Manage DeFi service from your mobile
Argent (full name: Argent Labs Limited) is a London-based startup founded in 2017 by three founders: Gerald Goldstein, Itamar Lesuisse, and Julien Niset.
Through several rounds of investments so far, they have raised more than $ 15 million.
Argent is a mobile crypto wallet designed to manage tokens and applications on the Ethereum blockchain. Argent supports all ERC20 tokens, but does not support other cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Litecoin, EOS, Dash, Monero, Digibyte, etc.
Argent works as an iOS and Android mobile application and is based on smart contracts.
The wallet was developed with an easy DeFi (decentralized finance) services management in focus.
DeFi
DeFi stands for Decentralized Finance – a term that describes smart contracts, applications, and protocols on the public blockchain that offer decentralized financial services.
Since the majority of the services are interconnected and interoperable on the protocol level, this branch of the blockchain industry is growing rapidly.
Because of that, it is often referred to as a Money Legos.
Currently, there is more than $1.6 billion locked in the DeFi sector.
The modular structure
Argent mobile application is just an interface to a smart contract that executes all actions in the background. Each decentralized application (dApp) supported by Argent comes as a separate module – a smart contract. Owners can upgrade the wallet and add extra dApps to extend the functionality of the wallet. This modular architecture brings better control of the security and it makes it easier for audits.
Using Argent
Ease of use is the main feature of Argent wallet. Simply put, there are no seed words, no transaction fees, and the user can set a daily transaction limit.
As a non-custodial wallet, Argent gives you full control over your assets.
Private keys are stored in the application and they are used to manage smart contracts in the background.
Unlike other crypto wallets, account creation requires only an email and a mobile phone number. The lack of a typical blockchain hurdles makes this app feel just like using a new banking app.
Account Recovery
In case your phone gets lost you can recover your account and all your assets on your new phone. For recovery, you can use Guardians. Guardians are people or devices you trust to authorize a new phone as the owner of your funds. Guardians can be friends or family members, a Metamask account, or a Ledger Nano or a Trezor hardware wallet. You may also decide to have a default Argent Guard system for 2-factor authentication via email and SMS instead.
Guardians never have access to your private key or your funds, but only serve to:
- lock your account
- verify recovery of your account
- verify transactions exceeding the daily limit
For extra security, the user can set a limit to the daily transaction amount. By default, it is set to 10 ETH.
No matter what method you choose, the process will take 36 hours. This time delay provides an additional layer of protection and leaves the owner enough time to abort any unwanted recovery process.
Sending and receiving
Upon installing the Argent application, each user gets to choose a unique username in the form of yourname.argent.xyz. For example, this blog’s username is mojkripto.argent.xyz.
Your username serves as your receiving address, so you don’t need to remember long and complicated Ethereum addresses, e.g. 0xA09d29760578398cb8D6209465de654c5Aae4479.
Typing your username into the address bar of any browser will take you to the unique website of your Ethereum address.
Here you will see your Ethereum address as a QR code and in standard form. To deposit to your Argent wallet you can click on the $ sign on the right-hand side that will take you to the MoonPay service. Argent partnered with MoonPay to enable the purchase of cryptocurrencies using credit and debit cards, bank accounts, or the Apple Pay service.
You can also top-up your account with cryptocurrencies directly from any crypto wallet.
Apart from sending and receiving cryptocurrencies, you can swap tokens within your wallet. Swap is done via the Kyber Network protocol. The list of all available cryptocurrencies is available on the Kyber Network page.
Transaction fees
To provide the flawless user experience and to make crypto more accessible, the Argent wallet covers the costs of transaction fees for sending cryptocurrencies to other addresses and for in-app Invest integrations: Maker, PoolTogether, and Compound.
Argent covers the transaction fee cost with its resources. Although it is unknown how long Argent will be able to maintain this model, the development team states:
In the future, we’ll explore additional revenue opportunities – without ever sacrificing our commitment to making crypto accessible to everyone.
DeFi applications
Argent allows you to earn interest, borrow and invest in DeFi with a single tap.
One tap access to decentralized finance is what makes this wallet a breakthrough for crypto.
In the image below, you can see the list of supported applications
Additionally, the Argent wallet can be connected to several desktop applications via WalletConnect wallet. Some of them are OpenSea, DeFi Saver, Loopring, 1inchExchang. You can find the full list here.
Below you can see how the process works with the Loorpring application.
In the Argent wallet select scan, and in the desktop application open the WalletConnect option. Use your Argent app to scan the QR code from the desktop application and the connection will be established.
DeFi investing in a tap
Using DeFi protocols such as Maker DAO, Compound, or Aave becomes extremely easy with Argent. Just select the app, set the desired amount, and the process is complete in just a few seconds, as opposed to a much more complex procedure with standard desktop use.
The video below shows the use of Aave protocol.
NFT tokens
In addition to ERC20 tokens, Ethereum addresses often store ERC721 or ERC1155 tokens known as NFT tokens. Some typical NFT tokens are digital artworks on a blockchain, virtual real estate in blockchain games, and a variety of crypto collectibles.
Currently, Argent Wallet does not support the ERC1155 standard, while the ERC721 is supported only in the iOS version. However, if you have any of these tokens stored on your Argent Ethereum address, you will be able to manage it by connecting your wallet with an application that supports NFT tokens, such as OpenSea.
Security of Argent Smart Contracts
All smart contracts used by Argent in its work are audited by independent audit firms, and reports are available at this link.
Additionally, Argent has also launched a bug bounty program to ensure that any shortcomings and irregularities in its smart contracts are found as quickly as possible.
More details about the bug bounty program are available on their website.
All Argent smart contracts are open-source, ie. they are publicly available.
Argent is a non-custodial wallet, so only you can access and control your assets.
Not Argent. Not anyone else.
Conclusion
Argent is a next-generation smart wallet geared towards user experience and security. Using an intuitive non-custodial crypto wallet without worrying about seed words, private keys, transaction fees, and complicated addresses is a whole new experience.
All the above combined with popular DeFi apps integrations makes Argent wallet one of the key products to speed up the crypto mass adoption.
For more info about Argent visit:
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