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In an ever-evolving new-age world of payment methods, digital wallets are stealing the spotlight. In this blog, we’ll walk you through different types of digital wallets that have revolutionized the way transactions are made.
Digital wallets are substantially used in making cashless transactions such as online shopping, in-store purchases, paying bills, sending or receiving money, and others. Over the last few years, digital wallets have grown in popularity, attracting more users at a rapid rate, and we all know the importance of digital wallets in today’s time very well.
Mobile consumer purchases and P2P payments are fueling the global rise of mobile payment services. Statista predicts that in 2023, there will be 1.3 billion proximity mobile payment transactions users worldwide.
What are Digital Wallets/E-wallets?
Digital Wallets, also known as E-wallets, are services that enable users to make monetary transactions electronically. With the use of digital wallets, users can store money digitally and carry out online and offline purchases without using cash. Its ability to encrypt transactions enhances the product by ensuring that your payment is secure.
Some digital wallets allow users to store money, such as a cryptocurrency digital wallet like Coinbase. Through which, users can convert their money into cryptocurrency. We will discuss cryptocurrency wallets later in this blog.
Different Types of Digital Wallets
Apple Pay
Apple Pay is a digital wallet service provided by Apple Inc. and is available for iOS platforms. It is a contactless payment technology that allows people to use their iPhone to make purchases in stores, in apps, and on the web. It also enables customers to send and receive money from friends, family, or anyone else.
With Apple Pay, users can shop without having to make an account. Apple Pay is simple; users hold their phone to the card reader and place their finger on the Touch ID.
Key Features
- It has the attribute of touch and the face Id authentication.
- It lets you make in-store purchases, in-app transactions, online transactions, and gives you the ability to send/receive money.
- It makes convenient transactions by letting users purchase within the messages application with Siri’s help.
Google Pay
Google Pay is a type of digital wallet app available on iOS and Android platforms. It lets users make purchases in stores, in apps, and on websites. With Google Pay, users can shop online at thousands of available stores.
With this digital wallet, users no longer have to tap their cards on a Near Field Communication (NFC) machine. They can simply wave their smartphone to pay, and the device automatically identifies the card linked to the users’ Google account.
Key Features
- It is a simple and efficient way to pay online for shopping, eating, booking a trip, and more.
- It protects the payment with a sophisticated security infrastructure that has multiple layers incorporated into it.
- It adopts the features of both Android Pay as well as Google Wallet for online payments.
PayPal
On PayPal, users register their bank account, debit, or credit card details on a PayPal account to use its services. Paypal is a digital wallet app that is available for both iOS and Android.
The app helps expedite the payment process because it lets you select your PayPal account at checkout instead of having to enter your information each time you make a purchase manually. Another benefit of this digital wallet is it allows users to see their past transactions so that you can keep track of your spending.
Key Features
- It is one of the most secure payment platforms available globally.
- It can make an instant transfer from a PayPal account to a bank account in less than 24 hours.
- Users can easily keep their records of previous transactions in the PayPal account.
- It is packed with features such as barcode scanning, credit card reader, and mobile card reader.
Venmo
Venmo is a popular mobile wallet app, used for transferring money between friends. It is available on iOS and Android. Venmo was designed for smaller transactions, such as splitting a dinner bill among friends.
Venmo makes sending money as easy as sending a text message to a friend. Venmo is free to use and keeps users’ activities private if they want to. Users can also send personalized messages to the person that they are paying.
Key Features:
- It is considered as one of the well-secured mobile wallets to make payments.
- It has the feature of PIN code authorization, sending e-tickets via email, syncing with Facebook and phone contacts, and more.
- It provides simple bank account linking, credit or debit card linking, expense splitting and sharing, and many other perks.
Lemon Wallet
The Lemon Wallet is a useful cloud-based digital wallet that allows users to store digital copies of their cards to make the payment process simple. The data in this wallet is well-secured and encrypted as it uses a PIN code to obtain the users’ cards. Users can access their data even if they lose their card, or if the cards get stolen, the Lemon Wallet stores a copy of card details. This e-wallet also has the option of remotely unlinking the account if users lose their smartphone.
Key Features:
- It monitors the user’s bank account and includes expanded security features that will keep your cards safe.
- It carries all the digital backup of the card in the users’ wallet.
- It generates expense reports of users’ activity using receipt data.
Now that you have an understanding of different types of e-wallets, we can discuss e-wallets that are designed for cryptocurrencies. In the next section, we will provide you with a more in-depth look into the types of cryptocurrency e-wallets available.
How Many Types of E-wallets Are There for Cryptocurrencies?
There are mainly five different types of digital wallets available for cryptocurrencies in the market – hardware wallets, desktop wallets, mobile wallets, online wallets, and paper wallets.
Hardware Wallets
Hardware wallets are offline wallets that allow users to store private keys on their device, such as a USB drive. Hardware is a regular wallet, except it consists of a digital medium to operate users’ accounts. It is not a new wallet, but the cryptocurrency has had its market in the past couple of months.
It is also used to make online transactions, but most of the time, they are offline. Its characteristics are dependent upon the wallet integrations as various manufacturers make hardware wallets compatible with different web interfaces.
Examples of hardware wallets are KeepKey, Trezor One, CoolWallet, Opendime, and others.
Desktop Wallets
Desktop wallets are one of the most popular digital wallets used for cryptocurrencies. Users can install this service on their computer or laptop only, and it is easily accessible from there. It provides users with complete control over the wallet.
Desktop wallets enable the user to create a bitcoin address for sending and receiving the bitcoins. They also allow the user to store a private key.
Examples of desktop wallets are MultiBit, Armory, Hive OS X, Bitcoin Core, and others.
Mobile Wallets
Mobile wallets are convenient and increasingly becoming popular digital wallets. They come in the form of apps that users install on their phones. Mobile wallets are digital versions of carrying money in the pocket. Many companies are jumping into the mobile payments space on both the paying and receiving sides of the transaction.
Examples of mobile wallets are Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal, and others.
Online Wallets
Online wallets are digital wallets that run on the cloud for cryptocurrencies and due to which it is easy to access them from multiple devices. They are convenient to use, but are also susceptible to theft and often need additional layers of security.
They run on the internet and are cheaper than other available wallets. These wallets can also easily manage multiple currencies at a time. The main reason online wallets attract people for their cryptocurrencies is that they are fast.
Examples of online wallets are Google Wallet, Yandex Money, and others.
Paper Wallets
Paper wallets are one of the most secure ways to store digital assets like cryptocurrency. They are a physical copy of the generated public and private keys. They are easy to use and provide a high level of security. For example, to make transactions, users need to type the complete key.
Examples of paper wallets are BitGo, LiteCoin, and others.
Final Thoughts
With the rapid rise of e-wallets, businesses should look into offering alternative payment methods. If you want to capitalize on this growing market, the AppsChopper team would be more than happy to help.
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