Why aren’t more coins focusing on wallet development and innovation?

If you’ve ever used a cryptocurrency, chances are you’ve had to use a bland, grey QT-based wallet application. There’s a plethora of altcoins on the market, with more launching by the day, and barely any are innovating on their wallet design and development.

This is a thought that has run through my mind on many occasions. Every single person that uses a cryptocurrency will need to use a wallet of some kind. The wallet software is therefore one of the most fundamental parts of a coin, when looked at from the point-of-view of a regular user.

Coin developers and communities place so much focus on other things; adoption, marketing, being listed on exchanges or other services. Meanwhile, everybody is using a piece of software that would look more at home on a machine running Windows 95.

It’s not just the grey that needs to change…

I’m not just talking about the appearance either. What about features? Ease of use? There’s a hundred and one things that could be added or changed to make a wallet more functional, simple, and ultimately appealing to the wider audience that so many people are hoping will adopt cryptocurrencies.

There’s a huge opportunity to stand out from the crowd of coins, but it’s very seldom even discussed. PiggyCoin is a good example, in my opinion, of a coin that that should have perhaps launched with a far more innovative wallet. I absolutely love the ideas behind PiggyCoin — putting crypto into the hands of kids, working with schools or teachers to do so — but can we really expect kids to use these wallets? For example, imagine if the address book was made of photos of your friends, and you just press which one you want to send coins to.

That’s one example, but I’d personally say that every single coin out there could benefit from different wallets. Even just offering an option that doesn’t require an entire blockchain download is one that barely any coins have available. While I can understand why it’s great for lots of people to hold a full copy of the blockchain, try explaining to an outsider with a slow internet connection that our “currencies of the future” might require you to wait through a day or two of syncing before they can be properly used.

I’m not a developer, so don’t fully understand what it would take to achieve these advances. However, is it really such a difficult thing to do for those that do have the know-how? Even if it is, would it not be worth investing the time to make it happen nonetheless?

Things are starting to look better, though…

Thankfully there are some coins out there who are starting to push the boat out a little bit. Bitcoin obviously has the largest variety in wallets that are available, but a few others are trying.

Megacoin was perhaps one of the first altcoins to put out a wallet that appears vastly different to others out there. Others such as Cinni have recently announced new features such as encrypted messaging being included with their next wallet. Myriadcoin recently announced a wallet based upon the Electrum wallet, with no blockchain downloads and easy restorations. While Silkcoin are going all out with a very neat looking design, as well as plans for some great features such as an included block explorer.

Hopefully this signifies the beginning of change. Hopefully we’ll also see more coins innovating in this respect before launch, far too many coins seem to launch haphazardly and then address issues or advancements at a later date.

I’m sure I’m not alone in being sick to death of that same old QT wallet, with very little changes aside from slapping a different logo on the front.

Am I alone in these thoughts? Would love to hear your thoughts, or about your favourite wallets in the comments below.