Checking Out Rainbow's Browser Wallet

Dear Bankless Nation,

Rainbow Wallet has long been a colorful mobile wallet experience that's introduced a number of stellar conventions to the space – today, we check out its newly launched browser extension and see if it has what it takes to compete! 🌈

- Bankless team

For a while now, Rainbow has offered one of the slickest mobile wallet experiences in crypto. But if you’re like me, I do most of my crypto transactions at my desktop battle station, so until recently, I hadn’t had much of a place for Rainbow in my wallet stack.

That all changed last week when Rainbow made its highly-anticipated browser wallet extension available for download on the Arc, Brave, Chrome, and Edge browsers, with Firefox and Safari support next on the slate.

If you’re already a user of browser wallets like MetaMask and Coinbase Wallet, then you already know the gist of Rainbow Extension. When you’re on your computer conducting crypto activities, e.g., sends or swaps, the app pop-up offers a streamlined interface for interacting with your assets. 

So, what sets the Rainbow Extension apart, then?

Well, to be sure, it covers all the fundamentals needed for the current times, like...

• Auto-discovery of tokens (no more manual adds!)
• Support for L2s (all the big ones and counting)
• An in-built bridging system (no need to leave your wallet for transfers)
• Impersonation mode (so you can track any wallets you want). 

Yet, where Rainbow is really separating itself from the pack right now? Its Magic Menu and keyboard shortcut systems.

The Magic Menu is a search bar feature that macOS users can open by pressing ⌘K, and Windows users can open via Ctrl-K. In this bar, you can pull up and punch out a range of useful commands, from “View NFTs” to “Lock Rainbow.”

See the full list of current command possibilities here.

As for the keyboard shortcuts, these help you get right to the actions you want without wasting any time. For example, tap “P” to pull up your profile or “F” to flip tokens in the swap UI, etc.

Check out this cheat sheet for all of the shortcut options. 

Of course, if you’re hesitant to add another wallet to your stack, just know:

• You can use your existing hardware wallets in combo with the Rainbow Extension. Trezor and Ledger Nano S Plus, Ledger Nano X, and Ledger Stax devices are supported. 
• The Rainbow Extension makes it simple to manage and organize dozens of wallets simultaneously, so it could make for a good “base command” if you want to try consolidating your main wallets in one place. 

And that’s the 101 on the Rainbow Extension! Pretty neat, right?

Indeed, whether you’re a seasoned crypto veteran or just starting out here, this new browser wallet offers plenty of flexibility and efficiency and is worth a spin for anyone curious.

Lastly, if you’re the type that likes to collect commemorative NFTs, Rainbow is running a free mint on Zora in celebration of the Rainbow Extension launch. Check it out!

Action steps

• 🌈 Download Rainbow Extension: Try the new wallet and check out the Shortcuts Cheatsheet

🪙 Catch up on the previous tactic: Watching Tokens with Dex Screener