The Jaxx wallet has been available as a mobile wallet since launching in 2014, but more recently they’ve also added a desktop wallet. Yes, it’s similar to other cryptocurrency wallets, but the Jaxx team is ambitious and looking to make a bigger name for themselves. Is the wallet worth downloading and using. Let’s take a closer look.
Jaxx Wallet Review: History
Jaxx was developed in 2014 by Anthony Diiorio, one of the co-founders of Ethereum. The initial plan was to make a mobile wallet that supported Ethereum, but Jaxx has grown to so much more than that. The wallet is now under development by Decentral Inc., the leading blockchain company of Canada, with offices in Toronto. From its humble beginnings as a mobile wallet for Bitcoin and Ethereum, Jaxx is now available on multiple platforms, and supports over 5 dozen different cryptocurrencies and tokens.
Is Jaxx Wallet Worth It?
The Jaxx wallet is meant to be a simple and intuitive way to control your private keys, and works on six different operating platforms. You can get a Jaxx wallet for Android and iOS mobile operating systems, as a Chrome browser extension, and for Windows, Mac and Linux desktops.
And to increase usability of the wallet the developers have made it possible to synch your wallet across all these operating systems using your 12 word master seed. This means changes made from your iPhone are immediately viewable from your Windows desktop installation, or through the Chrome browser extension. It’s a seamless integration, and very useful for those who use multiple devices (like most of us do).
Jaxx Wallet Review: What is Jaxx?
Jaxx is a leading cryptocurrency wallet which works on multiple platforms, and allows users to store their private keys for more than two dozen different cryptocurrencies. In addition, it is unique in that it can synch between devices, meaning you are able to check your wallet balance and history in real-time on any device you’ve installed JAXX on. This is an excellent feature, especially as more people tend to work from multiple devices throughout the day.
Furthermore, the JAXX wallet has integrated ShapeShift, allowing for instantaneous exchange of many different cryptocurrencies without the use of an expensive centralized exchange.
Jaxx is a desktop wallet, a mobile wallet, and a web wallet. It allows its users to store, access and control numerous cryptocurrencies in one easy to access and use wallet, as well as providing cross platform functionality.
Jaxx Wallet Review: Great Design and User Interface
The first thing you’ll notice when launching Jaxx for the first time is the great minimalist black design. It brings great simplicity for the user, but even though the interface is simple to use on the surface, there’s still a depth of features to the wallet.
Even someone who’s brand-new to cryptocurrencies using a wallet for the very first time should be able to manage Jaxx without much trouble. There’s no clutter at all, and as you can see, the main interface is limited to the basics of Send/Receive and changing your currency.
This is really outstanding, because too many people are scared away by the perceived technical difficulty of using cryptocurrencies. We need simple interfaces if we want to attract more people to using cryptocurrencies in their daily lives.
As I mentioned above, there is depth behind this minimalism. By simply clicking the “Menu” button in the upper right corner of the wallet you’ll soon see what I mean as it gives you access to all the following features:
- Adding and removing support for different currencies
- Using different fiat exchange rates
- Setting up the transaction fee you’d like to pay to enable either faster or slower confirmations
- Displaying the private key of the wallet
- Wallet backup
- Importing funds from a paper wallet
- Setting a security PIN
- And more
These are all the options most users will ever need, and they are also displayed in a very minimalist and simple way, keeping any clutter to a minimum. And there’s a tooltip that pops up for each feature, which is something I love since you can quickly and easily find out about each feature without going to a “Help” section or searching Google.
Jaxx Wallet Review: Altcoin and ShapeShift Support
Jaxx isn’t one of those limited wallets that only supports a handful of coins either. You’ll find dozens of coins supported, including the popular Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, and Zcash among others.
Adding or removing a currency takes only two clicks. Go to “Menu” then “Wallets” and choose which currencies you’d like to have on your Jaxx wallet. You can see a list of coins already supported by Jaxx below, and there are more being added on a nearly weekly basis.
One of the really nice features that Jaxx has included, which can’t be found in most wallets, is integration with the ShapeShift platform. ShapeShift allows you to convert between different tokens and coins right within the wallet, bypassing the need to transfer your assets to an exchange. It’s a very cool feature, and one that is great for those who want to be more active in trading without the need to store coins at an exchange.
With ShapeShift you can quickly and easily exchange between Bitcoin and Ethereum for example. Simply go the “Exchange” tab and decide what coin you want to sell and which you’d like to buy. Put in the amount and the exchange will be carried out right within the Jaxx wallet. There is currently support for nearly two dozen different cryptocurrencies.
Jaxx Wallet Review: Security
Jaxx is a hot wallet, so it isn’t necessarily a good choice for storing a large amount of cryptocurrencies, but it does provide strong security practices for this type of wallet. You can feel secure with a small to modest amount of coins in your Jaxx wallet.
One of the benefits of Jaxx is that your private keys are only stored on one of the devices used, making a hack less likely, unless your main device gets infected with malware of some sort.
Jaxx gives you the ability to create a mnemonic seed for backup and recovery, and also has the ability to generate a PIN code for access to the wallet.
We also like the fact that the wallet respects your privacy and doesn’t require any personal information to install, not even your email address is needed.
Jaxx has straight-forward, but solid security practices in place, which goes along with its goal of making blockchain simple to use.
There was a security issue with the Jaxx wallet in early 2017, in which a user claimed $400,000 was stolen from their wallet. While this threw up a red flag aver the wallet at the time, any issue has been resolved. Additionally, there was little information released about the hack, which has led some to speculate that the theft occurred because of poor user security practices. This could be the case, and Jaxx can’t be held at fault if a user ignores best security practices and makes the wallet vulnerable of their own accord.
Jaxx Wallet Review: Setting up Jaxx
If you want to give Jaxx a try it’s about as easy as pouring a cup of coffee. Seriously, just go to the Jaxx download page and select the version you’d like to download. I installed it for Windows. Click the download link and follow the prompt to set up a new wallet. If you choose the express installation ot will ask which coins you’d like to have the wallet support. Just choose a couple major coins as you can always add more as necessary. Click to continue and the wallet will open.
Of course you’ll want to go back in the menu to get your backup phrase and setup a PIN, but even with that you won’t spend more than a few minutes downloading, installing and setting up the JAXX wallet. It really is very intuitive, and could be the simplest wallet setup I’ve ever done.
Jaxx Wallet Review: Conclusion
Jaxx is a very solid contender for your consideration as a desktop or mobile wallet. The ability to synch between different applications is great, as is the integration with ShapeShift. And the simple installation and user interface really can’t be beat.
This is still a hot wallet, so storing large amounts of Bitcoin or other coins isn’t recommended, just to be on the safe side, but otherwise it provides pretty standard security measures to keep your private keys and coins as safe as possible in a desktop or mobile wallet.
Give it a try at least. All you’ll have to lose is the few minutes it takes to download and install. If you don’t like it you can uninstall it, but I do believe you’ll like it.