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Key Takeaways
Smart wallets offer new opportunities to users -- sponsored transaction fees, easier wallet management, and programmable wallets.
There are numerous teams building smart wallets purpose-built for specific audiences -- we'll look at Splits Vault, Coinbase Smart Wallet, and Safe Wallet in this article.
Splits Vault excels in team-focused wallet management, offering a secure multi-signature system that allows teams to financially collaborate.
Coinbase Smart Wallet offers a user-friendly interface and integrates seamlessly with the broader Coinbase ecosystem, making it ideal for beginners.
Safe Wallet remains a top choice for users who need advanced security through multi-signature functionality.
What is a Smart Wallet?
Smart wallets are revolutionizing how users interact with digital assets, simplifying the complex process of managing cryptocurrency. These smart wallets eliminate the need for users to handle seed phrases, signers, gas fees, and blockchain networks directly. By abstracting away these processes, they offer users new opportunities like cheaper transactions and sponsored blockchain fees. Programmable logic offers opportunities for custom hooks and extensions at the wallet level rather than programmed into blockchain contracts, but this area is not yet fully developed.
Major players such as Splits Vault, Coinbase Smart Wallet, and Safe Wallet lead the charge. In this article, we'll explore their standout features, security measures, user experience, and my personal take on using these apps.
Splits Vault
Splits Vault is designed for fast-moving teams, leveraging Ethereum’s capabilities to streamline crypto management. One of its standout features is multichain deployment, which ensures that the same smart wallet address works across multiple blockchains. This eliminates the frustrating and costly issue of accidentally sending funds on the wrong chain, which even I managed to fall victim to. Thanks to Splits’ multichain system, their team was able to quickly step in and rescue the funds, saving me a lot of stress.
The Splits smart wallet also integrates passkeys for simple, secure sign-ins, tying authentication to the user’s biometrics, like Apple FaceID or fingerprint. Its unified dashboard makes managing assets across different blockchains effortless.
Security Protections
Splits offers advanced security by using passkeys for signing transactions, making authentication both more convenient and more secure. The app uses multiple wallets, supporting the “three-wallet rule,” which separates funds into different silos for better risk management.
The open-source, gas-optimized contracts used by Splits have been integrated into many dapps, including Zora, the Ethereum Protocol Guild, and Coop Records, proving their reliability across the ecosystem.
User Experience
Splits stands out with its user-friendly approach. You invite collaborators by email, and the same wallet address works on all chains, a massive improvement over other wallets. It connects effortlessly to external wallets via WalletConnect but users new to crypto still don't have to deal with seed phrases and all the crypto complexity. The smart wallet is secured by passkeys, and the app transfers wallet identities seamlessly, saving you the hassle of renaming wallets on each new device.
My Experience
Passkey sign-in in Splits is a great feature, and the ability to transfer wallet labels across devices enhances the user experience. While I haven’t needed it yet, the Statements feature offers a convenient way to quickly generate bank-like transaction summaries for compliance or sharing purposes. It allows you to create a shareable link or export the data as a CSV for use in your own tracking apps.
Though the lack of a mobile-first app is a drawback, Splits makes up for it with its highly responsive team. I knew about the dangers of sending funds on the wrong network from an infamous Wintermute OP deployment error but I still managed to fall victim to the error.
When I mistakenly sent $500 on the wrong network, their support, led by cofounder Abram, saved the day. They guided me through the process of redeploying on the other network to rescue the lost funds. This level of customer care, combined with the smart wallet’s robust features, makes Splits an essential tool for any crypto team.
Coinbase Smart Wallet
Coinbase Smart Wallet aims to bring crypto to the masses with its user-friendly interface and deep integration with the Coinbase exchange. A standout feature is the use of the same wallet address across all blockchains, streamlining asset management. The wallet supports a wide variety of tokens and decentralized apps, dapps, with seamless in-app integrations that enhance the experience. Users can create their own digital art through apps like Moshicam, stake ETH with Lido, and collect NFTs via platforms like Zora. For Coinbase exchange account holders, the Magic Spend feature lets users spend directly from their account on the Base network, offering unmatched convenience.
Security Protections
Coinbase Wallet prioritizes security, using passkeys for wallet access, ensuring only the user can authorize transactions. On mobile, passkeys are often tied to biometrics like Apple FaceID or fingerprints but can also be tied to a Google cloud or iCloud account.
User Experience (UX)
The wallet’s design makes it ideal for beginners, abstracting away the complexities of wallet management and blockchain navigation. For those already in the Coinbase ecosystem, linking profiles is seamless, and Magic Spend allows users to transact on Base without first moving funds onchain manually. Transactions are further simplified with passkey-secured approvals, making transacting with crypto as easy as using a credit card.
Issues
Despite its ease of use and multi-network support, Coinbase Smart Wallet is heavily centralized around the Base network, limiting its appeal for users seeking more decentralized solutions. Additionally, the app’s default notifications can become irritating, nudging users to mint tokens or engage in platform-specific activities as often as multiple times per day.
My Experience
I've used Coinbase's smart wallet extensively to create photos with Moshicam and to mint and transact through Farcaster. I've had a lot of fun using my creativity to make Moshicam images and the app even sponsors user transactions now!
As described above, the smart wallet is very easy to use but I was quite annoyed with how often it sent me "opportunities" to spend money.
Safe Wallet
Safe Wallet is a well-established multi-signature wallet, popular on Ethereum and EVM-compatible chains, designed to provide increased security for collaborative asset management. Its multisig functionality allows multiple signers to approve transactions, enhancing protection and control. Additionally, Safe's large app ecosystem offers users integration with various decentralized services within its app, making it a versatile tool for managing digital assets.
Standout Features
Safe Wallet’s core strength lies in its multi-signature capabilities, which provide users with control over key custody and workflow decisions. This allows for a more secure and collaborative asset management process. The wallet also integrates with a broad range of decentralized apps, dapps, expanding its utility beyond simple storage.
Security Protections
Like other smart wallets, Safe Wallet removes the need for traditional seed phrases, opting instead for passkey-based authentication, which simplifies and secures access from users' devices. Safe wallet even offers cross-device syncing, ensuring seamless access to assets from anywhere. Safe Wallet has a long-standing record of safeguarding funds, with no known exploits over its years of operation. While there have been instances of users falling victim to phishing attacks, these were unrelated to the wallet's security itself.
User Experience (UX)
While Safe Wallet excels in security, its user experience has some limitations. Wallet names and identities do not transfer across devices, requiring users to manually rename their wallets on each new device. The chain prefix system, however, mitigates the risk of sending funds to the wrong network by clearly indicating the chain in use. Though this is not 100% foolproof and Safe can only sometimes be deployed at the same address.
Additionally, Safe reduces costs for users through offchain signing for approvals and transaction bundling, making managing multiple transactions more efficient. Like other wallets, Safe allows users to easily swap, stake, and a whole lot more within the Safe app ecosystem.
Issues
The wallet’s focus on desktop use can be a drawback for mobile users, as wallet creation is not supported on mobile devices. Moreover, Safe does not support the same wallet address across multiple chains, which may complicate management for users dealing with multiple networks. Manual wallet management on new devices can also become tedious.
My Experience
I've used Safe for years, dating back to my Bankless DAO days. While the wallet has always been reliable, renaming wallets on every new device is a hassle. The Safe experience across chains is consistent, but it feels outdated, similar to MetaMask. It’s dependable, but not without its frustrations. Sometimes I wonder if we’re just accepting the pain out of habit—are we suffering from Stockholm syndrome?
Wrapping up
In conclusion, each smart wallet has its own strengths, making them suited to different needs and preferences.
Splits Vault excels in team-focused wallet management, offering a secure multi-signature system that allows teams to financially collaborate. Its ability to deploy across multiple chains using a single address streamlines asset management and prevents common errors like sending funds to the wrong chain. With features like integrated passkeys for easy security, a unified dashboard, and seamless syncing across devices, Splits Wallet is particularly well-suited for teams that require both high security and efficient management of their assets.
Coinbase Smart Wallet offers a user-friendly interface and integrates seamlessly with the broader Coinbase ecosystem, making it ideal for beginners or those already familiar with Coinbase. Its support for a wide range of tokens and dapps, along with features like in-app token swapping and Magic Spend, provides a practical and noob-friendly solution for users who prioritize ease of use and convenience.
Safe Wallet remains a top choice for users who need advanced security through multi-signature functionality. Its high assurance standards and long-standing reputation make it suitable for organizations or teams requiring stringent security measures. However, its desktop-focused design and manual management processes may be less convenient for those who need more seamless cross-device integration.
Ultimately, the best smart wallet for you will depend on your specific needs, whether it's team-focused security, user-friendly features, or robust multi-signature controls.
Additional Resources
https://www.coingecko.com/learn/what-are-smart-wallets-crypto
https://www.alchemy.com/overviews/how-do-smart-contract-wallets-work
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