We know that we only have one wallet from Radix and that is the official one. Its important for the foundation NOT to maintain this solely as it is the only wallet that is maintained.
This RFC is to propose creating a snap package so that the foundation can decouple paying to further develop and maintain the current official and restricted wallet (No in-app dapps, swapping, nft trading etc).
This allows the foundation to focus on pressing issues than a simple wallet experience. To further prove that the current wallet serves almost no USP or profitable value, according to alchemy, there are 130+ web3 wallets in existence today. It is a saturated market you are entering and it would only serve one network. Radix. No BTC, no ETH, just Radix. While maxis would love this thought, this increases friction of onboarding before even getting started with the network.
What are snap packages?
Snap packages are an ecosystem of packages within Metamask that allows developers of other networks and evm chains to extend its current functionality beyond just the usual wallet. You can take a look for more information here: https://snaps.metamask.io/
Why build using snap packages?
Well, this is an obvious one, Metamask, arguably safe or not, is one of the original web3 wallets we know today. It is without a doubt one of the most popular ones out there. It has a chrome extension, firefox extension AND native wallet. Creating an integration will open up users with this experience off the bat which is recognisable and onboard experienced web3 users into Radix.
There are already other networks who have leveraged a non-evm integration with Metamask, some worth to note:
To really round things off, we can think of Metamask as the first step into non-evm integration among popular evm wallets. If integrated well, the community can start to rally for other deeper non-evm integrations with OTHER wallets such as:
- Rabby
- Phantom
And who knows what else. Metamask gets the foot in the door for other wallet ecosystems. Its time to think pragmatically focusing on breadth via integrations, starting with wallets.
F.A.Q
Are you proposing you build this after you got so many grants already?
No. I am simply opening this up for comments and if developers want to take this up and formalise via on-chain governance, feel free, I am just throwing the idea out there.
Metamask sucks due to security issues though, why would you want to integrate this?
Because Radix does not have users to complain and be Steve Jobs.