Argent Wallet is a relatively new player in the market, yet it has quickly gained popularity among crypto enthusiasts. What makes it stand out from the rest? In this comprehensive Argent Wallet review, we’ll explore the features, benefits, and drawbacks of Argent Wallet to help you decide whether it’s the right choice.
Key Insights
Let’s explore a list of insights you will gain from this Argent Wallet review.
- A summary of what Argent Wallet is.
- An understanding of the zkSync mechanism and how it works on Argent Wallet.
- Argent Wallet’s features, fees, pros, and cons.
- How to set up an Argent Wallet.
Argent Wallet Review
Argent Wallet may be one of the lesser-known digital currency wallets. However, it is one of the most outstanding wallets on the market. The table below summarizes all the essential information about this hot wallet.
| Wallet Type | Non-custodial |
| Built-in DEX | No |
| Built-in NFT Marketplace | No |
| Staking | Yes |
| KYC Process | None |
| Mobile App | Yes, on Android and iOS |
| Browser App | Yes, through a Chrome web extension |
What is Argent Wallet?
Argent Wallet is a leading Ethereum-based cryptocurrency wallet that launched in 2020. At its launch, this digital wallet debuted as a layer 1 wallet. However, as demand for Ethereum grew and gas fees on the protocol skyrocketed, Argent’s development team released a faster, more scalable version called Argent Wallet Layer 2.
Argent layer 2 is not a substitute for its layer 1 predecessor but offers a broader range of benefits. Argent layer 1 remains the settlement layer for the wallet and guarantees the layer 2 version a self-custodial nature.
On the other hand, layer 2 offers a zero-knowledge (ZK) solution that drastically improves transaction speed, lowering gas fees by about 100 times. It is this layer 2 version that we will discuss in the sections that follow.
Related Article: Best Defi Wallets for Decentralized Finance
How Does the Argent Wallet Work?
Argent is a self-custodial zkSync roll-up wallet built on the Ethereum blockchain. Simply put, this wallet uses public and private keys to secure accounts, and users are the ones who retain both keys.
As a rollup, the protocol processes transactions independently before sending a list of verified transactions to the main blockchain for storage. A zkSync rollup uses zero knowledge to verify transactions before uploading them to the leading network.
The zkSycn consensus mechanism increases transaction speeds and significantly boosts the wallet’s security. ZkSync uses an algorithm that runs parallel transactions and verifies them without exposing transaction details to verifiers. Because of this, Argent can offer clients near-instant Ethereum transactions at only a fraction of the cost.
Argent Wallet Features
Besides the zkSync nature of the Wallet, Argent also has other outstanding features. These custom traits are mainly designed to ensure users get maximum wallet benefits. Let’s break down Argent Wallet’s most impressive characteristics.
Lucrative ETH Staking
Argent Wallet offers lucrative Ethereum staking on the Ethereum chain after the Ethereum merge and cross-chain ETH staking on leading layer 1 blockchains like Solana, Polkadot, Terra, Polygon, and Kusama.
Argent Wallet has integrated Lido Finance as one of its DeFi applications to achieve these impressive staking abilities. Lido is a popular liquid staking platform. Stakers commit their assets to the platform for profit, and then Lido generates derivative tokens, in this case, stETH. Stakers can reinvest stETH in other DeFi platforms, resulting in multiple benefits from staking the same asset.
Staking ETH on Argent Wallet through Lido costs as little as $0.20. There’s a 10% charge on the profit and additional network fees. But, the average Annual Percentage Yield (APY) can go as high as 10.40%.
Security
Security is another outstanding feature of the Argent Wallet. The Argent wallet is self-custodial, uses the secure zkSync consensus mechanism, and implements more security features targeted at transfer protection. Here are the top security features you will find on Argent.
- Multisig protection from theft: This feature enables users to select guardian accounts. A guardian account is an Ethereum network account that helps you manage whitelisting, so you can only send funds to pre-authorized accounts. Guardians can be hardware wallets, MetaMask wallet, or trusted individuals.
- Seed-phrase-free wallet recovery: If you lose the credentials to your wallet, Argent makes it possible to regain access without using seed phrases. This reduces the odds of a seed-phrase-based breach of accounts on the platform and a complete loss of funds if you lose your seed phrase.
- Wallet locking: With this feature, a guardian can prevent your wallet from making transactions. Wallet locking remotely freezes your account for five days, protecting it from unauthorized access when you lose a device logged in to our Argent account.
Profits from Liquidity Generation
Argent Wallet supports profitable liquidity pools. One of these pools is the USDC/DAI liquidity pool, which generates 2.5% revenue for its liquidity providers. However, liquidity provision on Argent is more lucrative when using the Balancer integration.
Balancer is one of the top ten best-decentralized exchanges (DEXs). Argent has integrated this DEX into its protocol for more profitable yield farming. With Balancer, Argent users can enjoy uneven asset weighting, meaning they can contribute varying ratios for a pair, like 70/30, instead of the typical 50/50 required by other liquidity platforms like Uniswap.
Additionally, Balancer allows you to hold more assets in a pool. It supports a maximum of 8 tokens, while competitor platforms support 3 tokens.
Pros and Cons of the Argent Wallet
There are many benefits tied to the Argent Wallet. However, the protocol also has notable demerits. Below is a breakdown of the pros and cons of using the Argent Wallet.
Pros of the Argent Wallet
- Low gas fee: Argent offers users 100 times fewer gas fees on Ethereum than other networks.
- Near-instant transaction speeds: Because of its zkSync mechanism, Argent’s transactions are speedy. The protocol processes at least 2000 transactions per second (tps).
- Censorship resistance: Argent Wallet is highly decentralized because it uses two layers. Clients can easily move assets across the two layers or permanently opt for one layer if the other is compromised, resulting in a highly censorship-resistant platform.
Cons of the Argent Wallet
- Smart contract clashes: This mostly happens when liquid staking ETH. The derivative token’s smart contracts can have conflicts with other contracts on different platforms, resulting in the loss of the derivative assets and subsequent loss of the staked tokens.
- Centralized infrastructure: Argent is a decentralized hot wallet, but its underlying infrastructure is hosted on a single server. This provides an easy single entry point for attackers to penetrate the system.
Argent Wallet Fees
Argent Wallet only charges a 0.5% commission per transaction. This commission is paid in ETH.
Besides that, there’s also the network’s gas fee, which entirely goes to the Ethereum blockchain to facilitate transactions. Gas fees fluctuate based on network congestion. However, Argent is still more affordable because it has reduced congestion due to its high transaction processing speeds.
How to Set Up Your Argent Wallet
Setting up an Argent Wallet is easy; you can do it on mobile and desktop. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to set up the wallet.
How to Install Argent Wallet Extension on Your Computer
- Go to the Chrome browser Argent Wallet extension and click the Add to Chrome button.
- On the pop-up that appears, click Add extension and allow Chrome to download the extension.
- Once the download is complete, you will be redirected to an Argent X tab with the options to either Create a new wallet or Restore an existing wallet. Select the Create a new wallet option.
- Read the Disclaimer, check the boxes next to them, and click Continue to proceed.
- Enter your password and reconfirm it, then click Create wallet.
- On the next tab, click Finish to complete the process.
How to install Argent Wallet App on your Mobile
- Download the Argent Wallet app on your Android or iOS device.
- Open the app and go through the onboarding slides.
- Once you’re done onboarding, a new tab opens with two options: Create a new wallet, and I have an Argent Wallet. Click on the Create a New Wallet button.
- Type in a username that people can use to send tokens to your account.
- Click the Terms and Conditions hyperlink at the bottom left of the page, read them, return to the username tab, and click the Next arrow button.
- On the pop-up that appears, click Accept.
- Enter the email address you want associated with this account and click the Next arrow button.
- This will send a verification link to the email provided. Navigate to the email and click the Verify email button to verify your account.
- Once verification is successful, return to the Argent Wallet app, and submit your phone number.
- Enter the verification code sent to this number.
- Choose a seven-character pin and re-confirm it.
- Opt whether or not to enable security notifications and store your keys on Google Drive.
- When this is done, you will be redirected to the Argent Wallet home dashboard, where you can use the wallet.
Conclusion
Argent Wallet is here to revolutionize how people store and transact their assets. The wallet, which has layer 1 and 2 versions, provides impressive security and censorship-resistant features needed as a crypto wallet.
Similarly, Argent’s zkSync rollup mechanism makes the wallet incredibly fast, reducing network congestion and gas fees. Add this to the platform’s lucrative ETH staking and liquidity investment opportunities, and you realize that Argent represents the future of digital asset wallets.
Argent Wallet Review – FAQs
1. Is the Argent Wallet safe?
Argen Wallet is one of the safest software crypto wallets on the market. The wallet is self-custodial and uses the secure zkSync consensus mechanism, which verifies transactions without exploding their details. Additionally, Argent implements more security features like multi-sig, seed-phrase-free wallet recovery, and wallet locking to prevent unauthorized asset transfers.
2. What type of Wallet is Argent?
Argent is a layer 2, non-custodial, zkSync rollup Wallet. The platform runs on the Ethereum chain but supports cross-chain compatibility across popular layer 1 blockchain platforms like Solana and Polygon.
3. Can I connect Argent to MetaMask?
You can send funds from Argent to MetaMask. You only need to specify one of the accounts in your MetaMask wallet as the receiving address.
