So, Tether just rolled out their Bitcoin wallet.
It's got support for Bitcoin and Lightning, plus it handles Tether's stuff like USDT and XAUT across different chains. The unique part is you can use usernames instead of annoying addresses and there's private key backup through cloud services.
I gave it a shot and it looks solid. It supports Bitcoin on-chain, Spark, and Lightning. The interface is super clean and minimal.
The name of Tether warns me that this wallet is close source. It's confirmed with their wallet description without any word about open source.
From the announcement above, at the end they have a link to https://wallet.tether.io/ where I still can not see any word about open source.
And they have this.
What the hell?
They recommend saving an encrypted copy of your wallet backup to cloud storage.
I will prefer to wait before I will test this wallet to see other things about it that will not be recommendable aside being close source. You can correct me but I have seen it not to be opened source.
The number of downloads is just 5 on Playstore for now, so I will not bother myself about such wallet.
All I can say for now is that people should stay away from the wallet. It is not recommended. Why tether just launched their own wallet when there are several better alternatives that are even open source.
I can not use close source wallets.
Lock this thread. Existing discussion: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5580253.msg66615996#msg66615996
I understand your frustration, but encrypted cloud storage is a safe and battle tested way to secure private keys.
I remember using such a Bitcoin wallet 6 years ago (back then it was called Argent) and it probably wasn't even the first wallet adopting this tech.
Sure some old fashioned maxis will never use anything like that but nobody forces them to. This Tether's move seeks global adoption among regular people not very interested in the tech and it's been proven a number of times that regular seed phrases and private keys are an obstacle for those folks.
Good to know but it is already being discussed here: Tether launches "Tether.wallet" (Bitcoin/Lightning/USDT)
I still prefer the old Bitcoin wallets, such as Electeum or Bitcoin Core since its already proven safe to use, but the only advantage is that you can also store USDT in this wallet.
Even if the Tether wallet or any wallet has many download times, it is not enough to conclude it is a good wallet to use.
In my post, I quoted some parts of Tether description about their wallet, which shows their wallet is close source but if you notice, they will give you two links for downloading the wallet, one for Android, and another one for iOS. All given links direct you to AppStore or Google Play, and there is no link to Github. It's another thing shows that Tether wallet is close source.
People can choose a Bitcoin wallet with customized filter https://bitcoin.org/en/choose-your-wallet
They can read wallet reviews https://walletscrutiny.com/
They can have suggestions on best Bitcoin wallets.
https://learnmeabitcoin.com/beginners/wallets/#best-wallets
https://www.lopp.net/bitcoin-information/recommended-wallets.html#recommended_wallets
It has no advantages because it is close source and because there are many open source noncustodial wallets that are supporting USDT already.
There are times that I have Trust wallet when the complaints was very common on this forum. I have the wallet, not because I am using it but because I want to be able to answer peoples questions about the wallet.
That's the advantage, actually, but not the source because, like you said, it's closed source.
I tried the app and explored, and they only support 3 assets that support multiple networks: Bitcoin, USDT, and XAUT/Gold (this is what I mean by advantage compared to Electrum, which only supports Bitcoin).
The wallet is similar to some exchange wallets; I think it is likely a Bitget wallet or Coinbase wallet, where you have two options to back up your wallet via a 12-seed phrase or via cloud backup, which is not safe.
But since the wallet is source code, it is not safe to use, and then users can't audit the wallet; we do not know if the wallet has a backdoor or something hidden running on the app.
Anyway, if they change this in the future to open-source, why not? It is a good alternative wallet where we can store gold, USDT, and BTC.
Electrum only supports Bitcoin but is better than the app supporting Bitcoin, USDT, and XAUT/Gold. Electrum is a trusted wallet because of open source. Who will report bugs in the code if they keep it closed. Wallets are not safe to use unless the source code is examined.
Yes, but there are other open source wallets that are built also for altcoins. The two that I am using the most are Cake wallet and Unstoppable wallet. They both support fiat collateralized stable coins.
For gold collateralized stable coins, I can see Unstoppable wallet supporting both PAXG and XAUT
Yeah true, there are good open source wallets for altcoins too. Cake and Unstoppable are solid options, especially with support for stablecoins like PAXG and XAUT, so it really comes down to what coins you want to manage.
Unstoppable wallet is far more promising than Tether Wallet above; it supports a wide range of altcoins and, best of all, has open-source code.
If we compare them, I am more comfortable using the Unstoppable wallet since most of us here use this wallet and it's already proven safe to use.
I also see USAT in Tether Wallet; it seems to be another stablecoin alternative for USDT.
Unstoppable wallets is an older wallet compares to Tether wallet so I don't say Unstoppable wallet is promising, that I only use for Tether wallet if I consider it is promising. In fact, Tether wallet is close source and I don't see that wallet is promising at all.
With Unstoppable wallet, they have an older history and their quality and security have been all proven by the wallet history so far. It's a good wallet that is recommended by many technical people and is one of best wallets to use.
With Tether wallet, from its close source and not reproducible, it's far from promising and Tether will not make their wallet open source in the future too.
I remember when coins like USDT, PAXG and one other were facing what could possibly become a restriction, Tether because of that introduced another stable coin called USAT. I do not really understand much about it anymore but I still think that most users are using the USDT because the marketcap of USAT is still very low and not more than $20 million.
Tether is one of the most profitable companies in the world.
I'm sure they can afford a dedicated team to keep an eye on all possible bugs 24/7.
That's probably the reason why they support so few assets - easier to keep everything sublime.
and fwiw, what other wallet lets you use Bitcoin on mainnet, Spark and Lightning at the same time?
With most stable coins, there are risk of stablecoin depeg and stablecoin frozen in user's non custodial wallets. Names can be different but any stablecoin created by Tether company surely will be like that as they are a centralized stablecoin company.
PSA: Most Stablecoins Can Be Frozen, Even in Your Own Wallets.
Want stablecoin that can not be frozen in your wallet, choose DAI on ERC20.
We might see that the wallet offers convenient features like support for Bitcoin, USDT, USAT, and XAUT all from one place, and the use of usernames instead of addresses. But coming from Tether, this wallet should be avoided, as we know what kind of company Tether is, and using their products is like handing over your assets to them.
While they claim this wallet is "Self-custodial by design," don't be fooled by such claims. It may be just the design, but it's not the case in practice.
Tether, a close-source wallet, people who have been known to have one of the highest crypto assets frozen, launched a closed-source wallet and still say it's a self-custody wallet. It might be in front, but deep down they could actually have access to the key to the wallet since they can't access and freeze Bitcoin on users' wallets.
What if this is another means to attract people to be using the wallet? But when there are serious allegations about a wallet and they mark it with their so-called dirty coin, they could easily extract the key belonging to the wallet and do what they know now to do best in another way. The name 'Tether' sounds like 'frozen' to me now.
Lol, I'm curious if there will be people who will use their Bitcoin wallet, especially since we all know issues of Tether recently, especially now that this newly created Bitcoin wallet is a source-closed.
I was also surprised why they created a Bitcoin wallet as they are just into stablecoin, they should've focused on improving their thing.
There will be people who use Tether wallet because there are people who use centralized exchanges and custodial wallets to store their bitcoin and cryptocurrencies without any fear of a wallet reproducibility as well as their fund safety.
It's just Tether wallet is a very new wallet brand so it will need time to be known by many people. The more people know about Tether wallet, the more people will use this wallet, it's natural growth of any wallet.
If people use Trust wallet, Exodus wallet and other not high quality wallets, they will surely not have big reasons against Tether wallet.
I am certainly not recommending anyone to use Tether's close source wallet but I think it's not true to say no one or no considerable number of people will use Tether wallet.