CoinGecko Podcast - Ep 40 - Brandon Millman, CEO and Co-founder of Phantom Wallet
Primer: In this episode of CoinGecko podcast, the host Benjamin Hor interviewed Brandon Millman, CEO and Co-founder of Phantom wallet, as he talked about what Phantom wallet is all about, highlights the differences compared to other wallets and shared their upcoming plans. Phantom wallet is a user-first crypto wallet based in the Solana blockchain.
Who is Brandon Millman
Introduction
Co-founder and CEO of Phantom Wallet, a Solana based crypto wallet
Launched around April in 2021
Formally an engineering leader at 0x
Before 0x in 2013, he was the senior engineer at Twitter
How did he switch from an engineer to this?
His experience was probably similar to many who worked in Big Tech companies
Became disillusioned with the typical work-loop found in such companies
After 4 years, the magic of working in such companies was gone and he wanted to do something different
Decided to join a nascent industry, got to knew Ethereum and was blown away
Instead of signing in with email and password, everyone just logs in with their wallet
Has a huge database that is shared with everyone - something different from what he is used to
Starting reading the White Paper around 2017 and wanted to join more on the consumer side of things e.g. decentralised Uber, decentralised Twitter
Realised that the tech is too early for these types of applications, so started to look into the infrastructure side and ended up in 0x
0x is an interesting blend of infrastructure and consumer app
Crypto Wallet
"Now a wallet can actually help you do stuff with your crypto too, by giving you access to a world of blockchain applications and DApp. Nowadays a wallet is more of an access point to those types of applications more than it is just a way to store your crypto."
Brandon Millman
Uses of Crypto wallet
In the past, a wallet is just a piece of software to hold your crypto or digital assets
The definition of a wallet has been changed to include access to DApps and other blockchain applications like Uniswap, OpenSea
It is a gateway to all sorts of application
Changing the mental model of the future's Crypto wallet
Able to connect to all DApps from the wallet
Possible to integrate social media in wallets
Can be a sort of identity in the Web 3.0 world
Phantom wallet
Why Solana blockchain?
Spend 4 years doing a deep dive on Ethereum with his co-founders
All of them are experts in DApps in the Ethereum world and had helped in the launch of several large-scale widely used DApps
Wanted a solution for a wallet that is also a gateway to blockchain applications
Wanted to take a bet on a nascent ecosystem that is missing its flagship wallet for applications
Every other new blockchain is pitching on the chain being faster and cheaper
"Our medium to long term goal is to become a multi-chain wallet that gives users access to a world of DApps no matter where they live. So we're sort of starting our journey with Solana, but our first foray into becoming a multi-chain wallet will be our cooperation with Ethereum which is going to be later this year."
Brandon Millman
At that time, Solana had a lot of early signals that it would be a big winner
Solana has a small and genuine core of community development around the technology
Had adjacency to big players like FTX and Jump Trading
There is a large deployment of native USDC on the chain, which is the lifeblood of decentralized exchange activity
Large overlap of users from Solana on other chains. Many came from Ethereum and got priced out because of the high fees
Long term goal is to become a multi-chain wallet
Launched with Solana first, but will be starting on Ethereum later this year in 2021
What separates Phantom from other wallets like Sollet or Metamask?
Features
Can view NFT in the wallet
Able to stake and swap in your wallet
The key differentiator is not in the features but the DNA envisioned for the product
Taking a user-first approach in everything they do in Phantom
Not just in the app itself but also support, messaging, content, social media etc
The goal is to form a brand and experience that users come to love - something that is missing in the industry
Have a second-mover advantage so they get to design a lot of the crypto trends, like DeFi, NFT, multi-chain, in mind when they are building the product
Metamask came out around 2016/2017 and a lot of these terminologies had not even existed yet so they cannot design a wallet around it
Any plans to capitalise on NFT hype?
Help the Ethereum NFT space by having a wallet that they can view their NFTs - underserved at the moment
Also will be building mobile apps so that people can participate in NFT drops on the go
A lot of drops happened at a certain time, so might not have ready access to the computers or laptops
Especially for the Solana side
Usage stats for the month of August 2021
180,000 monthly actives
2.3 million SOL stakes total, about $260 million in value
$105 million going through their in-wallet swapper
1.8 million times of DApp transactions to the wallet
Reasons for this huge growth in August:
There is an NFT hype in Solana, so a lot of growth comes from there
Star Atlas IPO
Raydium did a campagin
Mango Markets did their token launch
"I think you kind of see that when you read some of the reviews or look at some of the hype, a lot of it is about a user having an amazing first time experience with the product."
Brandon Millman
Wallets are essential to chain survivability
Does not matter how fast or cheap the blockchain really is
The first experience by a user matters - will colour the whole experience moving forward
A person's experience with a blockchain and with a wallet is actually one and the same
If a person's experience is very slick and polished, he will likely stick to it
Not consumer friendly User Interface because the industry has a mindset of developers making apps for other developers, not consumers
Overall in the DApp space, the User Interface is improving compared to 2017
But it's more like a local maximum - high but overall still low standard
No incentives to make it better as a developer - faster to copy and paste and grab cash than to thoughtfully hone a product and experience
Phantom intends to redefine the standard for the industry
Wallet based tokens
Heard the rumours that Metamask might be having tokens
Tokens are on the table but do not really have any concrete plans to do so right now
In his opinion, the design goal of having a token is to decentralise the wallet and cede control over to the community of users
Makes no sense to decentralise a wallet right now because the environment is changing and so it requires a lot of tight focus and iterations to get things done
Hard to happen in a decentralised community environment with the baggage of having to vote for changes all the time
Better to create a token when the protocol is worth governing - not anywhere near there now
Plans for Phantom
For 2nd half of 2021
Push and perfect the user experience in Solana, e.g user safety, education and features in general
Include Ethereum so that it will be their first foray into becoming a multi-chain wallet
Develop mobile apps
For 2022
More open-ended goals - to include more networks and chains
Been playing catchup with other wallets so in 2022 they will be pushing the boundaries of what a wallet is and go beyond what is expected of a wallet
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