Proton, known for its encrypted email service ProtonMail, has introduced a new product, Proton Wallet, a non-custodial bitcoin wallet designed to streamline bitcoin transactions. Announced in a press release shared with Bitcoin Magazine, the wallet is integrated with ProtonMail, allowing users to send bitcoin as effortlessly as an email.

Andy Yen, founder and CEO of Proton, emphasized the societal value of Bitcoin and the barriers of transaction complexity and security concerns. "Proton Wallet's ability to support Bitcoin via email now makes Bitcoin transactions as easy to use as PayPal, while preserving the decentralized and non-custodial nature of Bitcoin," he stated.

Proton Wallet joins the company's suite of privacy-focused tools. The launch coincides with the 10-year anniversary of Proton, a journey that had a significant bitcoin moment when PayPal froze their funds during a crowdfunding campaign in 2014. Proton responded by accepting bitcoin donations, an initiative that secured the company's operations. Yen also acknowledged the stability that bitcoin reserves provided during the recent uncertainty surrounding Credit Suisse, the bank handling Proton's fiat funds.

Dingchao Lu, Director of Proton Wallet and the company’s first employee, expressed his gratitude for Bitcoin's role in Proton's history and its potential to offer financial freedom and privacy to users worldwide.

Proton Wallet is designed to be user-friendly, leveraging Proton's infrastructure to facilitate transactions via email addresses. Both sender and receiver must possess the wallet for the transaction to occur, but only the recipient's email address is required, whether it is a ProtonMail address or not. Transactions can also be conducted with standard Bitcoin addresses. Proton addresses privacy by rotating Bitcoin addresses to prevent them from being linked to a user's identity. As a non-custodial platform, Proton Wallet ensures that only users have access to their funds.

The wallet does not yet support the Lightning Network due to challenges in non-custodial implementation, but Proton is open to future integration. Additionally, the wallet facilitates bitcoin purchases in over 150 countries and incorporates two-factor authentication, hardware security keys, and access to Proton Sentinel, a machine learning and AI system to thwart malicious login attempts.

Currently, Proton Wallet is available to Proton Visionary users and select Bitcoin community members through an early access program, with plans to open to all Proton users eventually. A waitlist has been established for those interested in accessing Proton Wallet.

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