Finding the perfect mobile Bitcoin wallet has proved to be a rather difficult task. That doesn’t mean we should stop looking, though! Earlier today, I came across the mobile Bitcoin wallet developed by Hive Labs. Hive is one of the more well-known names in the world of digital currency wallets, so let’s see what they have to offer!
Hive Bitcoin & Litecoin Wallet
One of the things you will notice, right off the bat, is that this mobile wallet is not just for Bitcoin. Hive has decided to combine the two “major” digital currencies into one mobile wallet. While Bitcoin is the bigger “brand” of the two, Litecoin will always be the first altcoin with a different algorithm. Even though, Litecoin offers no other innovation or features than Bitcoin does, its place in the digital currency history books has been cemented forever.
As soon as you have installed the Hive Bitcoin & Litecoin wallet, you are asked to either set up a new account or use an existing wallet. When choosing to generate a new account, make sure you have a pen and paper nearby. The application will generate a twelve-word string of words, a passphrase, that you will need to store in a safe and secure location, as this is the only way to recover your wallet if something goes wrong.
Once you have written down your twelve-word seed, a pin code needs to be created for quick access to your Hive Bitcoin & Litecoin wallet. Enter the four digits of your preference, and once that step has been completed, your mobile wallet is ready to use. No further personal information is required, which is a nice touch by the Hive Labs developers.
The first thing I decided to explore was the Settings menu, accessible by clicking on the cogwheel in the top left corner of the application. Not too many things can be changed here, other than filling in your name and linking a Gravatar account. This gives users a certain feel of customization, which is something I enjoy. However, that depends entirely on your personal preferences.
Hive Bitcoin & Litecoin Wallet’s main interface will give you an overview of your Bitcoin balance. There are three tabs on the bottom you can use; one for sending money, one for receiving funds and one to access your transaction history. All of the menus are elegantly designed and switching between them is very smooth. To switch to Litecoin mode, simply hit the “Tokens” tab on the bottom right and enter your pin code.
Sending and receiving funds through the Hive Bitcoin & Litecoin wallet can be done through traditional ways, such as sharing your wallet address or scanning a QR code. But, there is an additional feature, called “Waggle”. This feature lets you send and receive tokens [Bitcoin or Litecoin] from other Hive wallet users in your proximity.
A nice touch by the Hive developers, as it uses your GPS location to find other users near you. You can view this is a sort of decentralized network, being established on the go, where independent users can communicate with each other as long as they are in roughly the same location. So far, this mobile wallet is growing on me, but I am a sucker for these little features which may or may not be useful for other people.
Last, but not least, there is the topic of security. Hive Bitcoin & Litecoin Wallet makes use of Hierarchical Deterministic Wallet technology (BIP39), which you will have experienced when generating that twelve-word seed. Instead of relying on a username and password, a passphrase consisting of twelve random words offers more security and increases the portability of your wallet.
Furthermore, every transaction generated by your mobile wallet generates a brand new address in the BIP32 tree. In doing so, Hive Bitcoin and Litecoin Wallet provide its users with maximum privacy protection. For those of us who take anonymity and privacy to heart, this is an extremely important detail. For others, it might not matter all that much.
Download Hive Bitcoin & Litecoin Wallet: Google Play Store / Apple App Store
Images courtesy of Hive Bitcoin & Litecoin Wallet
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