As the crypto industry matures, the need for more simplicity and security is becoming more critical as an increasing number of users adopt digital assets. We made simplicity and security a core priority at Zengo.
We started two years ago with the challenge of drastically simplifying private key management for any blockchain, and we succeeded. On Zengo, there is no private key, onboarding takes just a few seconds, and the traditional process is no longer tedious.
Today, we are introducing a new way to simplify the next building block known as the public key.
And to make this happen, we’ve partnered with one of the most prominent crypto brokers in the world: Coinmama
There is a dire need for address-less crypto onboarding.
It’s widely accepted that to receive a digital asset on the blockchain, an address is required; a barbaric looking string of characters derived from the user’s public key, that intimidates even the most advanced users and forces anyone to double or even triple check before they actually use it.
A Bitcoin address
As we have grown tremendously lately, we’ve learned that wallet addresses constitute a significant obstacle to adoption and usage, and quite frankly, a source of anxiety.
One of the most popular questions new customers ask us is “where is my wallet?”. That should sound strange, considering that we have a very apparent and obvious “address” button. But for new users, it is another new convention to be learned as you go down the rabbit hole.
But even for advanced users, this is challenging. You still need to copy/paste a string that is hard to read, and even with a QR code, you will have to make sure it corresponds to the right string of characters.
Sure. Many initiatives, like ENS and human-readable addresses, have tried to tackle this issue. But while doing so, they force a user to learn new behaviors and standards, make impossible compromises (like exposing your entire balance and trade history publicly to everyone), or even handle incompatibilities.
What if you never had to even think about addresses. At all?
This is what we are introducing today. Together with Coinmama, we were able to create the first frictionless crypto onramp.
Zengo & Coinmama: a frictionless onramp
Zengo has partnered with Coinmama, one of the largest and most reputable crypto brokers in the industry, to provide a radically simpler and first of its kind fiat to crypto on-ramp experience. Like us, Coinmama is on a mission to make crypto adoption radically simpler. They already serve 2 million customers and counting, across the globe.
Coinmama users can now onboard crypto without the need to ever handle a long string of characters. The integration allows users to go, after a quick registration form, from fiat to crypto stored in a secure Zengo wallet in a few taps without any particular copy-pasting, set up, and cryptic strings of text.
From 0 to Bitcoin in no time.
What you just saw above is a seamless dance between a Zengo wallet on a mobile phone and a purchase made on the desktop via Coinmama. At no point did the user have to copy an address, or even write down anything. An approval on Zengo was enough. No more risks of errors or confusion.
And of course, since Zengo is passwordless and keyless, the set up is fast and easy too.
The partnership allows for a first-of-its-kind crypto onboarding experience by completely abstracting the public key management process.
A tremendous improvement in Security and Safety
But this is not just about simplification.
It is widely known that attackers will find very creative ways to mess with your computer memory, your keyboard, or your browser (via extensions) to switch an address or QR with another, resulting in loss of funds. The number of reports on address hacks is just staggering, and even the most advanced users are falling for it.
Today Zengo makes this problem a thing of the past. Since there is no handling of addresses at any point in the transaction flow, users can be certain that their funds will arrive at their wallet. This innovative solution brings the industry one step closer to making crypto truly safe.
Every crypto broker and trading platform faces this security challenge when an investor wants to withdraw their funds to their crypto wallet. Some services will ask investors to whitelist some addresses or even set up a contact book to avoid further risks. But even that’s not enough. The same hacks described above can still compromise your funds as long as there is copy/pasting, QR code scanning, or text input involved.
Zengo and Coinmama bring the first-ever solution where no input is ever required. We do not make the public key go away, but the handover is smooth and error-proof. Radical simplicity comes to life when security and user experience are thought of as one. Then, everybody wins.
We are very proud of the work both teams have done and we cannot wait for you to try it today.
