A REVIEW OF THE ETHOS UNIVERSAL WALLET APP: THE WAIT IS OVER.. or is it ;-)

I have been waiting a very long time for Ethos to release their solution to one of my main problems.. how to hold several alt coins securely?! The idea of getting a private wallet for every alt-coin i have, and then having to synch the whole blockchain and keep numerous keys safe has been very off-putting to me. We are always advised not to hold coins on an exchange long term, but until now that is what I have been doing. There are some alternatives that do already exist like Exodus and Jaxx, but they don’t let you hold all the coins that I have. Bitshares is another amazing option to hold many of your coins in one place, and I did use it but had node problems that stopped me selling once or twice and it was not obvious how to resolve it.. Swapping nodes did fix the problem in the end, but only after it was too late! Now finally Ethos has arrived, and I am eager and happy to get my cryptocurrency safe with a minimal of difficulty. I also own a NanoLedger, and I am not very impressed with the overall ease of use. It is difficult to manage, and even with their latest updates only let you hold just a few coins on one device. So join me and let us check out the new Ethos App!

It doesn’t take long to figure out if an app is produced by a solid team with all the skills required to produce a secure and also well executed app. I think it is fair to say that from start to finish this is a very well made piece of software. Everything is slick and clear, and very well presented and very intuitive to use. You can feel that the this app is solid and the code well written by the way it feels. It is the quickest and most responsive crypto wallet app I have used. The sign-up process went without a hitch, and it was a breeze to create a new wallet. You get all the warnings and advice you would want to know whilst creating your private key, and the app has a pin code for security to send money. This pin code can be as long as you like, so you are responsible for setting a minimum of 6 numbers if not more to ensure that your wallet is safe.

Once I had my wallet created I was presented with the main screen, which is the portfolio screen. I had just created my wallet and so that now appeared. It gives some key information at a glance, and highlights the big movers, very nice!

It also has a tab to add watch lists, which in my case I am using to keep tabs on my coinbase account and that wallet. You can create multiple watchlists and keep a track of them all in this tab.

If you want to check the markets in general you can view the list along with all the info you would want to see, and very nicely presented!

You can then tap any coin and go into the charts for it. It offers you a very quick way to flick between Hourly, Day, Week, Month, Year, and ALL.. which is handy and what I am most interested to see.

So as far as keeping track of your multiple wallets, I don't think it gets much easier than this. So far, this app is delivering everything i would have hoped to have seen. The next step is to see if I can send my first alt-coin in! Im going to test and start with the ARK coin that I am already holding on a private wallet. To do that I had to download a whole ARK app and synch the blockchain to use it, and i will be happy to be rid of it.

>>;,, suddenly i come screetching to a stop --<<;.. uh oh!

Oh dear! Guess what? Ethos doesn't support ARK! I'm sure there is a good reason why that is so, but sadly not all the coins are on this app. I have just now cross checked them and it does seem that there are a LOT of coins not available on ETHOS that are in the top 10 and top 20. Are my dreams crumbling?! Well maybe actually because that is still what I am looking for is one simple option to allow me to hold everything safely. I hope that ETHOS will in time partner with all the alt-coins and be able to offer us instant private wallet addresses for at least the top 50. In the meantime I will have to think a bit now as to whether I will use it! Nevertheless. this is one of the best options available that I have seen and is definitely worth looking at if you are looking to hold a few coins without too many difficulties.

So I'm afraid this review is cut short. I will not transfer any alt-coins in just yet, but I will be watching this space! The solution right now still stands with holding stuff here and there and everywhere.. which i guess is Best for security anyway.. don't keep all your eggs in one basket! Ethos does seem quite secure, but I do have a few questions.. one is that if Ethos goes offline, how to we access our private wallets as we don’t' seem to have a private key for each one. I'm sure there is an answer to this, but I don’t know it. The app also doesn't require or allow a PIN to view the app or the wallets. It only seems to require a PIN to send money. I think the app should have biometric and or PIN to access anything. That is about my only criticism of what is an otherwise pretty great app and very impressive for a first version. This is the start for ETHOS and im sure we will see significant developments in the future. Since it is totally anonymous, it is easy to imagine them offering you the opportunity to trade between coins and that would make it a very secure and powerful way to work.

I've read a great post by @aghunter who gets into more detail about Ethos. It is mUCH more than just a wallet, and once they introduce FIAT gateways it is easy to see how it could become a Coinbase Killer and provide decentralised exchanging of cryptocurrency.

Ethos also intends to introduce Fiat gateways supporting multiple Fiat currencies. Once again this will be a big step forward in the way in which consumers are able to access crypto currency investments. If you are fortunate enough to live in a country such as the United States or Japan that currently have large exchanges where you can trade in your native currency, this probably won't be a great step forward for you. For the rest of us however who lived in countries that don't have this luxury, the ability to transfer money in any given Fiat to a single central exchange and then trade in that currency to purchase crypto currency assets has the potential to be revolutionary.

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Thanks for stopping by, if you have any feedback or knowledge about the future plans of ETHOS please do share in the comments.