Even the world’s leading Bitcoin payment processors have revealed their mobile Bitcoin wallet. And, not just targeting businesses, as individuals can enjoy the benefits offered by BitPay’s mobile Bitcoin wallet, too. There are a lot of features packed into this mobile Bitcoin wallet bi BitPay, so let’s get started!
CoPay – A Mobile Bitcoin Wallet For Everyone
One of the most important elements of gaining mainstream Bitcoin adoption is creating an intuitive and clean user interface to get acquainted with digital currency. While Bitcoin technology allows us to work on many technological advances, most everyday consumers don’t care about these state-of-the-art things they can do with a Bitcoin wallet. For them, ease-of-use and not too many bells and whistles are the number one priority.
CoPay is bringing those features to the masses, as their mobile Bitcoin wallet is available on Android, iOS, and Windows Phone. I have to make an annotation regarding Windows phone availability, however, as certain users can not download the app on their phone due to geological or software restrictions. As far as we are aware, there are no restrictions for Android and iOS users at this point.
On the topic of usability, CoPay is pretty straight forward to use. Once you open up the application and click on “Get Started”, a Bitcoin wallet address will be generated for you. No signups or personal information is required at this stage, which is a nice change of pace. But, there are some issues with the wallet as well.
A basic function, such as receiving money automatically, prompts you with a warning to back up your CoPay wallet data. While I can see why this is done by BitPay – protecting user data from day one – it can be a bit overwhelming for novice users. In order to back up your wallet date, a password will need to be entered. Once that is done, you can copy the backup to the clipboard [not secure is it?] or send it via email to any of your mailboxes.
Personally, I would have preferred an option to backup Copay wallet data on my phone itself, as that is the only device where I will be using BitPay’s mobile Bitcoin wallet anyway. On the other hand, new users who back up data on their phone and then get a new device will lose all of their data that way, so it makes sense to give other options. But, maybe just add a third option there, BitPay, pretty please?
Some of the English wording in the CoPay application itself is a bit lackluster, but, that’s just something I pay close attention to these days. One thing I dislike is the fact you can not rename your CoPay wallet in the app. It is labeled “Personal wallet”, and it will remain that way for as long as you use it. Again, this all depends on your customization preferences, so this may not be a dealbreaker for you.
Navigating through the – very few – CoPay menus feels a bit awkward on my device, as there is a noticeable lag when doing so. Furthermore, using the back button will result in exiting the application instead of going back in the menu. This is an area that can – and perhaps needs to – be improved with a future update.
CoPay also comes with the necessary layers of security, including multi-signature wallet support, device-based security, generation of hierarchical deterministic addresses and much more. None of these features will matter for novice users straight away, though, so we will not be discussing them in this guide.
Overall, CoPay is a nice application that needs a bit of tweaking before you can label it as a novice user-friendly mobile Bitcoin wallet. Once those tweaks have been made, this could become one of the top Bitcoin wallets, simply because it is available [for most people] on all major mobile operating systems.
Google Play Store / Apple App Store / Windows Store
All images courtesy of CoPay
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.