The Big Whale: How do you differ from other wallets?
Édouard Steegmann: Our priority is really the user experience. We want everything to be simple and intuitive. We don't do tech for tech's sake, even though Spot is full of it(laughs).
The goal is to do what Apple managed to do with the iPad, which is to make a product that everyone knows how to use. Even my grandmother knows how to use an iPad!
You are also a multi-currency wallet, which is rare enough to be highlighted...
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We are compatible with Bitcoin, Ethereum, Polygon, Solana and Tezos, and we are currently thinking about adding new protocols, such as Cosmos and layers 2 of Ethereum.
We also allow to display NFTs developed on Ethereum, Polygon and Solana. Our users really appreciate the display quality of these. Few wallets currently allow their graphical dimension to be highlighted.
You have an approach that is ultimately quite similar to your competitor ZenGo. What really differentiates you from them?
They share with us the idea that simplicity is paramount, but we have different strategies. Spot is a wallet that offers "total" sovereignty, while ZenGo will never give you your entire private key 🔑
This allows them to keep users captive (as they can't migrate to another product, ed. note), while on our side we prefer everyone to be free to change wallet if they want.
What is your business model?
We charge a commission every time a user buys, sells, trades or stakes cryptos. Currently, our revenue comes mainly from the purchase of cryptos. We collect 0.85% on the total amount paid by credit card, but it is expected that in the future there will be almost no fee for this service.
In the long run, we will mostly make money from the higher value-added activities like staking or crypto-crypto exchanges.
You have never offered performance via lending providers. What is the reason for this?
This is a real question that, like many actors, we asked ourselves. And after weighing the pros and cons, we decided not to do it. Why not? Because it meant working with centralized intermediaries like Celsius and Nexo, which we didn't want to do. The future proved us right, even though it was hard to know it would be such a mess.
On the DeFi, if we go for it we want it to be well done and easy to use. Meanwhile, experienced users can use Wallet Connect in Spot to use all the DeFi apps on the market.
What features do you plan to add in the coming weeks?
We will continue on the integration of the NFTs developed on Polygon, adding all kinds of data such as price floor variation or scarcity levels.
Overall, we believe a lot in Polygon which is a very interesting and inexpensive blockchain. We will also offer peer-to-peer payment features like CashApp does. This could be very useful for merchants who want to accept crypto payments.
For this service, a stablecoin (USDC a priori) on Polygon (a priori also) and address book type features should be put forward. Spot will also offer a chat protocol very soon to communicate with other wallets and services.
You were one of the first crypto partners of online payment giant Stripe. What do you think of their strategy?
They were slow to get started, like many of the big traditional players, but they are currently one of our most active partners. What's interesting is that they're already looking at DeFi applications...
How do you explain the fact that Spot is not compatible with Ledger products, when its co-founder Eric Larchevêque is one of your shareholders?
We wanted to do it at the time of the release of the Ledger Nano X which has a Bluetooth connection and can communicate with a smartphone. But, at that time (2019, ed. note), Ledger was still selling a lot of Nano S which, themselves, do not have bluetooth. Now that the Nano X is more widespread, we could consider it👀
What do you think of their new product, the Ledger Stax?
Honestly, it's a nice product and the fact that the iPod designer worked on it is a real plus.
We'll probably make sure that we integrate it into Spot. The only problem is that Ledger still hasn't found a solution to keep the private key off a piece of paper. It will be a revolution when they find a solution.
How do you see the future of the wallet industry?
The FTX case has clearly highlighted the need to keep your cryptos yourself. To give you an idea, the average balance of Spot wallets has doubled in recent weeks.
Afterwards, we have to be lucid, there will be other FTX because people always want more simplicity and the exchange platforms offer them this simplicity. Education takes time, but we can see that attitudes are changing. Even Apple is now encrypting iCloud end-to-end, which is great news for wallets in case of hacking!"
NFTs have been a gas pedal in wallet adoption. Where do you see the next wave coming from?
I think Web3 gaming will be a big driver of adoption and can attract hundreds of millions of users.
How do you analyze the controversy about Metamask collecting some of their users' data?
Many people got offended for not much. Unless you have three computers, are permanently on the Tor browser and have never revealed your identity, you are already known and followed by many services. Those who are blaming Metamask are probably people who want to avoid paying taxes...
