In 2014, we launched Proton Mail, which quickly became the world’s largest encrypted email service. The benefits of Proton Mail that attracted 100 million users were digital privacy and security, as not even Proton could access users’ encrypted data. With easy-to-use cryptography, Proton users gained power over their digital lives and no longer needed to share their private data with Big Tech companies.
In 2024, we launched Proton Wallet in early access, again leveraging cryptography to further empower people. This time, instead of just control of their data, the Proton community took control of their money due to the unique properties of Bitcoin.
We chose Bitcoin to be the foundation for Proton Wallet because it is the most widely adopted and decentralized digital money. Decentralization is a critical requirement for sustainable money because it makes it much harder for a central authority to control and manipulate the money at the expense of the people. For example, it would be extremely difficult for any party to inflate Bitcoin’s supply limit of 21 million BTC or arbitrarily create new BTC for themselves.
Over 100,000 members of the Proton community used the early access version of Proton Wallet to hold BTC in self-custody and transact peer-to-peer with our easy-to-use Bitcoin via Email feature. At no point did Proton have control over these BTC, and everyone using Proton Wallet can freely move their BTC to other wallet services using Bitcoin’s standard 12-word wallet seed phrase. With a self-custodial Bitcoin wallet like Proton Wallet, everyone can truly own their money without relying on banks or governments.
After many improvements to Proton Wallet during the last year and positive feedback from the community, we are opening Proton Wallet to the world so that everyone can enjoy financial freedom and sovereignty.
Starting today, anyone can sign up for Proton Wallet for free to securely buy, send, receive, and hold BTC with just a few clicks.
If you already have a Proton Account, you can already use Proton Wallet. Simply go to wallet.proton.me or download our apps for Android and iPhone and log in with your Proton username and password.
We’re launching Proton Wallet as a self-custodial Bitcoin wallet, but as with every other Proton service, its future development is fully dependent on community feedback and support.
Bitcoin needs a simpler, safer solution
For all its innovation, Bitcoin has a high barrier to entry. When people hear they need to set up expensive hardware wallets to protect their BTC or see the complicated 26-to-62-character Bitcoin addresses needed to send or receive BTC (which open the door to address poisoning attacks(nowe okno) if you’re not paying attention), they conclude that it’s not for them.
Currently, most people get around Bitcoin’s difficulty by letting a third party handle their coins for them, such as a centralized exchange, investment fund, or ETF. However, these solutions come with their own drawbacks. For example, investment funds and ETFs charge you fees(nowe okno) for holding your BTC for you and constrain your ability to transact directly with peers.
And while exchanges provide vital services to Bitcoin users, such as making it easy to trade BTC, they’re not designed for secure storage. These exchanges hold your BTC for you, meaning you rely on them to access your BTC. If you use an exchange that has poor security, goes bankrupt, or mismanages your funds, you could lose your BTC — and you wouldn’t be able to do anything about it. Despite repeated hacks(nowe okno) and collapses(nowe okno), up to 100 million people(nowe okno) put their coins unnecessarily at risk on centralized exchanges.
We believe Bitcoin can give people the power to conduct their personal finances without relying on big banks, Big Tech, and other intermediaries whose interests run counter to the people they’re supposed to serve. For Bitcoin to realize its potential, everyone must feel comfortable holding and transacting with it. This is why we created Proton Wallet.
With Proton Wallet, Bitcoin safety is built in
When we designed Proton Wallet, our first concern was ensuring you’re always in control of your BTC, which is why we built a self-custodial wallet that uses the same battle-tested end-to-end encryption as Proton Mail.
Bitcoin adoption is continually increasing, and we want Proton Wallet to be the tool that makes it accessible to everyone. This meant making Proton Wallet easy to use and safe by design. Just as Proton Mail simplified PGP encryption to make end-to-end encrypted email more accessible, we want Proton Wallet to be the tool that democratizes self-custodial Bitcoin ownership and transactions.
Self-custodial wallets give you the keys
The only safe Bitcoin wallet is a self-custodial wallet, because it gives you control of your wallet’s private key, ensuring only you can access your BTC. Proton never has access to your private keys, meaning no one else — not even Proton — can access your BTC.
This also means you don’t need to rely on Proton Wallet to access your coins. Each wallet has a recovery seed phrase that only you know (we never see it). As long as you have this seed phrase, you can access your BTC on other wallet services even if you lose access to Proton.
Use your BTC in private
Proton believes you should be in control of your digital life, which is why Proton Wallet minimizes the data it collects and encrypts as much data as possible on your device. For example, your Bitcoin transactions, notes, and messages are end-to-end encrypted before being sent to our servers, so Proton does not know your transaction history or balances. You can read the Proton Wallet security model to understand how it protects your privacy and security or find a summarized version on the Proton Wallet security page.
Bitcoin via Email, a world first
Before Proton Mail, sending and receiving end-to-end encrypted emails was needlessly complicated. Today, that same problem afflicts sending and receiving BTC. To unlock true peer-to-peer exchanges, everyone must feel comfortable exchanging BTC.
With Proton Wallet, it’s as easy as sending an email. Proton Wallet takes the same approach as Proton Mail and handles all the technical details of securely sending and receiving BTC in the background, leaving you with a simple, intuitive user experience. You can send BTC directly to your recipient using their email address (as long as they have Proton Wallet) — no long Bitcoin address required. Proton Wallet also rotates your Bitcoin address automatically each time you receive BTC, making it harder for anyone to track your transactions. If your recipient doesn’t have Proton Wallet, you can send them an invite to sign up for free. This will also give them free access to Proton Mail, allowing them to secure their emails.
If you would like to try sending Bitcoin via Email while supporting our fight for financial privacy and freedom, you can send BTC donations to the non-profit Proton Foundation at foundation@proton.me.
Open source: Don’t trust, verify
Many members of the Bitcoin and Proton community (reasonably) only trust what they can verify themselves (and have technical knowledge to perform such checks). This is why we made Proton Wallet’s code open source(nowe okno).
How to get started
We believe everyone has the right to financial freedom, which is why Proton Wallet will always be available for free.
The Proton community drives wallet development
We view Proton Wallet as the next step in the evolution of our ecosystem of privacy-focused services. Our mission to build a better internet where you control your data began with Proton Mail, but we quickly realized we couldn’t stop there. So much of the internet is built upon collecting and monetizing personal information.
We hope Proton Wallet can help support a new internet where frictionless, peer-to-peer payments will power the digital economy instead of the advertising business model that currently enriches Big Tech at the expense of the people.
Thank you to everyone who participated in Proton Wallet’s early access period. Your feedback allowed us to dramatically improve the app, such as improving blockchain syncing performance and adding a replace-by-fee feature for speeding up transactions. Thanks to your support, we also have ambitious developments planned for 2025. Please continue sharing your input on X(nowe okno), Reddit(nowe okno), and UserVoice(nowe okno) to help us further refine the user experience and develop new features.
