Wallets are the gateway for the user to web3. We know that they are a ‘helper function’ to signing transactions with private keys, but to 99.999% of users their wallets are something much more tangible and intimate. A great wallet is crucial to stickiness in an ecosystem. Metamask was the first and has enjoyed a moat around EVM based chains. Solana is a much newer ecosystem and the Phantom wallet has emerged as the “metamask of Solana”. Supporting a wide array of wallet solutions is important for dApps, but we know that the ‘winner takes most’ thesis applies to wallets, especially on Solana. Phantom makes it easy to integrate their service into our dApp.
Solana Phantom Platforms: Chrome, Brave, FireFox, Edge, Android and iOS Solflare Platforms: Chrome, Android and iOS Exodus Platforms: Chrome & Brave Sollet Platforms: Chrome Glow Platforms: Chrome, Brave, FireFox, Edge, Android and iOS Slope Platforms: Chrome, Android and iOS There are other "solana wallets" that will come up in searches, but while these wallet solutions can hold and stake SOL, the wallets listed above are the most popular solutions to accessing the web3 world that is being built on Solana. They are all browser extensions by default, with many of them having native mobile applications available to download now. NOTE: SOLLET was the original non-CLI wallet option and it is intentionally very rough from a UI/UX perspective. It is meant for developers and converting ERC20 to SPL tokens. The most popular option for web3 Solana wallets is currently, Phantom.
EVM Metamask Platforms: Chrome, FireFox, Brave, Edge, Android and iOS Coinbase Wallet Platforms: Chrome, Android and iOS Fortmatic / Magic Platforms: ANY, this is a completely different architecture and value prop. dApps pay for monthly active users that use Fortmatic / Magic. Offers social recovery, not as decentralized by design. Torus Platforms: ANY, this is a completely different architecture and value prop. dApps pay for monthly active users that use Torus. Offers social recovery, not as decentralized by design. Authereum Platforms: Not a browser extension. Similar to Fortmatic / Magic and Torus... SSO wallet but free for developers to on-board Frame Platforms: Chrome, FireFox, MacOS, and Windows Venly Platforms: ANY, this is a completely different architecture and value prop. dApps pay for monthly active users that use Torus. Offers social recovery, not as decentralized by design. MEW Platforms: ((in browser)Chrome, FireFox, Brave, Edge), Android and iOS
SDKs
These Libraries make it easy to integrate support for all of the wallets mentioned in this report by offering customizable UI/UX elements for connecting wallets to dApps Solana Wallet Adapter Web3 Modal Phantom: The premier Solana wallet aka the Metamask of Solana
Phantom Documentation With instructions on integrating app into Phantom (logos and brand assets for the end user to see when interacting with your protocol with the Phantom wallet) Background on Phantom Interview with Phantom CEO Phantom Team (50% of team are engineers) Anecdotal info In the Solana podcasts that I have listened to as well as varios blogs and interviews, the overwhelming opinion is that Phantom is the Metamask of Solana and that their dev team is top notch.
Editorial Opinion Initially I got into the Solana ecosystem in the beginning of 2021. My entrance into Solana was quickly followed by my exit due to the horrible UX. The major pain point was the initial end user experience of the wallet infrastructure. In the beginning there was only the Sollet wallet and when they say that Sollet was meant for developers and experimenters, they could not be more accurate.
I am technical enough to work around Sollet, but the general public was not and Solana did not grow very fast. The following quarter there was a lot of new yield opportunity with the emergence of Saber and I needed to get in the game. I was delighted to find the Phantom wallet. The UX is superb and while most of the functionality is similar to Metamask the usage of the app seems much snappier and more resilient than metamask.
In my learning of the dev experience on Solana for other research tickets, I discovered the ‘chewing glass’ podcast series and on most episodes there is homage paid to the Phantom team as a top tier group of engineers and this is evident in their product.
There are rumors of Phantom adding support for EVM networks in the near future and when this happens I will be converting from Metamask to Phantom to use across all of the EVM chains.
/blog/wallets-gateway-to-web3/