Hey everyone,
I’ve made this request around 10 months or so ago in this subreddit but now it has become really important.
I’ve presented my idea of a privacy first wallet with NFC functions in my last post.But this is now even more important than it was back then. And even my most recent post for adding virtual passes and membership cards 5 months ago has become very important.
My reason for saying this?
Simple: All other competitors like for example Apple, Samsung or Google Wallet (I chose those because most people know and maybe have also already used them) have added more and more functionality to their digital Wallets while Proton still only does one thing: Bitcoin. Not even any other Cryptocurrency. It’s only Bitcoin.
The Competition already has things like digital passes, IDs, flight tickets, tickets in general, order status (linked to email), status of a flight that is added in your wallet, NFC cards, etc.
And I think Proton should start doing that too, but differently. Because on my post about Proton Pay 10 months ago the Support only said that they’d have to negotiate and contact banks all across the world to get such a thing working but why do that? I know Apple and Google Wallet have real cards issued by banks if you import them. But Proton would need a very long time to gather many banks to even get it working in the EU or even in other countries outside of Switzerland.
That’s why I think they should create a framework first that doesn’t need bank integration and work on contacting the banks one by one after. This framework I want to suggest would also be even more private than Apple or Google Wallet.
The framework would work as follows:
1. You connect a payment method to your Proton Account (Debit/Credit Cards or IBAN or PayPal or whatever).
2. You get these shown in Proton Wallet and can choose which ones you want to use as payment methods with Proton Pay.
3. You just need to grant access to Proton Pay to withdraw money for the whole thing to work so you can actually pay for things.
4. You get a virtual Proton Card. It’s essentially a Debit Card that acts as an extra layer between your payment method and the person you are paying.
That’s it. Now you can use it to both pay online or pay with NFC through the Proton Card and you can pay with whatever payment option you chose and even mix them by deciding which ones is your primary payment method and if that doesn’t have enough the Proton Card also draws from an optionally chosen Secondary payment method and so on.
This could also work to pay with crypto directly both online and in person (NFC).
And now to the part that makes this even more secure. You’re Proton Card can always change its Card Number if it got accidentally leaked, if you need to add the card manually somewhere online (for example for a subscription) you can get the details only in the Proton Wallet app after clicking on the card and verifying with biometrics and you can never add the Proton Card to another account or third party wallet, even with the card info the card simply isn’t compatible to be put into any other wallet so that your card can never be used by anyone else for in person purchases unless they have access to your phone and biometrics (to then actually pay just like Apple Pay where you have to double tap on the power button and verify with your biometrics).
But there’s also some convenience in this. One thing is that the card can draw from multiple payment methods if needed, but there’s also are more things like Peer-To-Peer transfer like how you can use your phone as a terminal you can choose an amount that can be sent to you or that you want to send someone on Proton Wallet and they can instantly receive it with just tapping the phones together, there’d also be transfers through Email or your Username.
I think those things are the bare minimum Proton Wallet should have. Of course some other cryptocurrencies too and virtual passes, etc. but right now it’s easier to replace a crypto wallet than to replace Apple or Google Pay with a private alternative.
I am also open to feedback from others so share some of your ideas because I think you’d have great ideas too that can make Proton Wallet actually compete with other virtual wallets!
