As recommended by the community, especially @Mike_Wagner and @zes333, we have decided to make some changes in the new Incognito Wallet app. Below is a short brief of how the app will be changed to help protect your on-chain financial privacy better. The new version of the Incognito app is expected to be launched right at the end of February 2020.
Default screen (Home page) & bottom bar
General actions in the Home page
In the old version of the app, the default screen is the account balances of privacy cryptos/coins along with the bottom bar including 4 buttons Wallet, Node, pApps, and pDEX.
In this new version, we want our users to have the bird’s-eye view of all the privacy-protecting and privacy-related activities they can do with the Incognito Wallet. So, now the default screen is the Home page and there are 5 general actions shown there
- Shield your crypto
- Send anonymously
- Receive anonymously
- Trade anonymously
- Invent a new privacy coin
Shield your crypto, Send anonymously & Receive anonymously
Since we launched the new website and technical papers, we have seriously brought to the table the definition of ‘shielding’. You ‘shield’ your cryptos, which means you add the privacy to your Bitcoin, Ether, etc., by putting your cryptos into the Incognito network. You can also unshield your cryptos anytime by taking cryptos out of the Incognito network. Shielding is the unique and utmostly important feature of Incognito Wallet and that is why ‘Shield your crypto’ is one of the featured actions in the default screen. For another 2 actions, sending and receiving are the main ones that all crypto wallet users do every day. All the 3 actions will be explained in detail when we discuss changes in the Wallet page.
Trade anonymously & Invent a new privacy coin
So, we put another 2 general actions on the default screen, ‘Trade anonymously ‘and ‘Invent a new privacy coin’. ‘Trade anonymously’ directs you to pDEX and ‘Invent a new privacy coin’ is where you can issue a privacy coin on your own. With this new flow, the pDEX button on the bottom bar and the ‘Issue a privacy coin button’ on the account balance screen as in the old version are all gone.
Section changes on the bottom bar
A few changes have been made with the bottom bar. In specific, the ‘pApps’ and the ‘pDEX’ button are replaced by the ‘Wallet’ and the ‘Community’ button respectively.
The ‘Wallet’ button directs you to the account balance screen as in the old version. For the ‘pApps’, since there have not been many pApps in use for now, the button is taken down. The Incognito community is flourishing, so we replace the pApp by the ‘Community’ feature directing to the Incognito community on Discourse. Now, any new user can also become a new member of the Incognito community by clicking on this button. Thanks, @zes333! We take it from you and your cool idea.
Changes in Wallet page: Three actions ‘Shield’, ‘Send’, ‘Receive’, and ‘Change account’ button
’Shield’, ‘Send’, 'Receive’
In the old version of Incognito Wallet app, there are 3 shown actions and 1 unshown option of action you can do with privacy crypto like privacy BTC or privacy ETH, after selecting it from the account balance screen. The shown ‘Send’ and ‘Receive’ are used when you need to send & receive the privacy crypto within the Incognito network. In contrast, the shown ‘Deposit’ and the hidden ‘Withdraw’, which you can find from the three dots symbol at top-right corner, are used when you use the Incognito wallet out-network, meaning switching back and forth the crypto between the normal version and the privacy version. For PRV token and privacy coins created from the app, there are only ‘Send’ and ‘Receive’ inside Incognito Chain actions that you can do. @Jamie from our team wrote a thorough piece here to explain all things above.
With the new version, we want our users to not confuse with in-network and out-network features. That is why we feel that it would be needed to separate the main actions ‘Send’ and ‘Receive’ that all users use into 2 types, in-network and out-network.
Since shielding now is the official name of the activity turning cryptos into privacy cryptos, the 2 confused ‘Deposit’ and ‘Withdraw’ are gone and the suitable alternative should be ‘Shield’ and ‘Send out network’ (belongs to ‘Send’ feature above) respectively.
Lastly, as shared from our community, we know that many users are using the Incognito wallet to increase the confidentiality level when they buy cryptos. Instead of receiving cryptos from personal wallets, they use the address in Incognito wallet used for depositing normal cryptos as the receiving address. With this process, the cryptos will be turned into the privacy cryptos, which no one can trace up, right after being bought. So, it would be thoughtful to serve these users by a ‘Receive out network’ feature.
To be more specific, there will be 3 clear types of action shown when you select a privacy coin. They are ‘Shield’, ‘Send’, and ‘Receive’.
- ‘Shield’ is used for shielding crypto. In this feature, the address into which you can send your cryptos in normal version appears. By sending your normal cryptos into this ‘Shield’ address, your cryptos will be shielded, being turned into the privacy version and shown in your app balance as p-something.
You can also click on the small button ‘Find out why’ to read our explanation on why shielding your cryptos is significantly important.
- In ‘Send’, there will be ‘Send in network’ and ‘Send out network’
‘Send in network’ is used when you need to send the privacy cryptos to another address in the Incognito network. You can just choose how much you want to send, the receiving address, and the MEMO and you’ll be good to go.
‘Send out network’ is used when you want to unshield your cryptos and turn your privacy cryptos back into their normal version. Choosing how much you want to unshield and the address storing the cryptos in normal version, you’ll have your normal cryptos in a matter of minutes.
- In ‘Receive’, there will be ‘Receive in network’ and ‘Receive out network’
‘Receive in network’ is used when you need to receive the privacy cryptos within the Incognito network. Here, your Incognito address is shown and any sender can send privacy cryptos through this address.
‘Receive out network’ is used when you want to buy cryptos completely anonymously. The address that you can send the cryptos in normal version into the Incognito network is shown here. When buying cryptos, just show this address to the sellers and your bought cryptos will be turned into privacy ones right away. Technically, the ‘Receiving out network’ is merely the ‘Shield’ feature but for a different purpose.
For PRV token and privacy coins created from the app, there will be no ‘Shield’, ‘Send out network’, and ‘Receive out network’. There are only ‘Send it network’ and ‘Receive in network’ used when you send & receive PRV and other privacy coins inside the Incognito network.
Switching account by the ‘Change account’ button
In the old app, users who have many Incognito wallet addresses need to use the setting menu when switching among their addresses. The account-setting screen, accessed by selecting the gear icon at the top-left corner of the Wallet page.
The function is actually not entirely intuitive and convenient for the purpose of switching addresses. We learnt this from Mike Wagner’s idea and decided to place a ‘Change account’ button at the top-right corner of the Wallet page. Clicking on this button, a bottom pop-up appears and you can switch to another Incognito address right from here.