As a crypto trader, is Bluewallet a good wallet?

The BlueWallet is a non-custodial, bitcoin-only wallet with support for the Lightning Network. It's simple to use implements most of the latest bitcoin features available.

What we like

• Support for Lightning network
• Non-custodial bitcoin trades via HodlHodl
• Available on Desktop & Mobile

What we don't

• Not enough guidance during on-boarding process

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Full BlueWallet Review

The BlueWallet is a non-custodial, bitcoin-only wallet with support for the Lightning Network. It offers a very complete set of usability features and implements most of the latest bitcoin features available. It also aims to be accessible for beginner users with a simplified user interface.

Cryptotesters reviewed the wallet and its features from the most basic to the most advanced. We covered usability, security, and privacy features.

Bluewallet Country support

Like most non-custodial wallets, BlueWallet is available in almost every country (as long as the app stores permit it). BlueWallet caters to a global audience. In addition to English, it supports more than 20 languages, including Chinese, Japanese, Portuguese, Spanish, Indonesian, Russian, Ukranian, Italian, German, Swedish, Norwegian, French, Danish, and Turkish. Moreover, it allows users to display the value of their bitcoin holdings in over 20 currencies, including USD, AUD, BRL, CAD, CHF, CZK, CNY, EUR, GDP, HRK, INR, JPY, MXN, MYR, or RUB.

Onboarding experience

We took a look at the first impressions of the app and how the initial setup is presented to users. BlueWallet does not give any guidance to the user to help them with the set up. Instead they seem to have decided to let the UI do the talking and the user figure out how to get started. When launching the app for the first time, the user is faced with a rather neutral screen (see screencap below) with little additional information on how to get started. We would have liked to see a short tutorial explaining the process of creating a wallet and guide users that are unfamiliar with bitcoin wallets.

Once the user clicks on the “Add now” button, they get the option to enter a wallet name and pick between two types of wallets: Bitcoin or Lightning. Once again, we believe this assumes some knowledge from the user to know what Lightning is, since there is no way to relate it to Bitcoin from the wallet interface. A short explanation or “info” button could easily clear that up.

Send/Receive Bitcoin

Once the wallet is set up, the user gets access to the account screen showing his current balance. To send or receive funds the user must first select an account (ie: one of the wallets created).

To send a transaction you must either paste the destination bitcoin address or scan its QR code, a very usual approach in cryptocurrency wallets. BlueWallet offers an automatic fee estimation to get your transaction included in the next block and thus confirmed as fast as possible. The default fee rate is shown below the “Note to self” field, in a green box, which can be tapped to change the fee rate value (more on this later).

To receive funds, the user may click the “Receive” button which reveals a public address and the corresponding QR code. The user can also specify an amount which may be used to create an invoice and embed the amount requested in the QR code. Moreover, the wallet uses something called Hierarchical Deterministic (HD) key creation which generates a new public key every time you wish to receive funds. It’s a must for bitcoin wallets best-practices and is one of many necessary measures to help users retain their privacy.

Buy Bitcoin

BlueWallet has integrated MoonPay to let you easily buy bitcoin within the app with your credit card, removing the need to go through an exchange. For more information on the fees, limits and fiat currencies accepted, please refer to the MoonPay website. Note, the service integrated might be different depending on the country.

If you want to get completely rid of the intermediary and get access to other payment methods, BlueWallet has also recently integrated HodlHodl into the app! HodlHodl is a peer-to-peer Bitcoin exchange which makes use of multi-signature wallets to remove the need for an intermediary. Since HodlHodl is distributed, it can also be used globally, as long as there is a buyer or seller in a certain location. HodlHodl also allows you to preserve your privacy. Some sellers do not require KYC and only the most minimal personal information to complete a trade! For more information on HodlHodl and how it works, please refer to the HodlHodl website.