Mobile wallet, separate out the payment functions from the DeFi functions

Feature Request
1

I dunno what’s going on with mobile wallets these days but it’s all a bit messed up.

Some history…

ZenCash started out as a payments coin and then pivoted and rebranded to Horizen (stupid name) as a generalized blockchain project. Look where it is now, didn’t get very far did it?

Dash, so far, remains a payments coin but wants to do other things. The bizarre thing is, the star of the show - “Dash Direct” - is a separate app that launches the wallet when needed. Isn’t that a bit backwards, wouldn’t you want spending and rewards inside the wallet?

Beam started out as a payments coin and then, like all other projects, decided that DeFi was too big an opportunity to miss. Not saying you’re wrong, but wtf is it dong in a mobile payments wallet? Oh sure, get you some nerdy cred, but now no one thinks of Beam for payments!

You need to go back to your roots by having two apps, one targeted for payments, savings and rewards, the other one for the DeFi nerds. When I say payments I mean spend, save and earn. If a dapp fits into the payments space then it should be seamlessly worked into the wallet with no mention of the words “DeFi” or “dapp” etc. Governance, NFTs, LPs and so on should not be in a payments wallet, though you can link / launch to them.

There are very few payment focused projects out there yet this is the bread and butter of any economy. Your average consumer doesn’t instantly jump into DeFi, we are weened into it. Make spending, saving and earning super simple and addictive. Make it social, including private messaging. We can sell them DeFi later when they are ready.

I love beam but, I am sorry to say, the team behind it is too nerdy and not enough business leaders to balance things out. This was made clear to me when beam decided to test the governance to reduce the price of CAs. Anyway, back on topic, your average Joe outside the crypto world has no clue what a CA is or how to value it.

By doing all these other things, you dilute the value of beam as a currency.

3 Likes
2

This proposal has a point and is probably worth thinking about.

Maybe this could also be solved by just “hiding” all the DeFi stuff and making it visible only if the user actively switches it on. The switch should be easy to find.

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I like the idea.

One small question, if it also includes “savings and rewards” where is this coming from if not for DeFi?
Or would the idea be to abstract away all the complexities? As this is how CEX sometimes do it - but think that this is a little complicated to do (not technically but from a transparency pov).

Also strong disagree on the “dilutes away from beam as a currency”, I think it adds to it, in a way that doesn’t put users at risk to issues via 3rd party service providers (although other risks etc come with it ofc).

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Unlike bitcoin which has the “hodl” mentality, real money - and therefore a real economy - is something you earn, save and spend. Say, for example, the wallet shows me local merchants where I can spend. And spending at these merchants may give me rewards - beam back. And the merchant is earning from the customer.

So the wallet experience must be limited and tailored to this end. A customer focused experience that excludes all the nerdy stuff. Obviously, all of us here like getting deep into this stuff, but how to get beam into the hands of all our families and friends that live normal lives as teachers, nurses, trades people and so on? So I say, the experience needs to be weened into them. They start with a wallet that lets them earn, spend and save with all the next level stuff going into other apps.

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5

I would like to further expand on this thought.

I love listening to Beam Spaces and it’s clear - to me at least - that development and social engagement is keenly focused on DeFi. This is good and I am not knocking this, but a part of me yearns for community and teams that are almost entirely focused on the payment side.

I can get my head around payments. Newbies can get their head around payments, shopping and rewards. But DeFi is a whole other level for most people. The people you want to capture for widespread adoption are not versed in the nuances between blockchain projects. They are doctors and teachers and painters and farmers.

I think I am expecting too much and asking for too much change, but it would be great if beam could build out such a channel.

1 Like
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The mobile wallet just needs to be fixed period. I think it’s a resources thing but they’re now aware of it and will hopefully direct focus to it and to the web wallet. Because dapps completely broke on mobile (they pulled the BANS dapp and the NFT dapp is broken). And so so many users are mobile and web first and hardly download desktop software period, even if the latter sacrifices trust assumptions in terms of dapp usage

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Anyways I don’t think the integration is a problem unless they threaten the app from being on an app store. The main wallet loads into just payments. You don’t have to ever even go to the dapp store if you don’t want. And some dapps are useful for payments (like BANS). Not sure the file size increases that much such that it makes people not want the app anymore or get confused?

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I think having multiple apps is actually a nuisance unless there’s a specific technical reason for it. I’d rather have one app that’s well organized. And Beam needs to offer more than just payments as we know. Just payments is done by everyone. And frankly others do payments better than Beam (faster block times which people care about in the real world). But it sounds like you want a focus to be on payments. So maybe not an issue with the app per se but where development time is being spent on the app?

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As you say, dapps such as BANS are payment focused and useful, so they should be present. Beam Messenger is also useful when you’re negotiating a price, that too should be present. In fact, there are many other functions that should be present. Perhaps later, for example, when beam is more widely used, a map dapp would be helpful for finding local merchants. I want all these dapps in a payment wallet…

But, you know, when I use any other payment app, I don’t go thinking that the button to “Create a username” is a “dapp” and I don’t go thinking the chat button is a “dapp”. I don’t have to choose between multiple chat dapps, or multiple map dapps.

As a user, you want great defaults and a great UX. You would have a “Customize” option and you would never see the word “dapp” anywhere at all, they would just be objects you would drag and drop into place. If you want to add a Beam to Neph button, this is where you would do it.

All of us here know what a dapp is, we use the term like water. We know there are various liquidity dapps and so on because maybe we’ve been in this space a while. But for mass adoption, the wallet needs to look and feel like gcash, grab, wechat and all the other staples of everyday life.