Leather, fabric or Java? What do you prefer for your wallet? With the rapid rise of all things digital — particularly in the last few years — more and more consumers are embracing digital wallet services. By 2025, 60% of the world’s population will use one. And the opportunities for FinTech, digital finance, legacy FS (Financial Services) and other providers in the space to create more value by harnessing them are truly taking off.
So we brought together experts from ZenGo, a breakthrough crypto wallet, and Star to discuss product and design strategies for creating products that fuel adoption, engagement and retention. Build user-first FinTech with these Shine Podcast insights.
What’s so special about e-wallets?
At Star, e-wallets are one of our favorite FinTech conversation topics. They encapsulate so much about how digital solutions can improve lives worldwide, especially through enhanced accessibility and usability.
Ouriel describes e-wallets as a “radical new approach about centering the user in front of the interface and controlling the transactional experience. This is the future of what we believe will be the digital economy.”
And this is critical. As our economy continues to become more digital and more of our lives are modulated through computer or smartphone interfaces, we’re going to need payment tools that can be seamlessly used online, offline or anywhere.
Jiyeong points out that, unsurprisingly, Gen Z and Millennials are top users of the technology. In addition, e-wallets have been especially important for the unbanked and underbanked. She explains, “For those who couldn’t be part of the conventional or legacy bank system, it offers a huge opportunity for them to access crucial financial services.”
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Key digital wallet app design considerations
The pandemic may have propelled the shift to all things digital, but better design and security have fueled the rise of digital wallet services. Regardless of whether you are talking about crypto or fiat digital wallets, our experts agree that these features are helping drive the remarkable rise of the tech:
- Simplicity of onboarding: onboarding isn’t just what happens once you download an app. It starts with a sign-up and goes through KYC, and finally conducts transactions. Today’s best e-wallets make this entire process straightforward, fast and hassle-free.
- Clean and simple UX: cutting-edge technology shouldn’t be incomprehensible to the end-user. No feature should feel hidden. Their experience should be so easy that it’s intuitive — and modulated by an easily navigable UX.
- Continuously understanding user behavior and meeting niche needs: e-wallets provide a trove of valuable data. Use it to understand the consumer, their needs and how they use your solution.
- Transparency and security: trust is especially important for digital wallets. All transactions should be secured and pose the absolute minimum risk. Biometrics and other security tools and clear data usage policies are essential for building trust foundations.
- Impact retention: with rising competition, you need to think about how you’ll get users engaged. Bonuses, points, loyalty programs and gamification are ways to keep customers returning.
Ewelina tops it off by saying that if you implement these digital wallet design strategies, you will be well on your way to a brand-defining and world-class FinTech solution. She emphasizes the long-term potential by saying, “people will feel much more secure with a digital wallet than they ever would with a bunch of cards in a physical one” so start building your foundation now.
Custodial vs. non-custodial wallets
This Shine Podcast episode is deep dive into the fast-emerging world of cryptocurrency. Ouriel hits on one of the challenges in the space. Right now, you effectively have two options:
- Custodial wallets: essentially the same as traditional banking in which companies like Coinbase, Binance and Crypto.com hold your crypto for you. They have 100% control over security, withdrawal, deposits and fees.
- Non-custodial wallets: a new trust model in which funds are not in control of the user but are on a chain in the blockchain distributed across computers. Access to your wallet is modulated through a very long and complex password or your private key.
Each of these has issues. While custodial wallets generally are easy to use, they remove control away from users limiting the benefits of self-management. On the other hand, non-custodial wallets can offer security challenges. If you lose your private key, then your cryptocurrency can disappear forever. So you need a higher level of expertise for them. It’s also a big point of friction for new users.
ZenGo has offered a third solution that everybody in the digital finance space should consider. They’ve pioneered a passwordless system that combines advanced cryptography and device and liveness biometrics. Your device biometrics are your stored fingerprint or facial scan on your phone. Liveness biometrics refers to the use of computer vision to detect the genuine presence of living users through algorithms that analyze data collected from sensors. By combining these three elements, no password is necessary. Even if you delete the app or your phone is lost or stolen (and so are your stored passwords), you’ll still be able to access your account.
Best of all, the entire onboarding experience can be done in under a minute. The result is a fast, easy to use and highly secure experience. What could be better than that?
Listen now and unlock deep design, monetization, product evolution strategies and more
How else can you leverage e-wallets to create solutions that transform FinTech and digital finance? Find out in the complete podcast episode. Our experts discuss insights on how to evolve your solution into a “super app,” digital wallet development tips for monetization strategy and how to create financial services that improve lives and are a true delight to use. Explore what you need to know and listen to the podcast now.
