Privacy-Focused Proton Launches Self-Custody Bitcoin Wallet

Swiss privacy software developer Proton AG is entering the cryptocurrency space with the launch of a self-custody Bitcoin wallet named Proton Wallet, the company announced on X (aka Twitter) on Wednesday. The announcement comes as the Bitcoin faithful flock to Nashville, Tennesse, for Bitcoin 2024.

The new Proton Wallet, Proton said, is open source, and automatically uses a different Bitcoin address from a pool of addresses generated for each user, making it more difficult to connect the transactions and improving privacy.

The wallet also offers “Bitcoin via Email” feature that only requires the user to verify their email address instead of having to copy-and-paste a 26-character Bitcoin address.

While the Switzerland-based company launching a Bitcoin wallet may seem odd, Proton AG founder and CEO Andy Yen tells Decrypt the idea dates back to 2014.

“People who understand Proton's history will remember a traumatic event in the summer of 2014 when PayPal blocked us,” Yen told Decrypt. “That was a sort of a near-death experience.” He said the block led to the decision to accept Bitcoin donations after being “unbanked” by PayPal.

“So for us, it’s a little personal in that we have a personal experience of what’s at stake here,” Yen said. “I think a lot of people don’t understand that because, unless you’ve been in that situation, you can’t perceive it or understand it. So that stayed in the back of my mind.”

The reason PayPal gave for the block, Yen told the Guardian at the time, was because PayPal could not determine if Proton was legal or had government permission to encrypt emails.

“Which was actually really fortunate because the price in 2014 was a bit different than it is today,” he said.

While Yen did not say how much Bitcoin the company received, at the time that PayPal blocked Proton from using its services, the price of BTC was $648, according to CoinGecko. If Proton still holds that Bitcoin, each one is now worth around $66,600.

Currently, Proton Wallet is in “early access” and only available to a select group of users. A larger rollout, Yen said, would come later this year.

To provide robust security features, Proton AG has meanwhile developed the Proton Sentinel Program, which combines artificial intelligence with human analysis to protect against threats.

While Proton Wallet is separate from Proton AG’s other suite of products and operated by independent Proton AG subsidiary Proton Financial AG, Yen said that—based on user feedback and reception from the community—it may eventually be incorporated into other products like Proton AG's flagship product, Proton Mail.

According to Yen, Proton AG’s goal is to build a range of services that can compete with major companies like Google and Apple, which dominate the personal payments industry through Google Pay and Apple Pay.

“As we work on that journey, it also becomes clear that society is moving from what was a cash-based society to a fully digital one—essentially concentrating our financial privacy in the hands of a small number of stakeholders,” he said, adding that getting more businesses and users to adopt cryptocurrency is essential to safeguarding their financial privacy.

“Big tech companies don’t have your best interest at heart; they’re really out there to use your data, and to abuse it in every way possible,” Yen said.

Yen emphasized that while Proton AG has released a Bitcoin wallet, he does not see Proton becoming a “crypto company.”

“We’re not a crypto company, we don’t have an exchange, and we don’t speculate on crypto,” Yen said. “We’re a privacy, security, and encryption company, which has nothing to do with crypto.”

Yen did, however, acknowledge the opportunity to incorporate a Bitcoin wallet was too good to pass up.

“In the end, I think the benefits and advantages are so compelling that I think we do need to be in this space,” he said. “We’re bringing something different, and maybe this is what the space actually needs.”

Edited by Ryan Ozawa.