NEAR Wallets

A Guide To NEAR Wallets  

In the current crypto market, Ethereum is the platform of choice for decentralized applications, smart contracts, and decentralized finance. However, Ethereum has several problems that are a hindrance, such as high gas fees and significant issues relating to scalability. So while Ethereum may be “Numero Uno”, several other protocols are emerging to challenge Ethereum in the market. 

NEAR protocol is one of the blockchains that has emerged as a true challenger to Ethereum’s dominance in the space. The team at NEAR looked at Ethereum’s shortcomings and created a protocol that goes straight for its most glaring shortcoming: its lack of scalability and high gas fees. NEAR uses a process called sharding, allowing the protocol to scale exponentially. NEAR has also managed to raise significant funding from some of the biggest venture capitalists, including a16z, Coinbase Ventures, Scalar Capital, Dragonfly Capital, and several more. In this guide, we will look at NEAR, and in particular, the NEAR wallet.

The NEAR Protocol 

Founded in 2018, the NEAR Protocol is a decentralized development platform designed to create a seamless and near-perfect environment for decentralized applications (dApps) and smart contracts. NEAR was created after analyzing the shortcomings of existing protocols, particularly Ethereum. The protocol focuses on addressing these issues, and is looking to become the go-to platform for Decentralized Applications (dApps) and Decentralized Finance (DeFi). NEAR’s use of sharding allows the protocol to scale up exponentially, addressing scalability issues prevalent in the space. 

NEAR’s Proof-of-Stake blockchain is extremely developer-friendly, thanks to it being low-cost and highly scalable, and developers can seamlessly create decentralized applications. The NEAR protocol also has several other features, such as the NEAR wallet and other components. Our focus in this article will be on the NEAR wallet, but more on that a little later. NEAR also utilizes the Doomslug consensus mechanism, allowing blocks to achieve finality in seconds. Other blockchains usually centralize processing, limiting its usability to very high-end hardware. While this approach increases throughput, it does so only temporarily. NEAR is capable of scaling linearly, supporting billions of transactions in a decentralized manner. 

NEAR has been created by the NEAR Collective, a community of researchers and developers. NEAR collective’s focus is the continuous development and improvement of the protocol. The collective has also worked on the initial code of the NEAR Protocol and implementation of the NEAR Network. While the NEAR Collective is behind the development of the NEAR Protocol, the latter operates entirely independently and is entirely decentralized, with even the NEAR Collective unable to shut it down.

Advantages Of The NEAR Protocol 

• NEAR users do not require any complicated browser extensions or keys to register. A simple email and password is sufficient to register. 
• NEAR smart contracts are compatible with WebAssembly Virtual Machine (WASM). 
• The protocol allows developers to deploy scalable and high-performance blockchain applications. 
• A fraction of the gas fees compared to others such as Ethereum.

What Is A Crypto Wallet 

Before moving on to the NEAR wallet, it is essential to understand what a wallet is. In the simplest of terms, crypto wallets safely store your private keys, ensuring that your cryptocurrency is safe and accessible. You can also use crypto wallets to conduct transactions, send and receive cryptocurrency, or even spend your crypto. When selecting a crypto wallet, you have several options to choose from. These are paper wallets, hardware wallets, and online wallets.

Hot Wallets 

Hot wallets are online-based wallets that allow users to transfer their crypto quickly. Most online exchanges have their own wallets which users can access. Hot wallets are easy to access through a mobile or desktop. While hot wallets offer easy connectivity, they are also at risk from threats such as hacking. Desktop wallets, online wallets, and mobile wallets are examples of hot wallets.

Cold Wallets 

A cold wallet or hardware wallet is a device similar to a USB device where users can store their keys. The wallet is portable and can be connected to a laptop/desktop whenever the user wishes to access their crypto. Hardware wallets are much less prone to threats such as hacking or any other malicious attack that could occur online.

Paper Wallets 

A paper wallet is essentially a printed piece of paper containing your public key and private key. The keys can be accessed only through a QR code. Paper wallets are used to store a significant amount of cryptocurrency since they are considered extremely safe.

The Best Cold Wallet for NEAR

Ledger Nano S Plus

The best cold wallet for NEAR is any ledger device, with the most popular being the Ledger Nano S Plus. Ledger devices are the industry standard when it comes to cold wallet storage of crypto, and they are compatible with over 5,500 coins and tokens. They come with a companion app called Ledger Live that has many handy features such as buying, selling, swapping and staking crypto, along with compatibility for virtually any NFT. On top of that, ledger is compatible with many hot wallets discussed in this article.

 

Top 9 Hot Wallets for NEAR

MyNearWallet

History and the Legacy Wallet

The legacy NEAR Wallet had many recurring bugs, issues and design problems since its launch in 2020. On top of that, the NEAR ecosystem is used by a wide variety of users that have different needs and preferences. Eventually, the NEAR developers decided that the NEAR ecosystem would be better off without having an official wallet, and the dApps will be encouraged to use a wallet-selector. This decision was made to enhance decentralization and inspire healthy competition across the ecosystem leading to more innovation in the final products.  

Launching in 2022, MyNearWallet is the official successor of the NEAR ecosystem. Kikimora Labs started developing it from the same open source code base as the legacy NEAR Wallet. They are currently working on improving old features, adding many new ones, security improvements,  bug-fixes and a holistic interface overhaul. During its early days, MyNearWallet looked almost identical to the legacy wallet, but with hard work and dedication, the development team was able to overhaul the interface, fix bugs, address security issues and add many new features as was promised.

Product Overview

MyNearWallet allows users to securely store, swap, trade and stake NEAR tokens and compatible assets such as NFTs. It supports all of the latest NEAR token standards such as the NEP-141 (FT), NEP-148 (FT) , NEP-171 (NFT) and NEP-177 (NFT) standards. MyNearWallet is the official successor of the legacy NEAR Wallet. On top of that this wallet also has wNEAR and USN swaps available, as well as ways to purchase NEAR. Another way to earn money using MyNearWallet is by staking NEAR to help the blockchain validate transactions, which grants a return of ~10% APY.

MyNearWallet is more than just another wallet; it also serves as a portal into the vast ecosystem of NEAR dApps. Some of the best dApps built on NEAR include Ref.finance (go-to DeFi platform on NEAR), Rainbow Bridge (transfer tokens between Ethereum and NEAR), Mintbase (premier NFT platform on NEAR) and Sweatcoin (stay active to earn crypto) just to name a few.

A key differentiator for NEAR accounts is that NEAR uses human readable accounts, and not a hash. So an account on NEAR would not read as 0x71C7656EC7ab88b098defB751B7401B5f6d8976F but as alice.near or bob.near. NEAR accounts can also create sub-accounts, but only the root account can create them. Another critical differentiator is that most blockchains have one public/private key pair for each account. On NEAR, accounts can have multiple key pairs associated with them. These are called “access keys.” Access keys are of two types, a full access key, and a functional call. A full access key grants the user complete control of their NEAR account while a functional call allows for non-monetary transaction signing.

Wallet Address – The wallet address is essentially a sequence of characters or numbers or both that are used to send or receive tokens using the NEAR wallet. 

Private Key And Passphrase – The passphrase and security key is a type of password. The passphrase comprises 12 words, while the private key consists of a sequence of letters and numbers. Both are extremely important steps when it comes to wallet recovery.

Creating An Account Using MyNearWallet

MyNearWallet allows you to create a NEAR account to access all of the features that were previously discussed. 

1. To create an account go to www.mynearwallet.com. Once you reach this page you will see two options: Create Account or Import Existing Account. If you already have an existing NEAR account and would like to transfer it to MyNearWallet choose Import Existing Account and follow the instructions. We will focus on the creation of a new account in this guide. Select the “Create Account” option.

2. Type the desired name for your account into the “Account ID” box, then click “Reserve My Account ID”.

3. Enter the password for your NEAR account, make sure it is a strong password, as it will grant access to your account and crypto. Checkmark the two boxes.

4. Click “Get Started”

5. You will be able to choose from 2 options: “Secure Passphrase” or “Ledger Hardware Wallet”. Select “Secure Passphrase” (we will show you how to set it up with a Ledger device later in this guide).

6. MyNearWallet will generate you a passphrase consisting of 12 random words. You can generate a new one if you don’t like yours. Make sure to write your passphrase down, or store it in a password manager like LastPass, as you will need it to access your account. Click continue once you’re ready.

7. You will then be prompted to enter one of the words from your passphrase. Enter the word in the box provided.

8.The last step to set up your account is to purchase some NEAR tokens, or have a friend transfer them into your account. 

a. You can click this button to access payment methods for purchasing NEAR.

b. Ask a friend to send you some NEAR.

i. Click your wallet address at the top right of the screen.

ii. Copy your address and send it to your friend.

iii. Once the NEAR is sent to your  address the setup will be complete.

Account Creation With Ledger 

1. Repeat steps 1-4 from the previous section of this guide.
2. Select the “Ledger Hardware Wallet” option.

3. Refer to the guide on Ledger’s Customer Support Website for further instructions.

Here Wallet

HERE Wallet is a non-custodial mobile wallet for the NEAR Protocol. With the use of this wallet, users can easily transfer, receive, stake and swap NEAR along with fungible and non-fungible tokens based on NEAR. It features a liquid stacking protocol meaning users have the ability to withdraw their NEAR from staking at any moment. The staking yields are ~9% APY. The wallet also has customer support documentation for users to reference if they get stuck.

HERE Wallet has a variety of security features such on-device password storage, biometrics, and pin access making it one of the most phone-friendly wallets on the market. The seed phrase is stored locally on the device, yet the wallet also features integration with Ledger and HITO hardware wallets for those who want extra security. The wallet will also periodically send security alerts out to the user when it spots suspicious activity and has been independently audited by OtterSec.

Sender Wallet

Sender Wallet is a browser extension wallet built for NEAR protocol, which is also available as an app. It launched in February 2022, and is gaining popularity among NEAR users for its wide variety of features such as a blacklist of malicious addresses, Ledger support, NFT collectibles, token exchange, and staking. 

If you’re worried about security, Sender has got you covered. It has been audited by SlowMist, a leading cybersecurity firm, and it also regularly gives out bug bounties to ensure that security is up to date. With investors like Binance Labs, and Crypto.com Capital, Sender Wallet has received a lot of industry backing, and is sure to be a mainstay in the NEAR ecosystem.

Meteor Wallet

Meteor Wallet is a browser extension, and web wallet built for the NEAR ecosystem. Launching on the NEAR protocol in Q3 2022, this new wallet has an intuitive interface, and many exciting features such as simple onboarding, easy recovery, advanced NFT features, and many more. Everything on the wallet is encrypted, and nothing is logged, so that you can have peace of mind that your crypto assets are safe. The wallet has a great customer support team with extensive guides written for new users and advanced users alike.

Meteor Wallet is one of the simplest and most user-friendly NEAR wallets. It’s a web wallet that can also be used as a Chrome extension. It currently only works with the NEAR protocol as it was specifically designed for that purpose. Some of Meteor’s features include staking, transferring, purchasing and swapping NEAR, along with other fungible and non-fungible tokens built on NEAR. This wallet also opens up the doors to the rest of the NEAR ecosystem, and gives access to dApps built on NEAR.

Creating an Account with Meteor Wallet

To create a wallet, open the Meteor Wallet website and enter your username:

Yes, as simple as that.

Next Steps

Now you can move some NEAR in your wallet (Receiving NEAR) or continue exploring other Meteor Wallet’s features.

In the example above, our address is simpleisland-slime.near.

Sending NEAR

To send NEAR to someone, you need to know the recipient’s account ID (username). When you have it, you can send NEAR to them:

You can send other tokens when you click at them, the same menu will open for the selected token:

NFTs

Meteor Wallet has a built-in NFT viewer, where you can see your NFTs in the wallet, view their traits, floor prices, transfer NFTs, and more.

Transaction history

Under the “lightning bolt” sign, you can see your transaction history:

Settings

Settings in Meteor Wallet are located here:

1. Connected Apps: Here you can see all the apps that you have connected your wallet to (or technically, created a Function Call key). You can also revoke access to these apps by clicking “Deauthorize”.

2. Security and Recovery: This part of the wallet contains your account’s seed phrase. You can view or export your seeds & private key from this page. It also gives you an option to manage Full Access Keys and Function Call Access Keys of your account.

3. You can also provide feedback, share your issue with technical support, set a password, remove the account from meteor wallet, and other things from this page.

Dive deeper at NEAR Docs

Trust Wallet

The Trust Wallet is a non-custodial and decentralized wallet that allows users to store their cryptocurrencies. The assets are stored in a digital address accessible only by the user, making it a secure and efficient way to store digital assets. Trust wallet focuses on simplicity and ease of use. The wallet is an open-source, community-driven, multi-currency wallet capable of storing almost all cryptocurrencies. It provides users with a convenient way to manage their cryptocurrencies and allows them to control their private keys completely.

The wallet was acquired by Binance and is the official wallet of the Binance exchange. The wallet allows users to retain complete control of their assets and private keys stored on the user’s device. Developers can also build dApps, without any complications such as low-level implementation details. The wallet also supports on-wallet staking, which means users can earn rewards on any supported Proof-of-Stake or Delegated Proof-of-Stake tokens. Trust Wallet allows users to earn rewards and continually adds more stablecoins and cryptocurrencies.

Bitte Wallet

Mintbase Wallet rebranded in Bitte Wallet.

Bitte wallet makes using blockchain technology easier than ever, all thanks to some clever features from the NEAR blockchain.

Key Features:

User-Friendly Onboarding: With passkeys and account abstraction, Bitte Wallet offers a seamless onboarding experience, often faster than traditional Web2 platforms.

Secure Custody of Assets: Utilizing biometric features such as Face ID or fingerprints, Bitte Wallet securely stores wallet keys in your chosen password manager, ensuring you have full control over your assets.

No Gas Fees: Leveraging account abstraction and meta-transaction technologies unique to the NEAR blockchain, Bitte Wallet facilitates transactions covering gas fees.

So, Bitte wallet users can now enjoy a smoother, more familiar experience, similar to using regular apps, without the usual blockchain hassles.

Guarda Wallet

Guarda Wallet launched in 2017, and has become a popular choice for crypto users from various blockchains. It is an easy-to-use, beginner-friendly wallet that features integration with decentralized exchanges. The wallet supports multiple accounts, and has a simple interface for managing, storing, and trading NEAR.

Guarda is a multi-platform, non-custodial wallet allowing for secure and easy access to crypto on most devices including Windows, Mac OS, iOS, Android, and Linux. The wallet features multi-factor authentication, cold storage support and locally stores private keys on your device(s) in an encrypted format. A major drawback of Guarda Wallet is that it has limited support for fiat currencies and NFTs.

Coinbase Wallet

Coinbase Wallet is a flexible non-custodial wallet with a wide range of functionalities. It has broad NFT and DeFi functionality making it ideal for traders or investors . The wallet is compatible with Android, iOS, and most popular web browsers as an extension, providing a convenient experience and seamless transition across multiple devices.

The main factor that differentiates this wallet from others is direct access to the Coinbase platform. The wallet has great integration with NEAR dApps including, but not limited to DeFi, gaming, NFT marketplaces and more. This is a great wallet for users coming from Coinbase, as it will facilitate an easy and fluid transition into the NEAR ecosystem.

Closing Thoughts 

NEAR’s ecosystem allows users to access a host of NFTs, decentralized applications, and DeFi solutions. NEAR addresses the shortcomings of blockchains such as Ethereum, offering solutions to long-standing problems such as network congestion, high gas fees, and slow processing fees. The NEAR wallet allows users to create and interact with NEAR accounts, allowing users to store their NEAR tokens, and stake them to earn rewards. We hope this guide provides some clarity about the functioning of the NEAR wallet and its use cases.

Vote for your favorite NEAR wallet!