MetaMask Adds Trezor Wallet Support, Improving Private Keys Security

Private Keys Have Never Been So Secure! MetaMask Now Supports Trezor's Hardware Wallet For Improved Secure Key.

It's a been a story of confusing uncertainty for MetaMask from late July to August. On the 25th of July, members of the blockchain community found, to their surprise that the cryptocurrency payment, and blockchain game emulator, was no longer listed on the Google app store.

However, from that uncertainty comes a greater optimism, as it's announced this August that the Ethereum-based browser extension will now be providing support for Trezor, a vault system that provides secure storage for digital assets. This revelation was made public with MetaMask's 4.9.0 software update on August 7th.

One of the continual pains for users, however, remains the fact that they need to continuously move their digital assets to and fro whenever they want to use a specific dApp, move funds to a coin exchange, or participate in an upcoming ICO.

So, users will be forgiven for feeling a subtle ting of additional agony, simply because any movement from Trezor to MetaMask and beyond incurs extra waiting time as they pay additional fees and wait for verification.

But with MetaMask's latest update, these pains look set to be reversed, especially now that it has also announced that it will be supporting Trezor. Along with the support, Metamask has also included such features as automatic token detection and ENS+IPFS [resolves Ethereum Name Service domains to InterPlanetary File System hashes].

With MetaMask now supporting Trezor, the latter's users will be able to validate their ETH and digital asset balance, they will also be able to sign transactions to and from their account. For instance, they can send Ethereum [ETH]; ERC20 tokens and collectibles; and organize contracts.

Much like transactions via Paypal and mainstream banks, the partnership allows users to sign and provide a supporting message for any transactions they submit, allowing them to sign up to dApps they want to join such as CryptoKitties.

When users partner up their Trezor account to MetaMask, the latter will treat is just like any other ordinary account. That disconnect, however, comes from the fact that every time the user wants to instigate and ETH transactions, they'll need to connect to their Trezor device. From there, their MetaMask account will send them a request to sign the particular transaction to verify it as legitimate, The signing takes place exclusively in the Trezor device because of which a user’s private keys will never be disclosed.

Along with having a number of pains removed from the process of completing Ethereum transactions, one of the advantages that MetaMask's update brings is that customers that don't want to leave their Trezor devices hooked up all day don't have to. In order to integrate the new update, consumers should install the latest version of MetaMask in their Google Chrome browsers [support for other browsers will be announced in due time]

Reddit was also quick to comment on the news:

“Interesting move to go with Trezor first. I wonder how long before Ledger integration as well. I don’t really want to go out and buy a Trezor just for Metamask.” – TheRatJ

“I keep repeating that the bigger obstacle for crypto adoption is actually not TX scaling, but UX. This is a major UX step. I have a feeling that hardware wallets will be commonplace in the future.” – Vvpan

Along with bringing in Trezor, MetaMask added to the news by stating that they would begin providing support for Ethereum Classic and its users in the near future.

In June, the organisation ‘Code to Inspire' set up a collaborative effort with ‘The Bounties Network', an outsourcing platform set up the MetaMask platform for women in Afghanistan. The initiative was set up in order to provide continual professional development and employment for women in Afghanistan. In response, MetaMask announced that it is looking forward to providing ledger wallet support to this initiative and many users soon.

The month of June has been a particularly interesting month for Trezor, as they used the month to announce support for Lisk [LSK] and a number of other coins for good measure. These include Decred [DCR], Bitcoin Private [BTCP], FujiCoin [FJC], GroestlCoin [GRS], VertCoin [VC], ViaCoin [VIA], and VCoin [BUZZ].

Trezor has also since announced the launch of Trezor One, Trezor Model T, and Trezor Wallet in the same month.