5 Best Polygon MATIC Wallets
What is a Polygon wallet?
2022 has seen the explosion of Layer 2 networks on Ethereum as users migrate for cheaper and faster transactions. Polygon has been at the forefront of this, reaching over 130 million active addresses in the early 2022. If you’re looking to use Polygon and join the great migration, you’ll need a wallet and this article covers the 5 best.
To start, one must understand why a person requires a Polygon wallet instead of the typical Ethereum wallet that has become the standard over the past few years. The Polygon network is a layer two solution that solves the problem of slow transaction speeds and high transaction costs on the Ethereum network, allowing DApps to have the ability to scale fast exponentially.
Importantly, because Polygon wallets transact on the Polygon network, they use the native token MATIC to pay for transactions. Due to the scaling improvements of the Polygon network, the transaction is typically a fraction of a cent rather than the high fees that have become a staple of the Ethereum network.
In general, Polygon and crypto wallets exist in two forms, hardware wallets and software wallets (otherwise known as hot wallets). Hard wallets are physical devices that function almost like a USB key, in that they hold the private key to transact with your wallet on the blockchain. In contrast, hot wallets are usually mobile wallets or extensions that usually exist on chrome, allowing a user to interact with DApps.
What makes up a good wallet?
Fees
The amount charged to complete a transaction.
Fiat on-ramps and offramps
The on-ramp is the ability to purchase cryptocurrency with their national currency, and the offramp is the ability to convert it back into their national currency.
Added Features
We will look at three added features for simplicity sake: NFT access, lending and borrowing ability, and saving tracker.
Security and Privacy
The security measures put in place to protect the users’ funds and whether or not they had the previous susceptibility to loss of funds due to security issues.
Rainbow Wallet
Website: https://rainbow.me
- Fees: High
- Fiat onramp or offramp: Apple Pay
- Added feature: NFTs
- Lacking features: No lending or borrowing capabilities
- Security and Privacy: High
Rainbow is a mobile wallet focusing on Ethereum-based assets like Matic. The mobile wallet gives users the ability to easily send Ethereum and other tokens to other wallet addresses and purchase Ethereum & DAI using Apple Pay. Furthermore, the app supports a total of 29 reserve currencies globally.
Rainbow’s native functions are built on the Ethereum mainnet directly thus these ares still subject to slower transaction speeds and the notoriously high transaction fees expected of the Ethereum network. However you can send and receive tokens on Polygon and other Layer 2 networks including Optimism and Arbitrum.
Rainbow has provided its users with the ability to display their NFTs on both Ethereum and Polygon which is a neat feature for those priced out of NFTs on Ethereum’s mainnet.Rainbow has a super exciting and straightforward interface that makes DeFi and Crypto interesting for first-time users.
Minke Wallet
Website: https://www.minke.app
- Fees: Low to Medium
- Fiat onramp or offramp: Apple Pay
- Added features: Savings Dashboard
- Security and Privacy: High
Minke will be live early March!
Minke wallet is a mobile wallet. In addition, the app is built on the Polygon network, thus allowing users to experience significantly lower transaction fees and faster transactions speeds.
Minke is purely focused on DeFi, building products that will allow individuals to interact with DeFi applicationssuch as Aave and mStable through the simplicity of a standard fintech savings interface that is simple and easy to understand.
The Minke app will enable you to buy crypto like MATIC and stablecoins with Apple pay, as well as have the ability to send cryptocurrencies to other wallets.
The simple and less overwhelming design makes the application’s functions easy to understand, but the DeFi powering it is what breathes life into the app.
Minke utilises a key-management system, thus utilising a similar system to Rainbow through the use of seed phrases, and being able to encrypt them to your iCloud account.
One drawback of Minke is that it doesn’t have NFT functions. But you can always use the WalletConnect feature to use your wallet with sites like Opensea.
Metamask Wallet
Metamask: https://metamask.io
- Fees: High
- Fiat on-ramp or offramp: WalletConnect
- Added features: NFT display
- Security and Privacy: Very High
Metamask is one of the most prominent wallets based on Ethereum. It’s compatible with all Ethereum based chains and layer 2s including Polygon. However as an extension it requires users to access a dapp that will trigger a prompt to switch to the Polygon network. For crypto novices, this isn’t the easiest to understand.
While Metamask has mobile wallets on iOS and Android along with their Chrome extension, all suffer from a UX that is more targeted to those who are crypto-natives.
In saying that, the wallet has great security features, using a a seed phrase system and an added feature of a password, plus recently also bringing in two-factor authentication.
The Metamask wallet is the most popular mobile and web wallet on the market at the moment; this will have a large number of learning resources on hand for anyone new to wallets.
Go Pocket
Website: https://gopocket.security
- Fees: Low
- Fiat onramp or offramp: Apple Pay and Credit Card
- Added features: Multi-chain
- Security and Privacy: High
GoPocket is a mobile wallet that allows users to access multiple networks including Polygon. The app provides users with lower fees and a fast transaction experience.
The app has an exciting user interface that makes for a colourful user experience that can be compared to the likes of Rainbow. The Go Pocket security experience is also a super innovative one through the use of random generating technology that formulates your seed phrase according to patterns that you make on a screen.
Although, other than buying and sending/receiving crypto there aren’t many other native functions within the wallet thus all interaction with DApps needs to be done through a web browser. However this may be added in the future.
Token Pocket
Website:https://www.tokenpocket.pro
- Fees: High
- Fiat onramp or offramp:
- Added features: Extensive DApp access
- Security and Privacy: Degen High
Token pocket is a mobile and web wallet and offers the ability for its users to store their private keys on a hard wallet, thus making Token pocket one of the most secure wallets as it adds a physical element to the security layer.
The wallet is different as its extensive network of DApps directly integrated into the app allows users to interact with different tools, games, and NFT marketplaces based on different networks.
The app is not native to one network but offers the users the ability to hold hot or cold wallets on multiple networks like the Polygon or Ethereum network.
Although the extensive range of networks offered by the wallet makes for an indeed complicated interface for new users to interact with, this only appeals to Crypto native individuals.
In conclusion, the app has a full range of valuable tools and can use DeFi applications such as Aave and Compound, but due to not being natively integrated within the app its overly complicated and relies on the the mobile websites of the protocols which don’t have the best UX.. Nevertheless, the wallet is super secure and has the option for users to own a physical wallet known as a hard wallet.
Conclusion
To conclude, when choosing the wallet that is right for you, it is important to consider what you’re looking for, whether that be NFTs or DeFi. If the answer to that is DeFi then you should consider Minke, we’re the best way to save and invest on Polygon. Sign up for the waitlist here: https://waitlist.minke.app.