Bitcoin wallets come in many forms. There are web wallets like Coin.Space and BitGo, desktop wallets like Electrum and Bitcoin Core, and hardware wallets like Trezor and the Ledger Nano S.

While each form of wallet has its own pros and cons in terms of security and user experience, there is no question that with the rapid adoption of crypto by the general public, mobile wallets should be the major focus moving forward.

As it stands today, there a few major wallets available for iOS, Android and Windows devices. These include Airbitz, Bither, and of course, Coinbase. Each certainly gets the job done, but none truly stand apart as truly innovative. While Coinbase is by far the most user-friendly and widely adopted, there are additional considerations to be had given the centralized nature of the platform.

There is one wallet, however, that we consider interesting enough to highlight.

Bread, a decentralized financial services platform company, launched their own bitcoin wallet back in 2014. While their wallet is easily one of the best designed on the market, the company has larger ambitions for their platform than just simple coin storage. Bread wants to become a decentralized banking platform, that will enable users to do more with their cryptocurrency holdings. Bread’s ultimate goal is to essentially put a miniature bank in the hands of every user.

To achieve this goal, Bread recently completed their own token sale, raising over $32 million in the process. They now plan to tackle their ambitious development roadmap with the capital infusion.

Interested in Bread? Here’s a quick rundown of the project:

Platform & Development

The Breadwallet, which was recently simplified to BRD, is available in the Apple Store and Google Play. The app was developed as a standalone bitcoin client where no central server controls access to funds. By leveraging Simple Payment Verification (SPV), BRD rapidly connects to the bitcoin network directly via the mobile device.

BRD was designed with hardware encryption, keychain, code signatures, and app sandboxing to protect users from malware, browser security holes, and even physical theft. With a sleek design, breadwallet boasts the following features as distinguishing elements versus its competitors:

SPV for fast mobile performance

No central server to crash or get hacked

Single backup phrase that works forever

Private keys never leave your device

Import password protected paper wallets

“Payment protocol” payee identity certification

Open source

Recently, Bread added Bitcoin Cash compatibility, a new currency selector screen, and the company has plans to integrate Ethereum and ERC-20 tokens before the end of March 2018.

However, as you can see from the figure above, the story does not stop with a simple cryptocurrency wallet. Bread has loftier aspirations, including building out a large-scale mobile financial platform, with a particular focus on peer-to-peer banking and payments.

Here’s a short quote from the Bread white paper that sums up their vision:

In the same way that Uber is the largest transportation company that owns no vehicles and Airbnb is the largest hotel company that owns no buildings, Bread is on its way to becoming the largest financial institution that controls no customer funds.

Here’s a rough breakdown of what Bread has planned:

Portfolio management: Bread will be introducing a robust portfolio management platform, with a design similar to asset trading and management platforms for the traditional financial industry. Users will be able to monitor their holdings and even possibly buy into ICOs directly via the Bread app.

Decentralized asset exchange: Trade various assets with other users of the Bread platform, atomically and without requiring either party to know or trust the other.

Open payments platform: Each user’s Bread has the ability to store the user’s personal information within their own phone, and securely provide that information to authorized third parties.

Additional buy and sell services: Bread aims to offer the ability to buy and sell assets in as many jurisdictions as possible, by partnering with existing cryptocurrency and token exchanges which are each compliant with their geography’s laws and regulations.

Additional financial services: In order to better mimic a traditional bank, Bread plans to introduce features including direct deposit of salary in the form of cryptocurrency sent straight into the user’s wallet, peer-to-peer lending, automated bill pay, and long-term savings accounts.

According to their roadmap, Bread aims to launch a number of their planned applications within the calendar year. We are particularly interested in the decentralized asset exchange and open payments platform, as we imagine these to be massive drivers of user adoption.

Team

The Bread team looks to be very capable, with founders coming from tech backgrounds and a development team consisting of 7+ engineers. Additionally, Charlie Lee, the creator of Litecoin, is listed as an advisor in their white paper.

Most recently, Bread joined W3C’s Web Payments Working Group and will be working together with Google, Apple, and other notable technology companies to help define the new payment protocol API to be implemented in web browsers worldwide.

Token

The BRD token is a utility token for the platform, offering users discounts for select premium services. The company has kept this facet of their development plan fairly vague, outside of a few potential use cases like covering transaction fees and exclusive features. It will be interesting to see if Bread will offer any form of staking option for token holders in the future, a sort of interest-bearing system that you would find through any bank.

Bread (BRD) currently has a market cap of ~$50 million with a circulating supply of 74,388,400 BRD and a total supply of 88,862,718 BRD.

Final Take

Bread is easily one of the most interesting mobile platform plays on the market and offers perhaps the best bitcoin wallet available. While Bread has a lot to prove in the coming year, we anticipate significant value creation if they are able to hit their proposed development milestones.

Download BRD:

Google Play Apple iOS

Follow us: Telegram | Twitter | Newsletter

Disclaimer: The author(s) of this article may have a position in one or more of the securities mentioned above. This article is for informational purposes only and should not be taken as investment advice. Always conduct your own due diligence before making investments.