We have been saying this for a long time – not your keys, not your wallet. The current FTX affair emphasizes this, down to the core. Now, each chain has its own wallets. The Phantom Wallet is one of the leading wallets on the Solana chain.
So, let’s dive in and see what Phantom Wallets are all about.
The failures of FTX and other centralized entities is a tough reminder of the risks in storing your assets with a centralized third party.
The true power of web3 is empowering users to take back control and fully own their assets and identity.
Digital ownership = self-custody
— Phantom (@phantom) November 17, 2022
How Do Phantom Wallets Work?
The Phantom Wallet is a non-custodial software wallet for the Solana blockchain. To clarify, non-custodial means that you are in control of the private keys for this wallet. Software wallet means that the wallet is hot. In other words, it needs to connect to the internet or Wi-Fi.
The wallet launched in 2021 and is available on iOS, Android, and four browsers. For instance, Chrome, Brave, Firefox, and Edge. The Phantom Wallet comes as a free download. It also has regular updates, which increases safety.
You can hold all coins and tokens from the Solana ecosystem. For example, Serum, Raydium, USDT, and, of course, SOL. So, besides crypto, you can also hold your Solana NFTs in this wallet. Furthermore, you can use it in the Solana DeFi ecosystem.
What makes this wallet stand out is that it has a built-in exchange. You can easily swap all tokens from the Solana ecosystem inside your wallet. As an extra safety measure, you can also connect this wallet with the Ledger hardware wallet. The hardware wallets are the safest non-custodial wallets on the market. That’s because they don’t connect to the internet or Wi-Fi. They offer cold storage.
You can also stake the SOL token on this wallet. However, be aware that the wallet is not a full node.
How Many Phantom Wallets Are There?
Although it is the most popular Solana wallet, finding user stats turns out to be difficult. CoinGecko reported that, during Q1 of 2022, there were two million new monthly users. SOL reached its ATH in January 2022. It’s currently almost 95% down from that ATH.
After the FTX fraud, SOL dropped again on November 6th from $38 to $13.70. This decline in price is most likely also reflected in active wallet users. However, Phantom doesn’t share this information.
Phantom gained over 2,000,000 monthly active users in Q1 2022. 👻
Being the most popular wallet on #Solana, it features an array of innovative infrastructures to interact with the Web3 world.
Here's your ultimate guide to using @phantom ⬇️https://t.co/5oLu5o6oV0
— CoinGecko (@coingecko) August 24, 2022
How Do You Use the Phantom Wallet?
Before you can use the Phantom Wallet, you will need to set one up. Creating a new wallet is not too difficult. You can do this on your browser or on your mobile. Here’s a description on how to do both.
Phantom Wallet on your browser
- You will need to download the browser extension for your preferred browser. To recap, these are Chrome, Brave, Edge, and Firefox.
- If you don’t have a Phantom Wallet yet, click on “create new wallet.” If you already have a Phantom Wallet, you can look at this explanation. It explains to you how to import your seed phrase.
- Create a password.
- You will see a recovery phrase. Copy and store this in a safe location. Make various copies. It’s important to NOT share this recovery phrase with anyone. Whoever has this phrase has access to your funds.
- You’re done. You can start using your browser wallet. Below, you will find a GIF that explains all the mentioned steps.
Phantom Wallet on your mobile
- Download either the iOS or Android version.
- Install and open the app on your phone. You should now see the onboarding screen.
- For a new wallet, click “Create a new wallet.”
- In case you already have a wallet, click “I already have a wallet.” Now you can enter the seed phrase.
- You have two extra security options in the top-left corner of your screen. Now you can enable bio-metric security or face recognition.
- A “Secret recovery phrase” will show on your screen. Copy and store this in a safe location. Make various copies. It’s important to NOT share this recovery phrase with anyone. Whoever has this phrase has access to your funds.
- You’re done. You can start using your mobile wallet. Below, you will find a GIF that explains all the mentioned steps.
Do Phantom Wallets Have an App?
Yes, Phantom Wallets have a variety of apps. The wallet is available for a mobile or browser option. You can choose between iOS, Android, or four browser options. Another app to look into is setting up the Solana app in your Ledger. This is a hardware wallet for cold storage.
1/ Calling all developers! Phantom now supports both universal links and deeplinks!
This unlocks a ton of great functionality for mobile apps including:
– Signing in with Phantom
– Verifying NFTs in social apps
– Placing orders in trading appshttps://t.co/RMWUOzgVMS— Phantom (@phantom) April 5, 2022
Conclusion
This is the first part of our examination of Phantom Wallets. Part two will be published soon.
The current Solana price is $13.63 with a market cap of $4.9 billion. Their total supply is 533 million tokens. Out of these, 362 million are in circulation. Here is the second part.
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