Key facts:
The new wallet is in beta phase and will soon be available to all users.
Through the zkSync rollup, it seeks to reduce commissions when trading on Ethereum.
The London company Argent, developer of the wallet that bears the same name, announced that more than half a million people signed up on a waiting list to use its new version. This will allow access to an account in a second layer (L2) of Ethereum and, for this, it will use the zkSync scalability solution.
Based on these new features, Argent seeks to reduce the costs involved in using decentralized finance platforms (DeFi) and other applications, for example non-fungible token (NFT) marketplaces. In this way, its use would be extended to smaller transactions, which until now were not justified by the high cost they demanded.
At the moment, Argent has only reported that its new wallet is in beta, but It has not been detailed when it will be fully available to all users. The company has communicated, however, that there is great expectation for the product and that more than 500,000 people are waiting for it, as published by The Block.
In addition to this new alternative based on second layers of Ethereum, Argent announced that the wallet built on the main network will remain available for those who already have it. However, all new users from now on will have the second layer wallet by default. They will be able to access it with the same Argent application that they have used so far.
Users who are now waiting for these new accounts already had a preview of them in October of last year. At that time, the company began to distribute early access for users to evaluate what they offered, as detailed in a publication on its official site.
As mentioned, these second layer solutions allow Argent to offer a service with lower fees and faster transactions. According to a statement from Itamar Lesuisse, co-founder and CEO of Argent, the intention is to bring commissions to approximately one dollar per transaction.
At the time of writing this article, the average fees on the Ethereum network they are USD 10. This figure is higher when interacting with smart contracts (like the ones that Argent users use in a pre-established way for their addresses).
More details about the Argent wallet
The Argent wallet bases its operation on the creation of smart contracts, which are connected to each user’s account. It thus differs from traditional wallets, in which users deposit their funds in an Ethereum address, not in a smart contracts. That is the main feature that makes this wallet stand out.
This use of smart contracts supposes a higher cost when making transactions. In return, what you get is greater security, since certain conditions must be met to move the funds, such as a multi-signature. This is why it is a widely used wallet for those who store large sums of money or valuable assets such as non-fungible tokens (NFT).
With its launch in 2018, Argent earned a place for being a wallet that subsidized gas used by users to make transactions. Later, by suspending tariff subsidies and smart contracts, the wallet left behind this advantage of being cheap to use and positioned itself in the opposite direction, with higher commissions.
Of course, it kept the advantage of being a secure wallet, and therefore highly prized for storing large sums in crypto assets.
On the other hand, it is important to point out that Argent is a wallet that is based on social recovery for the custody of funds and for the confirmation of certain transactionsas explained in his website. This functionality, made possible by the use of smart contracts, is also the one that increases costs compared to other wallets such as Metamask or Trust Wallet.
Some of the platforms that Argent supports connection for are Aave, Uniswap, Compound, and Yearn, among others. It also allows the sale of cryptocurrencies through Ramp, a payment processor that operates with crypto assets.
What are second layer solutions in Ethereum
The so-called “second layer solutions” or layer 2 solutions in Ethereum they are those that do not run on top of the main network of the block chain, but “one step” below. For example, in the case of rollups, these “wrap” or “roll” several transactions and then bring them all together to the main network. Thus, these are faster and cheaper to perform.
zkSync, the rollup that will implement this new version of Argent wallet, is based on the method zero knowledge or «zero knowledge», which allows information to be verified securely, but with very little data, which reduces the weight of transactions and, therefore, also their cost.
As reported on the official Argent site, the company chose this roll-up because it allows “significantly reducing gas costs without sacrificing security or control on the part of the user”. Its benefits include rates up to a hundred times lower than in L1, up to 2000 transactions per second and transfers to the main layer without delays or possibilities of censorship.