About Rainbow

There are a wide variety of Ethereum wallets available to users, Rainbow stands out as being one of the most user friendly and easy to use. In this article, we’ll take a deep dive into Rainbow, explore the features available and see what makes it different from other wallets.

Overview

Rainbow is a mobile wallet for Ethereum, available on iOS and currently in public beta on Android. It is non-custodial, meaning you are in control of your private keys - and by extension - your funds. It’s also worth mentioning that Rainbow is open source, unlike most other mobile crypto wallets.

Rainbow is built with both beginners and power users in mind. Whatever your needs are, Rainbow will be a great wallet for you to use. There are a multitude of features offered by Rainbow, meaning a lot of the time you don’t even have to leave the app to interact with your favourite DeFi protocols or NFT marketplaces because they are natively integrated.

Needless to say, Rainbow has support for the most popular Layer-2s, so you can interact with protocols on L2s and also view your balances across different L2s in the app. Rainbow currently supports Arbitrum, Optimism and Polygon, with more networks on the way.

You have the ability to create a new wallet, import a wallet you already use or you can even input any Ethereum address you like for "read only" access and monitor it. For users who are happy to compromise on security, Rainbow offers the ability to back up your wallet to iCloud, storing your keys in an encrypted file, meaning if you lose both your device and your keys you can still recover your wallet via your cloud backup.

Rainbow also has a built-in fiat on-ramp, allowing you to purchase Ethereum or DAI via Apple Pay and have it deposited directly into your wallet which is a very straightforward way to onboard if you are a new user because you don’t have to go through a crypto exchange first.

WalletConnect is integrated in the app, allowing you to connect your wallet to any Web3 protocols and interact seamlessly.

Let’s take a deep dive into more of the features on offer.

Portfolio tracking

The home screen is beautifully designed, displaying your portfolio across Ethereum apps along with your balances on L2s all in one place. This includes tokens, LP positions and any savings in Compound, which you are able to deposit into directly within the app by the way. You have the ability to send, swap or connect to Web3 protocols via WalletConnect, a standard to connect wallets to blockchain applications at the tap of a button or QR-scan. There is also built in charting available so you can track prices of your favourite tokens. A great feature of Rainbow is that they retrieve token prices directly from Uniswap, therefore you don’t have to wait for new tokens to be supported in the app. As long as a token is tradable on Uniswap, you will be able to check its price within the app.

NFT Gallery

Rainbow features a gallery of all your NFTs and allows you to curate your own personalised showcase which you can then share with anyone online via a link. The app has a seamless integration with OpenSea, allowing you to view data about any NFT you own, including a description, its on-chain traits and you can even find out the current floor price for the collection.

DEX integration

Swapping is made simple with Rainbow wallet, you don’t even have to leave the app. You can swap in-app between any tokens with swaps being routed through the most popular decentralized exchange called Uniswap.

Rainbow’s swap UX is clean and intuitive. Swapping in the app feels super smooth and intuitive and removes the step of having to connect to Uniswap and interact with their website. Although this would also be possible via WalletConnect, a native integration is always more seamless. Furthermore, Rainbow provides a list of “verified tokens” so you can have confidence that whatever token you’re buying is legitimate and not a fake duplicate.

Discover

Another awesome feature in the app is the Discover section, this gives you an overview of the market, allows you to find out about new trending tokens and pools and also allows you to curate your own list of favourite tokens that you can keep an eye on. This can be very useful for traders, you can see the tokens that have had the highest price increase and also tokens that have had the biggest dip over the past 24hrs and instantly trade them via Uniswap.

There is a DefiPulse Index tracker which gives you a general sense of how the market is performing. The trending list lets you see the most searched for tokens so you are able to see what tokens are hot right now or you can create your own list of tokens that you want to monitor, maybe you’re waiting for them to hit a certain price before you buy in. Also, you have the ability to see the highest earning Uniswap pools right now and you can take advantage of the fees being earned.

Power users

There is usually a strong preference among mobile wallets toward building for novice users who maybe don’t have much experience with Ethereum or DeFi and so this leads to a lot of advanced features missing from the app experience that more adept users would potentially consider vital. However, with Rainbow, the wallet truly caters for both beginners and crypto veterans. The wallet is newbie friendly but with no compromise for power users, here are some of the advanced features available:

• Ability to cancel transactions
• Ability to speed up transactions
• Setting custom gas fees when sending a transaction
• Warnings to prevent you from sending to a contract and losing funds

Many people are used to all of these features from using MetaMask however when it comes to mobile wallets, features like these are lacking and it can be a frustrating experience so it is neat that Rainbow has thought about this.

Summary

Rainbow really is a one size fits all wallet, without compromise. Whether you’re a crypto newbie or a veteran, a NFT flexer or a DeFi degen, a Layer 1 whale or a Layer-2 pioneer, Rainbow wallet will be a perfect fit for you.

Everything you need is all bundled into one app, Rainbow has a variety of integrations to make your crypto experience native. You don’t have to leave the app to interact with your favourite DeFi protocols or view and share your NFTs. Tracking your portfolio is simple and you can even stay updated with the crypto market.

The interface is simple yet beautiful and the experience is super user friendly. It is genuinely a fun app to use, with easter eggs and little animations throughout the app.

I’d definitely recommend giving it a try, you won’t be disappointed.

App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/rainbow-ethereum-wallet/id1457119021

Play Store (Beta): https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=me.rainbow

Website: https://rainbow.me