reps, a central tenet to our hiring process is identifying people who truly understand. People who understand the technology, our products and the sometimes overwhelming experience of navigating this emerging sector. Because, we’ve all been there. We have sent that transaction and been worried it was lost in the ether, we have forgotten our passwords and we have felt the panic of not hearing back from support.
Through firsthand experience, a strong sense of empathy and human-centered design, our support reps, developers and team as a whole understand the importance of your needs in the New Economy.
Your needs are our needs. As a collective – community members, technologists and creatives – we are Ethos.
We are here for you.
Q&A with Voyager CEO and Co-Founder Steve Ehrlich
Q&A with Voyager CEO and Co-Founder Steve Ehrlich
Getting to Know You
Tell us the origin story of Voyager. How did it all come about?
My co-founders and I sat down last year for breakfast in Soho to talk about a potential crypto business. After that, the breakfasts continued weekly and our idea grew bigger, and bigger. The five of us have each respectively built successful businesses in the technology and finance sectors, and when we looked at the current offering in the crypto market we knew we could do better. We believed (and still do) that crypto was here to stay and that the market was only going to grow larger and more mature. We wanted to be a part of the financial revolution and we knew that we could give investors the solutions they deserved.
What inspired you to make the switch from traditional finance to crypto?
Early in my career I worked at TIR, one of only 3 global soft dollar brokers when the Soft Dollar Brokerage industry emerged. At Lightspeed Financial, I led the first Broker Dealer solely focused on active traders and automated trading. As CEO of Tradier, I led an API brokerage before any broker dealers were utilizing that technology. I’ve been fortunate enough to be at the forefront of many financial revolutions, including online trading at E*Trade. Crypto seemed like the obvious next step for me and is too exciting to miss out on being a participant in that community..
This industry being so new, what gave you the confidence in crypto and blockchain to take the big leap?
As soon as I learned about the technology, I knew it was the next big thing. It’s one of the few emerging technologies that I felt had major growth potential. We had seen the “internetization” of information and media. Money seemed like the logical next evolution.That being said, when I looked into the existing infrastructure, I could see it was lacking many of the components that drove equities and online trading to be successful.
What are the biggest hurdles you have had to overcome while building Voyager?
The crypto market is so new and because of that it’s sort of the wild west. There is very little regulatory guidance and there’s still a lot of confusion surrounding the technology. For us, a lot of work went into making sure we were following the existing regulation and preparing for a more regulated future while still honoring the disruptive nature of crypto.
There’s also a major liquidity issue in the market. We knew from day one that we wanted to be aggressive in the assets that we offered. It was difficult to find reputable custody partners that supported a wide range of crypto assets. By building a Smart Order Router that connected to multiple exchanges and partnering with elite partners like Ethos we’ve been able to create a custody and liquidity network unlike any other in the market.
Tell us a little bit about the team culture at Voyager. How does the team currently operate and how do you see it expanding?
Collectively our founders and employees have built businesses in nearly every sector — finance, technology, healthcare, crypto, and more. We’re not scared to pave the way and cause disruption – which is really important in this space. All of our experience seemed to prepare us perfectly to take on the crypto market. Over the last year we’ve grown from a couple of friends getting coffee, to a full fledged team across multiple offices. It’s been a lot of fun! Every employee at Voyager is passionate about crypto and genuinely wants it to be for the masses.
The Voyager Technology
Voyager has built your signature Smart Router technology, how does that work and compare to other order execution engines?
The current crypto asset market structure forces investors to find liquidity and competitive pricing on their own – often leading customers to open multiple accounts on different exchanges and trading platforms. Our smart order router does the work for you. We’re connected to multiple trusted and secure exchanges and liquidity providers. The router is designed to be constantly monitoring order books and always knows where to achieve best execution, even if that means filling an order fractionally across multiple exchanges. It processes data in real-time and executes orders within milliseconds of a customer placing a trade. (You can learn more about it here.)
Can you share about the differences and similarities of how your technology is used for the purposes of a Fiat Gateway vs Crypto Trading?
Trading is just the beginning. We want to make more crypto assets available to more people. In order to do this, there needs to be a reliable fiat gateway to the crypto market. We’ve built this by partnering with the best liquidity providers and custodians in the industry. Our technology allows users to convert their fiat currencies from a bank account to a wide range of crypto assets instantly. There’s no crypto trading, investing, or purchasing without a fiat gateway.
So the big question! Can I just simply pay with cash via Debit Card or Bank Account to purchase crypto, and then it shows up in my Universal Wallet?! Will it be that easy?
Yes, that’s the goal! Customers will be able to connect their bank accounts and buy 15+ crypto assets (including Ethos in the near future) with USD. Ethos wallet holders will be able to seamlessly transfer their assets in and out of their wallets with fiat trading being integrated soon.
Ethos x Voyager – Explained
We see Ethos and Voyager as a “match made in heaven.” How do you envision Ethos and Voyager working closely together to build the future of finance?
We’re creating a truly integrated product built solely to benefit customers. Together with Ethos we’re bringing news, research, best execution trading, a wide range of crypto assets, self-custody, a payment mechanism and world class service to the crypto market. Execution and custody are the biggest hindrances in the crypto industry maturing. With Ethos, we help solve that directly!
The Ethos Universal Wallet will be integrated into the Voyager retail and institutional businesses, allowing customers to self-custody their crypto assets and seamlessly convert back-and-forth to fiat. Together, we’ll offer both retail and institutional crypto investors unparalleled liquidity, speed, and security.
Voyager and Ethos share the joint vision of a financial system that is open, safe, and fair for everyone. We believe that crypto is the future, and together we’re building the infrastructure to support and drive mass adoption.
Ethos has built Bedrock – an enterprise application making blockchain accessible to institutions like yours. How does Voyager intend to integrate and utilize Ethos’ Bedrock technology?
Bedrock will help strengthen the institutional offering. The combined Bedrock and Voyager B2B offering will enable businesses of all types to build crypto applications rooted in custody, payments, investing, and more. Voyager’s institutional partners will have access to Bedrock for a powerful custody solution, while Ethos Bedrock customers now gain access to trade execution. We get to offer the full package.
The Timeline
We are on the edge of our seats…When will Voyager release?
Soon! Our public beta is just weeks away. After release, we will upgrade and evolve the app quickly but we are extremely proud of the application that we will ship this year.
So it will be available to the US first, what’s the plan for international expansion?
We’re spending significant time with US counsel to bring Voyager to all 50 states. We’re also working with international regulators to bring Voyager outside of the US as quickly as possible, but we don’t have a set timeline in place yet.
As a visionary, how do you foresee crypto transforming how money is used in our daily lives and in a digital age?
I believe that crypto evolution will happen in 4 areas: buying (converting fiat to crypto), trading (investing), holding (custody), and paying (or transferring). Today, we’re seeing people participating in all four of these pillars but mass adoption hasn’t occurred yet in any single one. Trading is the only crypto use case that has seen any significant adoption. I believe that with time, people will use crypto assets in their daily life but first, the market needs to grow and mature to support this shift. Some of the strongest use cases for crypto are happening in countries with hyperinflation. People living in Venezuela, for example, have an alternative, independent currency that’s actually worth something. Crypto will democratize finance and I think that’s a really good thing. It’s about time that money moves as fast as information does these days. Crypto and Blockchain are what make that happen.
Thank you for your amazing answers, last big question! We jumped in Doc’s car, hit the gas and gunned it to the future. It’s now the end of 2020, what do you see for Voyager?
We believe that the financial industry is in a transformational phase. Payments, trading, custody and clearing are all changing because of crypto. Some changes will take place in the short term, but the bigger disruption will probably take more time. We want to be at the forefront –– educating consumers and regulators, developing solutions, and leading the way towards a more democratized financial future. Long term, the possibilities of blockchain technology and crypto are endless. We are confident that equities will take form as digital assets, crypto will be used at your corner store, and many companies will look more like decentralized networks. In the meanwhile, the industry has a lot of work to do!
Ethos x Voyager Partnership FAQ
Ethos x Voyager Partnership FAQ
How high are fees for crypto to fiat, and vice versa, transactions?
Voyager is a commission-free trading application and is not planning on having any fees for trades and purchases.
When is the Voyager Platform launching?
Currently slated for Q4 2018 and will be released in phases. The launch of Voyager’s integration into Ethos & Universal Wallet is separate, although is happening leading into and post-Voyager’s launch. No official date has been announced for the Ethos x Voyager integration. More announcements will be made upon completion of major milestones.
When will the Fiat Gateway be available?
A lot of work is being done to ensure the integration between Ethos and the Voyager execution platform is seamless. No official date has been announced for the launch of the Fiat Gateway. More announcements will be made upon completion of major milestones.
Which coins will be supported?
The supported coins for trading are currently being finalized. Voyager and Ethos are ensuring that appropriate trade execution and custody solutions are in place for each of the supported coins. Voyager will announce the first list of supported coins when their mobile application launches later this month. This will help determine the coins that Voyager and Ethos support together via the Fiat Gateway.
Why is Voyager interested in Bedrock?
Bedrock enhances the custody offering for Voyager, opening up support of coins that Voyager’s existing custody partners do not support and increases speed to market for new coins. This enhances both the Voyager retail trading application, in addition to the Voyager institutional offering. For both businesses, Ethos and Voyager solve the crypto retail and institutional markets biggest problems – custody and liquidity. Additionally, Voyager aims to honor the self-custody nature of crypto and offer this to their customers who wish to take full ownership of their crypto assets, through the Ethos Universal Wallet and other Bedrock applications.
What is a crypto broker? Is this different from a broker dealer?
A crypto broker is an agent that acts on behalf of crypto investors to execute their order. Though regulation does not require the form of “best execution” for this service, Voyager and Ethos believe strongly that crypto investors have the right to “best execution” and their trades should be processed to seek optimal liquidity, price, speed and reliability. A broker-dealer is a licensed entity that operates as previously described, but requires the license for securities. Voyager executes orders according to many of the standards of a broker-dealer, however does not engage this license as currently supported assets are not deemed securities.
Will Voyager support security tokens in the Future?
Yes, this is on the Voyager roadmap for the future, TBA. This is subject to strict regulatory and technical compliance, and will be executed up to latest compliance standards.
What is the scope of the MVP?
The MVP execution between Voyager and Ethos will be to bring an integrated Fiat Gateway to Ethos users. Voyager will give Ethos users the power to convert fiat currency into the Ethos Token or other crypto assets and these tokens into fiat, all within their wallet, allowing a seamless mechanism to trade through Voyager’s platform.
What features and solutions can be expected from this partnership?
We anticipate a number of exciting features and solutions to come via the partnership between Voyager and Ethos. The goal is to seamlessly integrate Voyager’s trade execution, Ethos’s Universal Wallet and Ethos Bedrock with one another. Perfecting that integration is our primary goal but we are excited to explore features around portfolio optimization, lending, and more.
Will Voyager allow buying and selling of Crypto, includling Crypto to Crypto and Crypto to Fiat trading?
At the official launch of Voyager this year, Voyager will support Fiat to Crypto and Crypto to Fiat trading. Crypto to Crypto transactions are already in our development log and this feature is slated for early 2019. All of these exchange features will be made available to Ethos Universal Wallet users upon completion of the integration.
Will Voyager support bank deposits/withdrawals?
Yes. Bank deposits and withdrawals are supported for US residents.
Which countries will Voyager be available in?
Voyager will only be available to US residents immediately after launch. International expansion is a key goal and priority for Voyager. Voyager will approach international expansion similarly to US market rollout, seeking required money transmitter licensing in markets that are required to support fiat trading.
What are the minimum limits for purchases on Voyager?
The minimum trade and transfer (withdrawal / deposit) amount on Voyager is $10 USD.
Will Voyager require KYC/AML?
Voyager has integrated Know-Your-Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) processes as a part of the account opening process. KYC & AML is required to perform the trading applications within the service. This helps ensure the safety of our customers and business in accordance with compliance.
Can you clarify the how Voyager will be integrated into the Ethos Universal Wallet?
As mentioned, Voyager will enable in-app purchases of cryptocurrencies utilizing a best-in-class Fiat Gateway, and crypto to crypto exchanges and trading utilizing the Voyager Smart Router & Liquidity Network system.
Does Voyager plan to support alternate international currencies, other than USD? For example, Euro, Pound, Yen, etc.
USD is currently the only supported fiat currency on the Voyager platform at this moment, however, we will roll out support for other fiat currencies as part of the international expansion plan.
How fast will orders be executed?
The Voyager Smart Order Router has the capacity to execute orders in milliseconds and has real-time access to the order books of exchange partners. As the limits or constraints of an order can vary, Voyager cannot guarantee time execution, however, the Voyager execution system is built to execute market orders instantly.
How long will it take for the crypto I purchase to be made available in my SmartWallet or to be accessible for withdrawal?
Full custody or withdrawal of crypto requires the underlying principal amount to have cleared. Once transfers have cleared, crypto withdrawals will happen in time with respective network speeds.
How long will it take for fiat to transfer to my bank account and be made available?
Fiat transfers will be subject to standard ACH and wire transfer timelines.
What banking information will be stored by Voyager/Ethos?
Voyager stores customer’s bank name, account type, account number, routing number, and most recent account balance. Banking credentials are not stored and deposits and withdrawals are powered by a 3rd party provider.
Can I get a debit card through Voyager?
This feature will not be available at launch with Voyager. Given the payment functionality of the Ethos Wallet and the growing number of outlets that accept crypto in payment transactions, Voyager is exploring possibilities to help account holders access and make use of their crypto assets. This may include debit cards, though this is still to be determined. We will keep the community updated on any product announcements related to debit cards and payments.
Ethos x Voyager – A ground-breaking partnership to power the future of finance.
Ethos x Voyager – A ground-breaking partnership to power the future of finance.
Shingo Lavine (CEO) will be joining the Voyager Advisory Board to oversee the execution of the integration of the partnership, closely supporting the development process.
In the growing New Economy, powerful solutions are needed and demanded by consumers. Together, Ethos and Voyager are ushering in an era of fairer practices that serve the people.
Ethos aims to create a financial ecosystem that is open, safe and fair for everyone. That begins with the Ethos Universal Wallet, a secure, self-custodied mobile wallet where the user is in control of funds at all times.
Voyager will give Ethos users the power to convert fiat currency into the Ethos Token or other crypto assets and these tokens into fiat, all within their wallet, allowing a seamless mechanism to trade through Voyager’s platform. This best-in-class Fiat Gateway, and crypto to crypto exchanges and trading, will utilize Voyager Smart Router & Liquidity Network system.
Stephen Ehrlich, CEO of Voyager, said: “With this transformative partnership in place, we believe we are offering the first end-to- end, fully integrated solution in the crypto asset space.
We are always seeking out products and solutions that enhance the experience for crypto investors and these best-in-class solutions from Ethos are a perfect complement for us, further strengthening our offerings and goal of operating a unique, pure-play, open architecture platform.”
These two solutions providers, working hand-in-hand, will help resolve some of the biggest pain points in crypto. Ethos users will have a safe and seamless method for converting between fiat and cryptocurrency, and Voyager can provide robust wallet solutions across their retail and institutional platforms.
“This partnership creates a true bridge between traditional and institutional finance within the crypto-asset market to create a dynamic and borderless financial ecosystem,” Shingo Lavine said.
Together we are excited to build the future of crypto finance.
43 New Coins Coming to Universal Wallet
43 New Coins Coming to Universal Wallet
The latest app update 1.3 and these new tokens are currently in beta-testing courtesy of our product council. The report so far: Things are running nice and smooth.
We recently surveyed our community to receive your feedback on the top cryptocurrencies you would like to see integrated into the Universal Wallet most, and we are prioritizing our next rounds of coin integrations based on your feedback. #peoplepowered
To fill out the survey and get your voice heard, click here.
Coin Integrations – Optimized
We now have an entire dev division of Ethos solely dedicated to coin integrations. Having recently upgraded our entire coin integration system to be smoother and faster, Ethos is fully powered to onboard more tokens with every cycle of major updates.
| CRYPTO20 | C20 |
| CPChain | CPC |
| Jibrel Network | JNT |
| LGO Exchange (Legolas Exchange) | LGO |
| PCHAIN | PAI |
| Pundi X | NPXS |
| Ambrosus | AMB |
| Mainframe | MFT |
| Selfkey | KEY |
| AdEx | ADX |
| ETHLend | LEND |
| Eidoo | EDO |
| IoTeX | IOTX |
| District0x | DNT |
| Ripio Credit Network | RCN |
| AirSwap | AST |
| Quantstamp | QSP |
| Raiden | RDN |
| Endor Protocol | EDR |
| DMarket | DMT |
| NAGA | NGC |
| Refereum | RFR |
| FuzeX | FXT |
| KickCoin | KICK |
| Noah Coin | NOAH |
| Edgeless | EDG |
| United Traders Token | UTT |
| BitRent | RNTB |
| TomoChain (TomoCoin) | TOMO |
| Fusion | FSN |
| GoNetwork (GoToken) | GOT |
| DATA | DTA |
| Huobi Token | HT |
| UTRUST | UTK |
| Tokenomy | TEN |
| Telcoin | TEL |
| Trade Token (Trade.io) | TIO |
| OriginTrail (Trace) | TRAC |
| Distributed Credit Chain | DCC |
| Soarcoin | SOAR |
| Genaro Network | GNX |
| Cube | AUTO |
| Egretia | EGT |
Welcoming New Tokens & Communities to Universal Wallet!
Ethos Universal Wallet App-Update 1.3 will be released very shortly. So be on the lookout for the notification to update your wallet in the App Store + Play Store.
Ethos is thrilled to be a safe and simple way for these communities and token holders, to store, track, send and receive these tokens. We invite you to rate these tokens once they are added and share your thoughts.
We will make an official announcement once the tokens are live in the Universal Wallet – stay tuned!
Have questions? Want to join the people-powered movement?
Join the conversation on our Official Ethos Telegram channel!
Also, join the conversation on our Ethos Twitter, Facebook & LinkedIn
Community Airdrop Program Phase One is Complete – With More to Come
Community Airdrop Program Phase One is Complete – With More to Come
Go Team!
A special shout out goes to our development team who skillfully constructed a wonderfully robust Airdrop Tool. They did so by building on the efficiencies of our existing payroll delivery system. The result? Outputting large, customized batches of airdrops to tens of thousands – without clogging the Ethereum Network or raising gas prices. We’re proud to say this ensures the long term success of forthcoming Community Airdrop Programs.
Our Extended Family – the Airdrop Partners
The Ethos team would like to send sincerest thanks to our Community Airdrop Partners for collaborating in this program. We’re proud to support each of your incredible companies through the Universal Wallet.
Airdrop Program – Phase 2 on the Horizon
The next round of Airdrops will be continue to be distributed to all of our pre-registered users. We are currently integrating the remaining the tokens into the Universal Wallet, and working closely with the teams to ensure we have all of the data and functionality necessary to make them live in the wallet.
Once all of our Phase 2 Coins have been integrated and are fully-transactable in the Universal Wallet, we will begin initiating Phase 2 of Airdrops for all of our pre-registered users. Sit tight and we will announce the start date of Community Airdrop Program – Phase 2 in the coming weeks!
Airdrop Partners scheduled for Phase 2 include:
- SmartCash
- Ravencoin
- Zilla
- IQeon
- SEAL
- SyncFab
- Flashcoin
- Paccoin
- Bodhi
- Parachute
- Ganjacoin
- Shard
- Nuls
- ColossusXT
Am I eligible to receive Airdrops Phase 2?
Here’s a quick way to know if you’re eligible to receive airdrops from this program.
Eligibility Checklist (Now Complete):
- You pre-registered for the Universal Wallet before July 2nd.
- You received an email from the Ethos Team, prompting you to create a SmartWallet to receive airdrops.
- Using the same email address entered at the time of pre-registration, you created an account and your first SmartWallet in the app by August 16th.
- All Airdrop tokens will be evenly distributed to all eligible community members.
Only individuals who completed these steps are eligible. Did you check all three boxes? Well then, you’re good to go! Look out for email updates and social media posts for a heads up on when our next round will be live.
What To Expect from Future Rounds of Airdrops
This is just the beginning, Ethos Fam. Now that we’re equipped with an Airdrop Tool that seamlessly delivers tokens to large numbers of Universal Wallet users and as we increase coin support, we’re looking to forward to designing Airdrop Programs that will continue to delight our growing list of active users and Token Partners. Look out for announcements in the near the future!
Have questions? Want to join the people-powered movement?
Join the conversation on our Official Ethos Telegram channel!
Also, join the conversation on our Ethos Twitter, Facebook & LinkedIn
Latest Universal Wallet Update Released 1.2.6
Latest Universal Wallet Update Released 1.2.6
Today we have released the latest update to the Universal Wallet – release 1.2.6. For our Android Users, you can now go ahead and update your Universal Wallet. Once you update your wallet, you can log back into your account and be live in the latest version.
For our iOS users, the update has been submitted to the Apple iOS App Store, and will likely take about 7-days to be published and listed, and for you to have access to download the latest version.
If you don’t have the Universal Wallet yet, click here to download yours!
In this article we highlight some of the new coin integrations and performance improvements made to our flagship app.
Dash & Litecoin Now Available in Universal Wallet
It’s official, upon updating your Universal Wallet app in the iOS (Coming Soon) or Android (Now Available) app store, all of our active and new users will immediately have the ability to store, track, send and receive Dash and Litecoin.
We know these two coins have been in high-demand from our community, so we greatly appreciate your patience as we completed our rigorous testing and integration process. Dash & LTC are now fully transactable!
aXpire Update – AXP to AXPR
The ticker for aXpire has been updated from AXP to AXPR, and we now support the latest version of the aXpire Token in the Universal Wallet.
Performance Enhancements
Ethos is on the relentless pursuit to make the Universal Wallet the buttery smoothest and snappiest crypto wallet in the World, with dynamic features and functionalities to enhance the user experience of interacting with crypto.
In this update, we shipped a multitude of performance enhancements. We will be continuing to deploy performance enhancements with every developer sprint. Our beta-testers in product council shared a remarkable improvement in performance, and of course this is just the beginning!
Variety of Bug Fixes
Developer sprints happen every couple weeks, and during this one our developers have squashed 50+ bugs and made improvements to the user experience. None of these bugs were critical nor did they in any way affect the security of the Universal Wallet.
The majority of bugs fixes came with offering users proper notification and a smoother user flow when performing transactions or dealing with errors if transactions don’t get submitted to the blockchain properly, including tracking the full detail of transaction history.
Transactions Made Simpler
We have been honing our design and listening to the community about UI/UX simplification. So we have reduced the number of clicks needed to view the Send or Receive screens by 60%, moving from 5 clicks to just 2.
Sending and Receiving crypto has truly never been so easy. Send some transactions to and from the Universal Wallet and let us know what you think.
A Note on Apple & iOS Release
On average it takes approximately 7-days from the time of publishing the update for Apple to review and approve the update and for it to be sent to all of our users. Unfortunately, there is no way for us to expedite the process, so it’s a matter of time and we appreciate everyone’s patience. We will make the formal announcement across all of our channels when the iOS update is available.
Conclusion
This update and the future updates to come highlight a critical step in our journey to delivering a powerful application that is directly informed by our community, a truly people-powered platform, which we are aggressively improving with our talented team.
As we continue to improve our coin integration process, we will be expediting our integration of more coins into the Universal Wallet and directly asking for community feedback on which tokens you would like to see integrated into the wallet most.
We invite all of our active users to update their Universal Wallet to get access to our latest coin integrations and feature enhancements. If you are new to Ethos or the Universal Wallet, click here to download yours.
Interested in learning about what the devs are working on now?
Check out our Dev Dashboard.
Have questions? Want to join the people-powered movement?
Join the conversation on our Official Ethos Telegram channel!
Also, join the conversation on our Ethos Twitter, Facebook & LinkedIn
Ethos Unveils Bedrock, A Revolutionary Platform Connecting Financial Institutions With the Blockchain
Ethos, a leading cryptocurrency services provider, is excited to unveil its institutional blockchain solutions platform Ethos Bedrock.
Ethos Bedrock is a sophisticated, high-performance Blockchain Financial Services (BFS) platform. Bedrock was built with the vision of making blockchain and cryptographic protocols as easy and accessible to as internet protocols. Using Bedrock, institutions can safely and securely leverage battle-tested, state-of-the-art digital asset technology, and lay the groundwork for crypto financial services such as custody, liquidity, brokerage and lending.
Ethos’s flagship product, the Universal Wallet, runs completely on Bedrock APIs and is Bedrock’s first reference application. In other words, Bedrock is not a theoretical infrastructure; it is up and running today supporting over 90,000 users worldwide and has performed over 400,000 transactions seamlessly connecting with a variety of blockchain networks.
“Nearly every fintech firm views blockchain as the next paradigm shift for digital finance, but the wide array of blockchain and crypto protocols and frameworks have long been complex and inaccessible–until today,” says Ethos Founder & CEO Shingo Lavine. “Bedrock provides the infrastructure for a whole new wave of revolutionary new blockchain-based products and services that will power the digital economy of the future.”
Bedrock includes structures that enable institutions to create their own crypto wallets, liquidity and custody services, as well as custom solutions for blockchain integration, alerts, identity and transaction monitoring.
Bedrock uses open peer-reviewed standards such as BIP32, BIP39 and BIP44. These standards enable institutions or their customers to safekeep hundreds of digital assets through Ethos’ SmartKey technology. Bedrock also includes an abstraction layer that offers support for multiple blockchains and custom digital assets.
Bedrock is powered by the ETHOS token which is designed to provide utility and access throughout the Ethos ecosystem. Bedrock business partners may utilize and stake the Ethos token to unlock access to the system, pay for the fees, and receive discounts. A gas mechanism protects the network from resource greedy, malicious or inefficient applications and provides reduced fees, creating a win-win ecosystem that operates efficiently and cost-effectively while delivering benefits to both businesses and consumers.
Bedrock can be licensed under joint venture or custom engineering contracts, and is designed to be customized for industrial-grade scalable and secure financial applications. To contact the Ethos Bedrock BD team, email [email protected] or fill out the Bedrock partner contact form on https://www.ethos.io/bedrock.
Learn more about Ethos Bedrock
About Ethos.io PTE LTD
Ethos is a leading cryptocurrency services provider that is building a bridge between the blockchain and existing financial institutions and systems. The Ethos Universal Wallet enables anybody to securely safe-keep their own crypto assets easily, safely and for free. The Universal Wallet is decentralized, with consumers creating and owning their own private SmartKeys that secure personal digital vaults. The Universal Wallet is built on Bedrock, a foundation platform that abstracts and makes blockchains more accessible, secure and compliant for both people and financial institutions. Ethos has built a blockchain dream team of financial and technology executives with experience at companies like Blackrock, Citrix, Deloitte, Freddie Mac, Merrill Lynch, State Street and UBS. Ethos is headquartered in Singapore with a global presence and community across Telegram and Twitter.
Dash & Litecoin Now in Testing for Release to Universal Wallet
Dash & Litecoin Now in Testing for Release to Universal Wallet
Big things have been happening at Ethos and we have some exciting news for our community!
Recently, we announced our Simplex Integration & ShapeShift Partnership, while continuing to build invaluable business relationships with other leading blockchain companies behind the scenes to advance and enhance our ecosystem.
One of the most exciting and highly-anticipated updates, is our new coin integrations coming to the Universal Wallet. In this article we highlight how our coin integration process works, which coins are almost ready to be added and give you direct insight into the progress being made.
Coin Integration – Development, Integration & Progress
Our blockchain developers are now working in two high-performing teams, both building features end-to-end. Team A and Team B are both focused on feature enhancements which are prioritized by applying feedback from the community, with Team B working specifically on new coin integrations.
Prior to onboarding a coin or blockchain to the wallet, it must go through a vetting process. When vetting coins, factors taken into consideration include, but are not limited to: complexity of integration, market cap, quality of the token, liquidity of the network, community demand and size of the community.
Once vetted, Team B gets a new node up and running, wraps the node and integrates the node with Bedrock. Extensive internal testing is undertaken prior to moving forward with beta testing through our Product Council. Following beta testing, the integration is ready to be deployed to Ethos Universal Wallet users globally.
These improvements will support us in streamlining our coin integration process and solidify our position to be the truly universal wallet solution.
The first new coins lined up to make their Universal Wallet debut are Litecoin (LTC) and Dash (DASH)! We are now testing these two coins internally – placing them at 95% completion. Integration is right around the corner, and we are excited to bring the Ethos, Litecoin and Dash communities closer together.
Here’s some more info on the two coins coming soon to Universal Wallet – stay tuned for updates on what’s coming next!
Litecoin (LTC)
Progress: 95% complete - currently undergoing beta testing.
About Litecoin
Litecoin is a peer-to-peer digital currency meant to enable instant, near-zero cost payments to anyone in the world. LTC is an open source, global payment network that is fully decentralized and a fork of Bitcoin Core. LTC seeks to solve many of the technical issues that plague the Bitcoin network and intends to be an alternate store of value to Bitcoin. If Bitcoin is “Digital Gold” then Litecoin is “Digital Silver”.
LTC seeks to activate network upgrades such as the Lightning Network which other coins have adopted in order to increase network throughput and solve scaling issues.
Dash (DASH)
Progress: 95% complete - currently undergoing beta testing.
About Dash
Dash is Digital Cash, aimed at making instant private payments online or in-store using a secure open source platform. Dash uses a self-governing, self-funding protocol with masternodes that drive development growth where participants propose and fund projects directly within the network. Dash has been expanding their payment infrastructure globally.
Want to stay updated on the progress of Coin Integrations?
Check out the Dev Dashboard
Our newly created Dev Dashboard, allows you to see the real-time progress of our coin integrations. It’s updated weekly based on our developer milestones, and allows you to know what’s going on at Ethos behind the scenes.
In the coming weeks, we will be releasing a People-Powered feedback survey to the Ethos community, to hear your input on what coins you would like us to integrate next. Thanks for reading…
Have questions? Want to join the people-powered movement?
Join the conversation on our Official Ethos Telegram channel!
Also, join the conversation on our Ethos Twitter, Facebook & LinkedIn
Community Airdrop Program Begins Today
Community Airdrop Program Begins Today
The Ethos Community Airdrop Program officially begins today, Monday, August 20th. Our testing is complete and we will start deploying airdrops after 7 pm PDT – starting with our first token BitDegree.
We will be Airdropping one token type at a time to our eligible users, in batches of thousands of users at a time, highlighting one token a day. This process is to ensure we do not clog the Ethereum Network and decrease wallet performance, with over 50,000 users set to receive Airdrops.
During this week, we will be publicly announcing on our social channels when our users will be receiving specific tokens. All users will be receiving an equal amount of every token sent directly to their Universal Wallet.
Please be patient, as this will take time and but don’t worry, if you followed all the steps, you are all set to receive your tokens.
We want to thank our community again for the incredible response to our Community Airdrop Program! Within the two weeks of releasing the details on how to receive airdropped tokens, we welcomed tens of thousands of Universal Wallet users each day leading up to the deadline.
Below you will find a guide we have assembled to offer clarity on any questions you may have and to let you know what happens next. Please take the time to read this carefully and spread the word.
Am I eligible to receive Airdrops?
Here’s a quick way to know if you’re eligible to receive airdrops from this program.
Eligibility Checklist (Now Complete):
- You pre-registered for the Universal Wallet before July 2nd
- You received an email from the Ethos Team, prompting you to create a SmartWallet to receive airdrops
- Using the same email address entered at the time of pre-registration, you created a SmartWallet in the app by August 16th.
Only individuals who completed these steps are eligible. Did you check all three boxes? Well then, you’re good to go!
How long will Airdrops take?
The distribution of Airdrops will take place over the course of several days, and may take several weeks. Stay tuned to our social channels on the status of the Airdrop distribution.
Which tokens will I get and in what order?
In this first phase of the Community Airdrop Program, pre-registered users who created a SmartWallet can look out for tokens awesome companies like:
All of our participating Airdrop Program participants and tokens not listed in our initial Airdrop, will be included in subsequent phases of the distribution. For more info: Airdrop Program Info
Will I get all of these tokens?
All Airdrop tokens will be evenly distributed to all of our community members.
How will I know I got them?
Look out for email updates and social media posts for a heads up on when to check your wallet for a specific token on a given day. But if you’re already using your wallet daily, you may simply notice a surprise in your SmartWallet!
So, What’s Next?
Distribution of the tokens will begin today (Monday, August 20th). We will begin distributing the airdrops in a batched flow so not to clog the Ethereum Network. Consider this Phase 1 of the distribution.
Be Patient & Look for Notifications
We have done our best to create airdrop portfolios that reflect equal balances based on participating tokens and the number of eligible pre-registrants. Our airdrop and coin integration team has skillfully designed a token delivery method that is mindful of balancing the supply and demand of this program.
Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or Telegram and look out for email updates on which tokens to look for through the coming weeks.
Terms & Conditions
As we outlined in the previously released Official Community Airdrop Program Guide, eligibility is based on two criteria:
1) You must have pre-registered for the Universal Wallet before July 2nd;
2) Using the same email address entered at the time of pre-registration, you must have created a SmartWallet in the app by August 16th. Only individuals who completed these steps are eligible.
About The Program
Our Community Airdrop Program is designed to showcase cutting-edge platforms in the blockchain space. By collaborating with a colorful array of breakthrough companies, our goal is to introduce our Universal Wallet users to the endless possibilities of crypto.
All tokens and companies who have participated in our Ethos Community Airdrop Program are supported within the Universal Wallet. One of our objectives is to help increase the utility and liquidity of these tokens by having created a safe and simple way for token holders to store, transact, send and receive.
