Getting Started With Programmable Wallets: Circle’s Wallet as a Service Product

Digital wallets are essential to the Web3 ecosystem, providing a way for users to store and send digital currencies and serving as a hub to interact with applications. But digital wallets can be difficult for everyday users to set up and keep secure. Many wallets exist as independent products that can’t be easily integrated into existing payments platforms or applications.

Programmable Wallets from Circle offer a simple but powerful way to add the capabilities of digital wallets into existing apps and infrastructure, unlocking near-instant, low-cost payments with USDC, EURC, and other digital currencies and assets.

Programmable Wallets can be configured to interact with decentralized finance (DeFi) applications, NFT marketplaces, and more throughout the Web3 ecosystem, or can be customized to only interact with specific digital assets and whitelisted programs. REST APIs and mobile SDKs make it easy to get started quickly with Programmable Wallets and add new capabilities that can be seamlessly integrated into your user experience.

Why use Programmable Wallets?

Programmable Wallets are ideal for businesses and applications that need an easy-to-implement way to give customers the ability to send, spend, and save digital currencies like USDC and EURC. 

Transactions using digital currencies can move value around the world in minutes and cost less than a penny to execute. Other forms of digital money from traditional banks or fintech providers lack cross-compatibility, and can require lengthy (up to six days) and expensive (up to $50 per international wire) processes to move between platforms and countries. USDC can be sent to and from Programmable Wallets to other digital wallets in minutes, even those on different blockchains, using infrastructure provided by Circle.

Embedding Programmable Wallets into your platform or application, makes it easy for your users to take advantage of the global reach and low cost of digital currency transactions. Allowing customers to access and use digital currency can help boost sales and improve the customer experience in global and cross-border transactions.

Programmable Wallets allow you to unlock Web3 for your customers, and the flexible wallet architecture–either developer-controlled or user-controlled wallets–allow you to create a tailored experience for end-users. 

• Choose to unlock Web3 for your customers, providing experiences with digital collectibles, NFTs and decentralized applications
• Delight customers with new ways of engaging and interacting via loyalty programs, collectibles and social media
• Allow more experienced customers to control their own wallets, giving them full control of their access, interactions and how they engage with the capabilities of Web3.

How to get started with Programmable Wallets

Getting started with Programmable Wallets means you’ll need to decide which infrastructure model is right for your business or application. User-controlled wallets give your customers greater control, allowing them to be the only party with the rights to initiate transactions and interact with a wide variety of digital assets and on-chain smart contracts.

By contrast, developer-controlled wallets allow the user experience to be more closely managed, restricting interactions to particular applications or assets and only initiating transactions for application-specific tasks.

Once you’ve decided the type of wallet to offer customers, you can learn more about initial setup for user-controlled or developer-controlled wallets. Circle developer docs give an in-depth view into adding additional capabilities to Programmable Wallets and guidance on best practices.

If you want to test or experiment with Programmable Wallets, it’s easy to sign up for an account on the Developer Console and create an API key. Use the key to bring your first wallets to life, then build a prototype to allow interactions with specific protocols or digital currencies to fine tune your user experience.

Circle’s Web3 Services developer console and developer resources make it easy to integrate Programmable Wallets into applications tailored to your specific use case, and easy for users to set up their wallets.

Programmable Wallets are an ideal solution to capture the convenience and cost benefits of using digital currencies like USDC and EURC for your users. As momentum continues to grow among Web3 platforms and applications, Programmable Wallets  make it simple to give customers access to the best of what the internet can offer.

Ready to get started with Programmable Wallets? Sign up through the Developer Console.

Programmable Wallets application programming interface (“API”) is offered by Circle Technology Services, LLC (“CTS”). CTS is not a regulated financial services company and the API does not include financial, investment, tax, legal, regulatory, accounting, business, or other advice. For additional details, please click here to see the Circle Developer terms of service.