New iOS Monero Wallets Evokes Community’s Suggestions

Cakewallet is a new iOS Wallet for monero which is trying to make this privacy-centered digital currency more user-friendly. However, the Monero community were reluctant to embrace it, as the wallet was not intially open source, with enthusiasts pointing out this should be the minimum requirement. The developer has since taken on the community’s feedback.

Cakewallet Concedes to Community Demands

Nowadays it is imperative for cryptocurrencies to have mobile support. In the digital age, where practically anything can be done via internet this is evidently an absolute requirement. Unfortunately, for some currencies, meeting this requirement has become a real challenge. Since monero is a privacy-centered currency, it turns out to be a difficult task. In this case, monero is one of the cryptocurrencies that does not have an official iOS wallet yet.

The Cakewallet team saw this as an opportunity and immediately put their hands to work. The wallet is now available for download on the app store and ready to be used.

Monero already had some cases where fake wallets have been made available, such as freewallet, so whenever a new development is put out, the community tends to be a little bit reluctant in using it. It is a rather convenient and customizable mobile monero wallet, but similarly to what has been happening in the past, the community is still very reluctant regarding this wallet; many Reddit comments highlighted that the app is not open source.

Nevertheless, in the world of Monero, an iOS wallet was something that was missing, and while the community is hesitant to embrace it as a closed source app, they have been enthusiastically committing to donations if the developers make it open source.

With Cakewallet supporting XMR, things are looking pretty good. From a convenience point of view, Monero enthusiasts can now use a wallet on either Android or iOS. Cakewallet is available in the App Store without any cost and can be used free of charge as well. The code for this project will be made not open source and uploaded to GitHub in the next few days and weeks, as the developers conceded to the community’s demands.

Functionality for Cakewallet users includes creating new and recovering old wallets. The wallet also has QR code functionality, and an option to change the priority fee. For advanced users, there is a special option in which users can change the node and daemon settings if they want to.

XWallet is Claimed to be a Burden on User Privacy

Apart from Cakewallet, there is one more iOS wallet in development, but seem like Apple already rejected it a couple of times. Known as the XWallet, this wallet has also experienced some controversy. A blog post from January 18 explains that the method in which XWallet wants to monetize their app may come at the cost of user privacy. In particular, the wallet app creates a third output instead of two as a result of the wallet fee per outgoing transaction of 0.0005 XMR, meaning that every transaction broadcast from this wallet can be clustered.

Justin Smith of XWallet hit back and requested the Monero Research Lab look into the issue further. He said that the necessary changes will be made based on their findings, “My only concern right now is getting this legit Monero wallet app into the app store. Next, we will continue to improve the app in terms of security and usability.”

“Much, much later, after a proper MRL report on the privacy implications of a subset of the anonymity set consistently generating transfers of a certain type using the reference implementation is published, there will be time to examine system design. If changes are warranted, we will budget for and implement them.”

But from the Reddit thread, it is clear that the some in the community are not entirely satisfied with the wallet’s current state. Other suggestions have been put forward to monetize the app such as charging a dollar fee for the app or having transaction credits that allow you to buy bundles of 100, 200, 300, etc. transactions.

Where to Store your Moneroj?

As for users of Android, there is a monero wallet available on Google Play, being Monerujo (which can now also send BTC payments using XMR.to). There are also a few web wallets such as MyMonero and last but not the least, an official Desktop wallet. Hardware support is coming soon with Ledger and the community’s own open-source hardware wallet. You can also generate addresses securely offline using Moneromoo’s tool here, and there is also a new method (which needs more inspection) to use a Raspberry Pi to create a ‘cold’ wallet.

In the end, having an iOS wallet launched was a very good move for monero, as it makes the currency a lot more user-friendly. Having the Cakewallet finally come to the market as an open source app will bring monero one step closer to the general public as it offers very straightforward usability and few skill requirements to use it.

However, there is much more testing and verification that needs to be done to ensure that the principles of decentralization and privacy are adhered to.

The article’s title and content were slightly modified as the situation was evolving over January 22 and 23 regarding the status of Cakewallet.