DeFi-favorite Ethereum wallet MetaMask gets Version 8 update, new features 🚨 This article is 4 years old...
DeFi-favorite Ethereum wallet MetaMask gets Version 8 update, new features
2 min read
Updated: Jul. 3, 2020 at 8:05 am UTC
Cover art/illustration via CryptoSlate. Image includes combined content which may include AI-generated content.
Popular non-custodial wallet MetaMask announced it will roll out a Version 8 update for the wallet in the coming weeks, promising increased privacy, a better UI, and other user-centric features.
The wallet is popular on all DeFi exchanges and applications and may see increased installations as the broader DeFi sector grows.
If you’ve used UniSwap, Balancer, or Compound; the role of MetaMask should have struck out as evidently significant.
Privacy, assets, and accessibility
Via a blog post on June 2, ConsenSys engineer Dan Finlay wrote on the new features of MetaMask touting the latter is what “no wallet has done before.”
Today we are beginning to roll out a big update: MetaMask Version 8!https://t.co/N5ztv2pZGd
— MetaMask (@metamask_io) July 2, 2020
First up is enhanced privacy. Finlay said most crypto wallets either manage a single account or show current account information to all websites/applications associated with that account, revealing sensitive private information.
But MetaMask V8 introduces customized privacy control for each linked account, i.e. creating a new wallet for each website or selecting what wallet interacts with which website. Users can dictate their data sharing on their terms.
To smoothen the above, account switching will be enabled to allow for quick shifting between two wallets on their respectively linked platforms.
As part of MetaMask’s EIP-2255 permissions system, new and enhanced permissions will enable powerful features like decryption, access to wallet information (like tagging a user’s favorite tokens or contacts), and eventually introducing the MetaMask “Snaps” extension — the latter is a plugin system currently in beta mode.
A newer UI promises greater accessibility for users, mainly under the “assets” and “activity” sections. New iconography helps in making transactions more recognizable, says Finlay.
Easier for Ethereum devs
Ethereum developers have something new as well. MetaMask now features Web 3.0 encryption, which allows websites to transfer data using state-of-the-art encryption measures.
Finlay notes:
“For now, these decryption requests each require user confirmation, so it’s mostly ideal for decrypting infrequent, important messages, like emails.”
He adds developers have an opportunity “later on” to build a decryption strategy available with a permissions system. More information on the decryption API is available here.
Finlay said the team has, via the update, addressed past issues of developers finding it difficult to onboard users onto MetaMask, courtesy a slightly intimidating installation process.
To ease the above, a new onboarding library enables applications to implement their own connect button. This allows users to land on a site, install MetaMask, and be automatically redirected back to the application.
Last is the ERC-1193 Provider API meant for developers. This EIP “formalizes a JavaScript Ethereum Provider API for consistency across clients and applications,” creating a friendlier-to-user, extensible API for developers.
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