For quite a few years, GreenAddress has been one of the most reliable and robust mobile wallets available. And if the Android market is oversaturated with wallet apps and users can easily download privacy-oriented solutions like Samourai, the best choice available for iPhones is Blockstream's GreedAddress.
On March 19th 2019, the cypherpunk company which brought us the Liquid sidechain, the Bitcoin satellite, and the Simplicity smart contract language has announced the redesign and rebranding of their popular mobile wallet. Blockstream Green is now available to download on both Android and iOS, has been rebuilt "from the ground up" to make use of a new development kit, and adds new features such as multisig two-factor authentication for greater security and hardware wallet support.
However, the amount of good news is till uneven between platforms, as Android still benefits from more functions such as ToR support and the ability to connect to your full or SPV Bitcoin node. It's expected that all these features will also get added to iOS in the future, and there is a long list of upcoming developments that will definitely enrich the user experience.
https://twitter.com/Blockstream/status/1108298788295204864
- Blockstream
For instance, Blockstream Green will also get Windows, Mac and Linux apps to further encourage multi-platform use and enable a seamless transition between devices. Also, wallet recovery will no longer rely on the e-mail address by using the CheckSequenceVerify functions. Last but not least, the source code and the development kit have become publicly available in a GitHub repository, so anyone can review the wallet functions and potentially bring improvements.
All of this is good news for bitcoiners who want to transact using their mobile devices, and it's extra special for iPhone users (whose choice of wallets is limited). Nevertheless, Android owners already benefit from Samourai, which features plenty of unique privacy improvements. Therefore, if the team behind Blockstream Green wants to remain competitive and provide the best wallet a bitcoiner can have, then it should look into implementing CoinJoin for greater fungibility. This rebranding of GreenAdress definitely looks promising and comes with a much-needed update of user experience, but there is still a lot of room for improvement – especially on iOS, where users find more limited features.
Read more:
