Medusa AdaWallet is a community driven project that offers a free light-weight Ada wallet looking to redesign and expand its functionality. It initially gained recognition during the Incentivized TestNet (ITN) as one of the first working ITN-compatible wallets. “The wallet was more consistent and reliable during the ‘bloody ITN storms’ period” notes the proposer. Medusa has an intuitive and simple UX, is providing smart solutions and automizations to make this even better for its users.
This project proposal is seeking funds to accelerate massive upgrades to the Medusa wallet. According to the team, the current version is based on the Cardano-wallet software and contains certain compromising solutions that they would like to eliminate. Since the current version is no longer under development, the main focus is now on a new re-designed version based on cardano-db-sync and Emurgo’s CDDL.
Team Behind the Project
The project has been put forward by Denis Kalinin, a Cardano Ambassador, bearing the username of Fell-x27. He holds a computer science degree, has 8 years’ experience of web development, and is a developer and stakepool operator. He has been a member of Project Catalyst since Sept. 16, 2020.
The Medusa AdaWallet was one of the first Cardano wallets to be released, therefore, it would be right to assume that the team behind its development and operation is the one appealing for funds to re-design it and make it better for users.
The previous success of the wallet shows that the development team had a solid idea and direction. Additionally, this new appeal for funds indicates a team aware of the current market and its needs, and is ready to work to provide the right solution. Having a wallet that was once a leader in its category and accepting its current shortcomings is commendable.
Features of Medusa
Medusa is compatible with desktop browsers and their mobile versions. Since it is part of the Cardano ecosystem, it is compatible with Daedalus and Yoroi hence the same prompts can be used across the three wallets for recovery or restoring needs. The wallet is 100% anonymous and secure for users who do not need to provide any personal information for them to sign up.
Medusa uses a password which assures users that their funds will be secure in case of loss or device issues. All users have to do is use this same password to create a new account and restore their original wallet.
The new version under development has a MITM-resistant end-to-end-encryption system equipped with shared independent Diffie Hellman based calculations between server and client. This new version will be launched in Medusa’s testnet before eventually replacing the current version in the mainnet.
According to the team, the first release of the re-design will contain just the core functionality such as balance syncing, simple transactions, and staking. Other planned features that have been requested by the community include a security center, escrow accounting system, named addresses and contacts.
Funding
The team behind this proposal has requested $30,000 to be used in the development of the Medusa AdaWallet. They have not provided a specific breakdown of how the funds will be allocated. Rather, they have indicated that the funds will be used to accelerate the building the next release that will contain just core functionalities like balance syncing, simple transactions, staking, the basic operations. Some of the funds will also be channeled to marketing the project and pay those involved in development of the Medusa Wallet roadmap.
Final Thoughts
Medusa AdaWallet is already a known Cardano wallet in certain circles and is aiming to expand their reach. The appeal to make it better and relaunch it to the market is backed by months of research and a detailed proposal. One of the features of this wallet is a ‘send all’ feature that isn’t available in Daedalus, the official IOG wallet. It also has a smart Byron2Shelly converter which provides a smooth migration path, with detailed explanations along the way. With the project already in existence, the likelihood of issues appearing seem to be minimized than starting from scratch. However, that would require in their development stage that all targets are hit and timelines are met.
In order for interested people to be part of the Medusa wallet journey or its proposal on the platform, they can log in to IdeaScale for all developments and changes. Fell-x27 updates the proposal in case of any major developments and has been active on the comments section replying to any concerns.
Interesting. Wonder why there would be a need to create a new lightweight wallet when we have Yoroi. The team behind Yoroi has already stated that they will continuously update and improve the wallet. Maybe the fund money is spend better on another project?