FAQ

• About

• Why choose the Unstoppable wallet?

  To be Unstoppable!

  To unchain assets, go borderless and stay private.

  Unstoppable is primarily an asset management tool built for those looking to decentralize capital, exercise genuine control over assets and grow wealth through borderless opportunities.

  If the above rhymes with you, then Unstoppable is for you. We are here to focus on your unique needs and serve you in the best possible manner.

  If you're looking for a plain way to store Bitcoin or some crypto, this wallet app might not be for you.

• How does the Unstoppable wallet work?

  Unstoppable is engineered to work outside the traditional finance layer and act as a Swiss knife to the world of cryptocurrencies and decentralized finance ecosystem.

  It's a direct door to the world of cryptocurrency without any gatekeepers.

  It works as independent, uninterruptible, unconditional and private access to the cryptocurrency ecosystem without relying on middlemen entities like banks, brokerage houses or exchanges.

• What is the Unstoppable wallet?

  • A non-custodial wallet where only the user holds the keys controlling cryptocurrency.

  • A decentralized wallet. No accounts, no emails, no identity checks (KYC, AML).

  • A privacy-oriented wallet. Does not collect any personal information.

  • An open source wallet. All code is public, anyone can check how it works.

  • A multi-wallet capable of storing any number of wallets.

  • A multi-currency wallet that supports all major crypto assets.

  • A DeFi-enabled wallet. A Swiss-knife for the DeFi ecosystem.

• How is Unstoppable different from other wallets?

  The Unstoppable wallet app has been a work in progress since late 2017, and counts over 100,000 engineering hours!

  • https://github.com/horizontalsystems/unstoppable-wallet-ios
  • https://github.com/horizontalsystems/unstoppable-wallet-android

  It's the most sophisticated non-custodial wallet app to date that goes beyond non-custodial storage capabilities, and takes a comprehensive approach towards privacy, decentralization and usability.

  • Built per security best practices.
  • Fully private. No user data stored.
  • Decentralized blockchain communication.
  • Supports unlimited number of multi-coin wallets.
  • Decentralized Finance enabled wallet.
  • Open source wallet.
  • Educates users on crypto and DeFi.
  • Natively built for iOS/Android.
  • Audited by external parties.

  When using a non-custodial wallet like Unstoppable, the control over funds and access to them doesn't depend on any intermediary. The user has unconditional control over their funds.

  Most wallets provided by cryptocurrency exchanges, including Binance, Coinbase, Gemini, Kraken, Poloniex, Bittrex are of a custodial type. These are not real cryptocurrency wallets and do not provide any level of independence, privacy or control over the funds.

  The users of these wallets:

  • are fully dependent on an exchange to access their funds.
  • can lose access to wallets at the sole discretion of an exchange.
  • can lose their funds if an exchange gets compromised.
  • have very little control over privacy.
  • have to go through KYC/AML procedures.

• What can be done with the Unstoppable wallet?

  • Send and receive cryptocurrency anywhere, anytime.
  • Swap one cryptocurrency to another without limits.
  • Access DeFi services i.e. swapping, lending, borrowing, staking, etc.
  • Create an unlimited number of cryptocurrency wallets.
  • Store multiple cryptocurrencies in each wallet.
  • Import/export wallets from/to other non-custodial wallet apps.
  • Monitor and analyze cryptocurrency markets.
  • Learn about cryptocurrency and DeFi.

• What should someone do before using Unstoppable?

  Before doing anything on Unstoppable, users are encouraged to go over the Academy section and get familiar with essential aspects of cryptocurrency and the DeFi ecosystem.

  The Academy was built to educate users looking to decentralize capital by investing in cryptocurrencies and the DeFi ecosystem. It covers all important aspects, from security fundamentals to DeFi.

  The Academy goes well beyond covering basics and aims to:

  1. take someone from 'zero knowledge' to a level with a solid understanding of how cryptocurrency storage, security and privacy works.

  2. onboard someone into the DeFi ecosystem, and in simple terms cover the opportunities it provides.

  The Academy is accessible in-app as well as externally at https://litrex.academy.

  Users are also advised to go over the App Terms (Settings > About) and make sure they understand what Unstoppable wallet is and the risks involved while using the app.

• Does it cost anything to use the Unstoppable?

  Unstoppable Wallet is free to download and does not charge any fees for its base features.

  The users are expected to pay network usage fees when sending transactions on a given blockchain. These fees do not relate to Unstoppable in any way and tend to vary in real time depending on the usage of an underlying blockchain network.

  The wallet app merely recommends a sufficient fee to ensure the transaction gets processed within the expected time frame. More popular blockchains tend to be more congested and therefore have higher transaction fees.

  Unstoppable is in the process of providing some premium power user features, which are going to be only available to those holding Unstoppable Wallet NFTs.

• Are there any risks when using the Unstoppable?

  Unstoppable Wallet has no means to interfere with the user's funds or in any way restrict anyone from using the app. The wallet user is the only entity in control of the funds.

  As a result of being non-custodial, private and decentralized, Unstoppable brings full power into the hands of the user.

  With exclusive control over assets, users also get full responsibility. There is no custodian entity responsible for the safety of the funds, other than the users themselves. In case there are issues, there is no one to compensate for losses.

  Key wallet features in Unstoppable do not depend on any centrally managed servers or any infrastructure managed by the Unstoppable team.

  Potential risks include:

  • Unexpected software bugs. Unstoppable has an open code allowing any entity to examine and verify that the wallet app works as expected. It's potentially possible for the wallet to have undiscovered issues which may lead to unexpected behavior in the app.

  • Poor security practices. Problems which may originate from users themselves as a result of poor security practices, like rooting the phone, not using a device PIN lock, keeping the phone OS outdated, installing apps from unauthorized sources, etc.

  • Using an unofficial app. Always update or install the Unstoppable app by downloading it from one of the official resources.

  • Incorrect Metadata. Incorrect metadata in the app itself i.e. outdated exchange rates, can lead to issues. Unstoppable relies on third party services to display current market rates for the given cryptocurrency. While rates are obtained from reputable 3rd party sources, Unstoppable can not guarantee they do not differ from global market rates. Therefore, when sending someone a large amount in cryptocurrency, it's safer to enter the payment amount in cryptocurrency (when entering the amount into the input form) rather than in its fiat equivalent.

  • Users should never share wallet private keys (aka 12-24 word mnemonic phrase) with anyone, including the Unstoppable team. All potential problems with the wallet app can be addressed without the need for a wallet private key.

• What happens if the Unstoppable app goes down?

  The Unstoppable wallet app doesn't depend on any centrally managed servers that may result in the wallet app being unable to function. The app should continue to function for as long as there is internet.

  The only exception is the ability to transact (send and receive transactions) on Ethereum and Binance Smart Chain blockchains. The communication with these blockchains is dependent on respective RPC providers for these blockchains. Currently, fully decentralized communication with these blockchains on mobile devices is problematic and therefore not implemented yet.

  In the future, Unstoppable plans to provide users with the ability to use their own RPC provider instead of relying on an external one.

  If at some point, Unstoppable wallet is not working as expected, users can easily migrate their wallets to some other non-custodial wallet app that is standard compliant.

• Where can you download the Unstoppable wallet from?

  Always download Unstoppable wallet app from official sources:

  App Store

  https://apps.apple.com/app/bank-bitcoin-wallet/id1447619907?ls=1

  Google Play Market

  https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=io.horizontalsystems.bankwallet

  Github

  https://github.com/horizontalsystems/unstoppable-wallet-android/releases

  Fdroid

  https://f-droid.org/en/packages/io.horizontalsystems.bankwallet/

• How can you update the Unstoppable wallet?

  Unstoppable is constantly a work in progress. It's recommended to always use the latest version of the wallet app.

  Always update the app by downloading it from one of the official resources. Being an open source wallet app means that anyone can replicate the Unstoppable wallet and distribute their own version (potentially modified).

  Both Android and iOS allows for automatic app updates which will ensure the device always runs the latest version of the Unstoppable app.

• How to contact the Unstoppable team.

  To reach out, please use support.unstoppable@protonmail.com, or one of the following channels:

  Reddit

  https://www.reddit.com/r/UNSTOPPABLEWallet/

  Twitter

  https://twitter.com/unstoppablebyhs?lang=en

  Github

  https://github.com/horizontalsystems

  Do not trust anyone outside official channels. There are a number of fake groups and channels impersonating the Unstoppable team on Telegram and Twitter. Be aware!

  Never share your wallet private keys (aka 12-24 word mnemonic) with anyone, including the Unstoppable team. All potential problems with the wallet app can be addressed without the need for a wallet private key.

  When contacting the Unstoppable team regarding a problem with the wallet app, please include:

  • App Status logs with the message. Sharing app status logs do not carry any risks and are mainly needed for troubleshooting the problem effectively. The logs are located in Settings >> About App >> App Status.

  • If the problem relates to a transaction, then also include the public transaction ID, which can be located by clicking on the respective transaction on the Transactions page.

  Never share your wallet private keys (aka 12-24 word mnemonic) with anyone!

• Who's building the Unstoppable wallet?

  Unstoppable started in 2017 and is being built by a team behind Horizontal Systems.

  • We are a 16-person engineering and creative team with an inherent passion for borderless fintech and DAOs (Decentralized Autonomous Organizations).

  • While the team has been involved in various SaaS ventures and fintech since 2013, it transitioned to the cryptocurrency and fintech domain full-time in 2017.

  • The transition to crypto was a result of experiencing limited problems when dealing with traditional finance on a business as well as individual levels.

  • The idea of building a decentralized asset storage and management instrument outside the reach of traditional finance was too hard to resist.

• How does Unstoppable make money?

  Unstoppable is a free to use instrument that keeps all of its fundamental features free.

  We are a self-funded group and not dependent on any funding from external entities. Our former ventures allow us to stay independent, creative and experimental, while building our preferred asset management instrument for the decentralized fintech.

  As per our roadmap, starting from version 0.24 - 0.25 , the wallet app is going to start integrating premium features for power users, i.e:

  • advanced on-chain analytics
  • advanced alerting features
  • VIP support over private chats
  • advanced DeFi yield generation tools

  The features above are already in the implementation stage, and are designed to enable the Unstoppable team to monetize itself and financially operate in DAO format moving forward.

  Premium wallet features are expected to be available only to those holding special Unstoppable wallet tokens.

• Management

• What are private keys?

  Usually, terms i.e. private key, mnemonic phrase, secret phrase and wallet seed are used interchangeably in the cryptocurrency context. All these terms typically refer to information that is used to control funds on non-custodial cryptocurrency wallets like Unstoppable.

  Every non-custodial cryptocurrency wallet is expected to provide users with a private key during wallet app setup. That key is created during the wallet setup. For the ease of use this key is shown to the user in a form of 12 (or more) plain English words and in case of Unstoppable referred to as secret phrase.

  That key is what gives user access as well as ownership over all of the assets within the wallet. In contrast to traditional websites/services that provide the ability to recover lost passwords/usernames, non-custodial wallets do not provide the capability to recover private keys and should not be able to do so when built properly.

  The private keys are randomly generated (on the device itself) during the wallet creation process and never leave the device after that. If the user deletes the wallet, keys are deleted as well. So, recovering a private key from elsewhere is impossible if for some reason the wallet user is unable to access it on the device.

  Hence, it’s absolutely essential that user backups the key during wallet setup. Most wallets try to force users to write down a copy of private key right after the wallet has just been created.

  Each multi-coin wallet Unstoppable creates comes with its own private key, referred to as secret phrase. That secret phrase presented to the user in a form of 12 plain English words.

  Using that key someone may be able to:

  • restore access to the existing wallet even if Unstoppable wallet app is deleted from the phone.
  • restore access to the same wallet but in some other wallet app.

  As you may have seen, other than the secret phrase Unstoppable shows some other options next to the secret phrase.

  These are:

  • EVM Private Key
  • BIP32 Root Key
  • Account Extended Public Key
  • Account Extended Private Key

  You can think of them as various representations of that same secret phrase. Users do not need to backup them, only the secret phrase backup is essential. But there are some things to keep in mind regarding why someone may need them.

  EVM Private Key

  This key allows importing EVM-based cryptocurrencies (Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain etc) from Unstoppable to any other standard compliant wallet app. In other words, someone with a multi coin wallet that has ETH, BTC, BNB on it can use that key to restore access to ETH, BNB on some other wallet that doesn’t support Bitcoin i.e. Metamask browser based wallet.

  The EVM Private Key shouldn't be shared publicly. Someone with an access to this EVM private key can take over management of cryptocurrencies that are based on EVM type blockchains i.e. Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain, Polygon etc.

  It won't provide access to Bitcoin or other non-EVM cryptocurrencies that reside within the same multi-coin wallet on Unstoppable.

  BIP32 Root Key

  Think of it as just another representation of the secret phrase. It gives someone full control over the assets on the respective wallet. So, should be kept safe and never shared with anyone.

  Account Extended Public Key

  This key allows read-only monitoring of Bitcoin and other UTXO based cryptocurrencies (i.e Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, Dash etc) that reside on the respective wallet.

  The main reason for someone to use that is when someone wants only to monitor the funds on the balance without an ability to spend them. For instance, someone keeping Bitcoin on Ledger hardware wallet may copy the Account Extended Public Key from Ledger to Unstoppable to be able to monitor the Bitcoin balance (as well as transactions) without the need to connect to Ledger wallet. That way funds remain secured on Ledger but become viewable in Unstoppable wallet app.

  Another scenario, let’s say you keep a significant amount of Bitcoin on one of your Unstoppable wallets and do not intend to move them. A safe way to keep those funds would be to unlink that wallet from the app entirely (given that you have a backup of its secret phrase) and use Account Extended Public Key to setup a “watch-only wallet” in Unstoppable. That way you still see the funds, transactions, addresses (in case you want to make a deposit) but at the same time Unstoppable doesn’t have access to private keys. This means that even if someone unauthorized opens your Unstoppable app s/he won’t be able to spend the funds on that wallet.

  Note: Account Extended Public Key only relates to Bitcoin and other UTXO based cryptocurrencies i.e Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, Dash that reside on the respective wallet. It won't provide access to EVM cryptocurrencies i.e. Ethereum that reside within the same multi-coin wallet on Unstoppable.

  Account Extended Private Key

  This key allows importing Bitcoin and other UTXO based cryptocurrencies within the same wallet from Unstoppable app to any other standard compliant wallet app. It’s like Account Extended Public Key but also with ownership capabilities.

  It shouldn't be shared publicly. Someone with an access to this private key can take over management of Bitcoin and other UTXO based cryptocurrencies i.e Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, Dash etc.

  It won't provide access to EVM cryptocurrencies i.e. Ethereum that reside within the same multi-coin wallet on Unstoppable.

• How do you create a wallet(s)?

  Unstoppable enables convenient management of an unlimited number of wallets where each wallet is capable of storing multiple cryptocurrencies.

  To create a first wallet user needs to click on the Create button after going through wallet welcome screens. It takes a few seconds and doesn't require anything else. Once the wallet is created it's ready to operate given a user has completed the wallet private key backup steps.

  Additional wallets can be created through 'Manage Wallets' section accessible both from Balance and Settings tabs. There is no limit to the number of wallets users may create in the Unstoppable wallet.

• How do you backup a wallet(s)?

  Wallet backup is one of the most important steps. Users are recommended to follow instructions and complete backup steps for each wallet in the Unstoppable app.

  • Go to Settings >> Manage Wallets section of the app.
  • All wallets where the backup procedure has not been completed have a red alert icon.
  • Click on the 'more' button next to the wallet name.
  • In the settings screen for the given wallet, click on the "Backup Wallet" option.
  • Complete backup steps.

  Users are not able to receive funds to a non-backed up wallet. While some users found this inconvenient, it was put in place to minimize cases where users operate wallets without having backups.

  The backup procedure for each wallet consists of writing down a private key (in a form of 12-24 words, aka mnemonic phrase) for a given wallet.

  Please note that saving a screenshot of a private key for the wallet is not considered a safe practice. Any third-party application that has permission to access a photo library on a device (i.e. social apps) can potentially access that screenshot and share it with unauthorized entities.

• How do you restore a wallet(s)?

  Unstoppable provides easy wallet restore functionality for any wallet that was set up in a standard-compliant wallet.

  Users are able to restore wallets that were created in Unstoppable as well as ones created in other non-custodial wallet apps.

  To restore wallet:

  • Go to Settings >> Manage Wallets section.
  • Click on the 'Restore' button.
  • Enter the mnemonic phrase for the wallet. If the wallet has an additional passphrase (BIP39), it needs to be provided as well.
  • On the next screen, select the currencies to activate for the wallet. Selecting Ethereum or Binance Smart Chain will also provide means to auto-activate all ERC20/BEP20 tokens where a wallet has a balance. The user needs to manually select all blockchains where the wallet is expected to have a balance.

  After selecting currencies, click on the Restore button and wait for the wallet to finish synchronizing itself with selected blockchains and identify wallet's past transactions.

  The synchronization steps for Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Dash, Litecoin, Zcash can take several minutes/hours depending on many factors including the internet connection.

  Additional points to keep in mind:

  • For Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash and Litecoin, the user is also expected to indicate the address type for the selected coin. More information about these are available in the Bitcoin section below.
  • When restoring Zcash wallets, users can optionally indicate the wallet birthday height parameter and significantly speed up the wallet synchronization process.
  • Privacy-sensitive users should be also aware that by default Unstoppable synchronizes wallets being restored via 3rd party API server. This is done only once during the wallet restore. While this method is significantly faster it's generally considered less private. Those looking to synchronize the wallet with the blockchain in a decentralized manner can choose to restore 'via Blockchain' which operates in a more private manner but may take a few hours.

• How to add coin to the wallet?

  On the Balance tab, click on the 'Add coin' button and search for the coin that needs to be added.

  If the coins can't be found via search, it may be added directly by providing the token's smart contract address.

• How do you manage multiple wallets?

  Unstoppable enables easy management for an unlimited number of multi-coin crypto wallets.

  Users are able to manage and operate as many wallets as necessary where each wallet can serve as an asset portfolio. For instance, one wallet can hold long-term investments, another wallet for payments, and so on.

  The Balance tab on Unstoppable always shows the currently active wallet. To switch between activated wallets users may:

  • use the wallet switcher button located in the top left of the Balance tab.
  • use Manage Wallets that can be accessed from the wallet app Settings screen.
  • double click (iOS) or tap and hold (Android) on the Balance tab icon while on the Balance screen.

  When operating with multiple wallets users are expected to complete the backup procedure for all enabled wallets.

  Tip! Users planning to operate multiple wallets may set up an unlimited number of wallets using same mnemonic phrase (private key) but a different passphrase for each wallet. This makes managing, operating, and backing up wallets much easier.

• How do you delete (unlink) the wallet?

  To delete wallets and related data from Unstoppable:

  • Go to Settings >> Manage Wallets section.
  • Click on the 'more' button next to the wallet to access its settings.
  • Use the 'unlink' button on the settings screen to complete the procedure.

  The steps above will delete the wallet from the app and erase all of its data from the app as though it never existed. This action doesn't delete the wallet transactions, balances from a blockchain and it's not possible to do so.

  The unlink action merely deletes the private key controlling the wallet from the Unstoppable app. To restore deleted wallets in the future, users require a private key (mnemonic phrase) for each such wallet as well as its passphrase(if it had any). Restoring access to a deleted wallet without knowing its private key (mnemonic phrase) is impossible.

• How do you send/receive cryptocurrency to/from the wallet?

  Almost all non-custodial wallets are designed in a similar way when it comes to sending or receiving cryptocurrencies.

  For a detailed overview for Bitcoin or Ethereum transfers refer to respective sections below.

  To receive or deposit cryptocurrency:

  • First step is to activate the coin on the Balance tab via the 'add coin' button if it's not already active.
  • Then proceed to the Balance tab and obtain the receive/deposit address for the coin by clicking on the 'receive' icon button on the coin cell.
  • The resulting screen shows the user's payment address for that coin. When someone sends a given coin to that address the funds will appear on the wallet's Balance tab.
  • Double-check payment address when passing it to other entities to ensure the provided address to the sender is correct. If the payment is made to the wrong address it's not possible to cancel it.

  To send cryptocurrency:

  • Click on the cryptocurrency coin on the Balance tab and proceed with the 'send' button.
  • Provide the destination address (payment address of the recipient), enter the amount and set the fee value for the transaction. For ease of use, the input field for entering the amount allows specifying the amount in fiat equivalent.
  • Click on proceed for final confirmation screen. Pay attention to the values on that screen and make sure the amounts being sent are correct.
  • Confirm the transaction to send it to the blockchain for processing.

• How do you buy/sell cryptocurrency for fiat in Unstoppable?

  Unstoppable doesn't support buying or selling cryptocurrency for fiat currency i.e. USD, EUR, etc.

  There is no way to integrate such features without making the app significantly less private or without enabling this feature for some and excluding others.

  For those looking to discover ways to purchase cryptocurrency in large amounts using fiat currencies, we outline various reliable options in the Academy section of the wallet app.

• Balance

• How do you hide/show the wallet balance?

  To hide or unhide total wallet balance and individual coin balances click on the total balance value on the Balance tab.

• Why does the balance appear dimmed?

  In cases when the app doesn't have access to fresh cryptocurrency exchange rates, the wallet balance value appears dimmed. Typically, cryptocurrency rates are considered outdated if they are older than 10 minutes.

  The balance value may also appear dimmed when one or more cryptocurrencies in the Balance tab are being synchronized with the blockchain.

  During regular usage cases, it's expected for the balance to appear dimmed for a brief moment during app launch as the wallet completes synchronization jobs.

  If any of the coins don’t have a current exchange rate then it won't be included in the total balance amount on the Balance tab.

• What does the 'syncing' status on a coin mean?

  The 'syncing' status indicator on the coin shows that the Unstoppable app tries to synchronize itself with a given blockchain.

  While in most cases 'syncing' status should be shown briefly, there are many valid situations where it can remain significantly longer:

  • During the initial synchronization when restoring wallet with Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Dash, Litecoin, or Zcash cryptocurrencies. A few hour-long syncing is expected for every coin if the user chooses to restore the wallet from a blockchain instead of a third-party API service. The more coins are being restored the longer it takes.

  • When activating Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Dash, Litecoin, and Zcash cryptocurrencies for the 1st time after wallet setup.

  • Opening the wallet app after days or weeks since it last opened.

  • Poor networking conditions and in general slow internet.

  • Delayed or slow response times for Ethereum and Binance Smart Chain RPC providers. It's generally advised to wait for a few minutes or try to restart the wallet app.

  Keep in mind, Unstoppable app keeps the synchronization process running only when the Unstoppable app remains open. If the app is closed the synchronization process is paused and only resumes when the app is opened again.

• What does a triangle alert icon on a coin mean?

  The triangle alert icon appearing on the coin means the Unstoppable app was unable to synchronize itself with the given blockchain.

  1. If the icon appears on Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, Dash or Zcash coins then users may try clicking on the alert icon and try one of the available action buttons for retry or sync source change. If sync error still occurs then another option to try would be to delete the wallet and attempt to restore it from scratch.

  2. If the icon appears on Ethereum (incl. ERC20 tokens), Binance Smart Chain (incl. BEP20 tokens) then the problem is due to communication errors with Ethereum or Binance Smart Chain data providers. Usually, retrying sync after waiting for a few minutes fixes the issue. If not, users may try killing (and restarting) the app.

  Keep in mind, synchronization error means that Unstoppable wallet app has problems synchronizing itself with the blockchain and doesn't affect the funds on wallet balance in any way.

• Why does the 'send' button for the coin appear disabled?

  In certain cases, the 'Send' button may appear disabled (dimmed) in the interface.

  This happens when:

  • the wallet app is synchronizing itself with the blockchain.
  • there is no active internet connection.

• Why does the 'receive' button for the coin appear disabled?

  The only case when the button to 'Receive' or deposit some cryptocurrency to Unstoppable wallet may appear disabled is when a user hasn't completed backup steps for the wallet.

• Why is the wallet balance showing an incorrect amount?

  There are several reasons when wallet balance may display incorrect amount:

  • if the exchange rate for some cryptocurrency is missing, its value is not reflected in the total balance amount.

  • if the exchange rate for some cryptocurrency is incorrect, the shown balance for that coin as well as the total balance amount will be displayed incorrectly.

  • if the app synchronizes itself with the blockchain the balance for coins as well as the total balance amount will keep changing depending on the synchronization progress.

  • if there is an incoming transaction that hasn’t reached finality. For certain currencies like Bitcoin, a certain amount of time needs to pass before the recently received amount becomes spendable. This usually varies between a few minutes to an hour, depending on the cryptocurrency. For Bitcoin, 3 blocks need to pass (approx. 30 min) before Unstoppable will let you spend newly received Bitcoins.

  Apart from the obvious reasons above, the balance amount for Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, Dash, and Zcash cryptocurrencies may sometimes be shown incorrectly as a result of Unstoppable wallet failing to correctly identify an incoming transaction. In such cases, you're welcome to report the issue to the Unstoppable team and wait for the fix. It will be addressed on a priority basis.

• What does the lock sign next to the coin balance mean?

  In some cases Unstoppable displays a lock icon below the balance amount for the coin. This happens when the wallet app is not able to spend the entire balance for a given coin.

  For instance, when a wallet receives a time-locked Bitcoin transaction that can not be spent until a certain date in the future. In such a case, Unstoppable should identify such transactions and show part of the coin balance with the lock icon.

• How do you change the base currency for the wallet?

  By default, Unstoppable displays all balance and transaction amounts in USD base currency. Users are able to change the base currency from USD to some other fiat in wallet settings.

  The crypto to fiat (USD, EUR etc) exchange rates are provided by a third-party service coingecko.com.

  While Unstoppable works with reliable data providers the wallet have no means to guarantee that returned rates are always valid real-time rates. Be aware of that when transacting in large sums.

• Why are there random token balances appearing in my wallet?

  It's not uncommon for some new cryptocurrency projects to 'airdrop' (giveaway) tokens representing the new project to the community. This is done to attract community interest and spread the distribution of tokens. There are also those that do it purely for spam purposes.

  While some projects airdrop tokens to selected users based on some criteria others may do it to everyone who has any Ethereum cryptocurrency on balance. Everyone's Ethereum address is public on the blockchain, which means that anyone is able to send ETH and/or tokens to these addresses without any preconditions.

  While occasionally users get some quality tokens this way (i.e. Uniswap or 1inch airdrop) which may quickly appreciate in value, for the most part, the airdropped tokens have no value and can be ignored.

• Why is the exchange rate for the token not shown?

  Unstoppable obtain token exchange rates from multiple third-party sources which track cryptocurrency market prices in real-time.

  The current and historical rates for some tokens may not be available, especially for newly launched tokens. In such cases, Unstoppable will not display the exchange rate for these coins.

• Security

• How does Unstoppable keep funds secure?

  Every non-custodial wallet incl. Unstoppable at its core is an instrument meant to securely store a wallet owner's private key(s).

  Using these keys the wallet app is able to derive payment addresses for each coin, display balances, and allow the wallet owner to spend (transfer) cryptocurrency.

  Unstoppable wallet stores private keys using secure storage mechanisms provided by iOS and Android operating systems.

  Both of these operating systems provide special-purpose independent storage mediums designed to keep sensitive data (i.e. private keys) safe and unreachable even if the phone ends up in unauthorized hands.

• Is Unstoppable safer than a hardware wallet?

  While all well engineered non-custodial wallets are considered secure, hardware wallets are generally considered as the most secure wallet type.

  There are two key aspects for higher security scoring:

  • Hardware wallets are known as cold storage wallets in reference to the inability of a device to connect to the internet. The lack of an internet channel enabling communication with the outside world makes the device potentially more secure.

  • In contrast to mobile and desktop-based wallets, hardware wallets run special-purpose software designed to handle just a few jobs. Mobile and desktop wallets run on substantially more complex environments consisting of several components including the operating system itself. Such complexity keeps the potential attack surface on these wallets significantly larger.

  Although hardware wallets score potentially higher on private key storage aspects there are other security sides to cryptocurrency usage where mobile non-custodial wallets tend to shine:

  • A non-custodial mobile wallet app like Unstoppable may potentially be more private than a hardware wallet. The purchase, delivery, and proper setup of a hardware wallet device carry some privacy and security risks. A recent incident on Ledger (leading hardware wallet brand) ended up exposing customer names, phone numbers and physical addresses of customers who purchased Ledger hardware wallet.

  • Hardware wallets came with layers of usage complexity and limitations making them difficult to use for someone not closely familiar with crypto. These wallets are designed for those well familiar with how cryptocurrency works. New users are likely to find them overwhelming and significantly limited in usability features.

  • Hardware wallets are not designed for frequent access. Anyone looking for a non-custodial wallet that needs to be accessed on a regular basis (as is the case with a wallet meant for DeFi) is likely to find hardware wallets inconvenient for everyday use. Mobile-based wallets like Unstoppable are specifically designed for such use cases and the wallet app is always a few clicks away.

  Out of the box security on most non-custodial wallets is good enough given their code is open source and the wallet app has been audited by multiple external entities. These wallets provide a balanced combination of security and usability aspects that are good enough for most regular use cases.

• Why should an unlock code be set for the wallet app?

  Almost all non-custodial wallet types including Unstoppable have measures in place that are meant to keep the cryptocurrency funds secure in cases when the device ends up in unauthorized hands.

  While that feature is optional in Unstoppable it's recommended to have the unlock code for the wallet app. It's designed to keep private keys unreachable even if an unauthorized entity has the wallet device in possession and tries to break into it using specialized instruments. For that same reason, it's recommended to have the unlock code activated for the mobile device itself.

  As a general security practice it's recommended to use a different unlock code for unlocking mobile and the Unstoppable wallet app.

• How to access wallet if private key is lost?

  Accessing the wallet funds is only possible if the user has access to the private key or its mnemonic phrase representation in a form of 12-24 words.

  Unstoppable is merely a door that allows users to interact with blockchains and cryptocurrencies operating in them. The ability to control and spend cryptocurrency on these blockchains is done via wallet private keys which reside on Unstoppable wallets. These private keys never leave the Unstoppable wallet app and remain solely in users’ hands.

  It's the responsibility of the user to keep them backed up and protected from unauthorized entities. This also means, Unstoppable is not able to:

  • Recover wallet private key for the user if it’s lost.
  • Cancel user's transactions, or even know about them.
  • Interfere with user's tokens or the wallet app.

• What is a mnemonic phrase?

  Whenever a user creates a wallet in some non-custodial wallet app, the wallet prompts user to backup private key associated with it. That private key is usually presented in a form of 12 or 24-word list (aka mnemonic phrase or seed).

  The wallet owner is expected to safely store this phrase somewhere (generally offline) and use it to restore access to the wallet in cases like smartphone loss or theft.

  While there are a number of security reasons to keep mnemonic phrases offline (rather than online) there are some risks with that as well. If the phrase is found by someone familiar with what these words might be used for then that person may easily steal the wallet funds.

  One way to minimize the risks of someone unauthorized finding the mnemonic phrase is to beef your private key security by adding mnemonic passphrase. Unstoppable wallet app provides such feature.

• What is a mnemonic passphrase?

  As enhanced security measure, some non-custodial wallets incl. Unstoppable provide a way to secure a 12-24 word mnemonic phrase with an additional password phrase (aka mnemonic passphrase).

  In such cases, the wallet user is required to backup both mnemonic phrases and an additional passphrase. Both of them will be needed to restore access to the wallet.

  Using mnemonic passphrase adds additional security layer to a wallet by keeping it safe even if wallet's mnemonic phrase ends up with unauthorized entity. Using mnemonic passphrase is like adding two-factor authentication to a wallet.

  The beauty of a passphrase is, it's just one word and can be memorized. That is why this feature is powerful and has the potential to keep users' funds safe even in cases where mnemonic phrase is compromised and seen by others.

• How do you use a mnemonic passphrase to manage multiple wallets?

  Mnemonic passphrase adds an additional security layer to the wallet by making it difficult for someone unauthorized to gain access to the wallet even if that person manages to get a mnemonic phrase.

  The fact that mnemonic passphrases can take an arbitrary form enables various creative and convenient ways to manage multiple cryptocurrency wallets where each wallet uses the same mnemonic phrase but different mnemonic passphrases.

  In Unstoppable app, users may create a new wallet via wallet 'restore' option and use mnemonic phrases belonging to another wallet but with a new passphrase. The process can be repeated for any number of wallets.

  As a result, the user ends up with multiple wallets sharing the same mnemonic phrase but different passphrases.

  • Wallet 1 : mnemonic + passphrase1

  • Wallet 1 : mnemonic + passphrase2

  • Wallet 3 : mnemonic + passphrase3

  ...

  Keep in mind, if an unauthorized entity somehow manages to access mnemonic phrase the passphrases would be the only security measure in place securing access to funds. Without knowing the passphrases an unauthorized person won't be possible to access these wallets or even know whether they exist at all.

  That said, keep in mind that practically speaking breaking into a wallet that has a compromised mnemonic phrase is not impossible. When mnemonic phrases are compromised the security of the wallet will heavily depend on the way the passphrase was chosen. Therefore, the passphrase should not be some random English word but a combination of letter numbers, the longer the better.

  In general, it's advisable to migrate to a new wallet if a wallet's mnemonic phrase has been compromised or taken over by someone with good technical skills. The fact that the wallet is protected by a passphrase would buy enough time for the wallet owner to migrate wallet funds to a new wallet.

• What steps should I to take if I lose my phone?

  In cases when a phone with the wallet app is lost or no longer available the wallet owner can get a new device and restore access to the wallet on a new device.

  However, if the original device didn't have the unlock code mechanism in place for the device and/or the wallet app or if unlock codes used were easy to guess (i.e. 000000 or 123456) then it's advised to:

  1. restore old wallet on a new device
  2. set up a new wallet on a new device
  3. transfer funds from old to a new wallet

• Transactions

• What are transaction fees?

  When sending cryptocurrency a sender is required to pay a transaction fee to the underlying blockchain network. This fee is necessary in order for the transaction to be accepted and included in the blockchain by one of the network nodes (miners).

  A transaction fee goes directly to one of the random blockchain network nodes and in no way related to or pass through Unstoppable wallet team.

• Why are transaction fees for some cryptocurrencies so high?

  The transaction fee amount depends on multiple factors with the most important being the business and the capacity of the blockchain network for the given cryptocurrency.

  When a lot of people are transacting on a cryptocurrency network that's limited in throughput, the network can get quickly congested causing the average fees to rise. Transaction fees serve as a priority ordering mechanism in times when there are more transactions taking place on the network than can be processed (resulting in a backlog).

  Transactions paying higher fees get prioritized while those with low fees remain on the wait line. Sending a transaction with a low fee during busy times likely result in the transaction staying pending for hours/days or getting rejected by the network.

  Different cryptocurrency blockchains have different throughput capacity and usage levels. Therefore, transaction fees tend to be a lot more expensive on popular blockchains like Bitcoin and Ethereum which also happen to be fairly limited in throughput.

  The fees on busy blockchains may change significantly within hours depending on the market events and news. Typically, blockchains where transactions are cheap either have a high throughput (Solana or Binance Smart Chain) or low usage levels (Litecoin or Doge).

• How does Unstoppable calculate transaction fees?

  Unstoppable wallet app engineered to recommend optimal transaction fee at any given moment. A 100% of the fee goes directly to the network nodes and in no way related to Unstoppable wallet.

  Unstoppable doesn't charge any extra fees for sending, receiving or swapping cryptocurrencies.

  The transaction fee recommendation algorithms used by Unstoppable are estimated based on the recent activity on the blockchain. When a user selects a fee that is considered low, Unstoppable shows a warning that transaction may get stuck and remain pending for hours and even days.

  It's recommended to set higher fees when the amount being sent is high or if the transaction needs to be processed quickly. The higher the fee for the transaction the faster it's likely to get processed.

• Does Unstoppable charge fees for sending transactions?

  Almost all blockchain transactions incur network fees. Sending transactions on nearly all blockchain networks require transaction fees.

  Even blockchains with high throughput usually have tiny fees (which are typically negligible).

  These transaction fees do not pass through Unstoppable but paid by the user directly to the network when executing transactions.

• Can a transaction be cancelled?

  Blockchain transactions are irreversible.

  If someone mistakenly sends payment to an incorrect address there is no way to cancel confirmed transaction (transaction added to the blockchain) other than asking the recipient to send it back.

  While the payment is still pending and yet to be added to the blockchain there are potential ways to cancel it. The means to do so for Bitcoin and Ethereum are explained in sections below.

  Unstoppable wallet can validate destination addresses and warn a sender if the entered destination address doesn't match the typical format for a payment address on that blockchain. For instance, the wallet won't let you send Bitcoin to an Ethereum address and so on.

  Also, Unstoppable can alert sender when s/he mistypes or enters an incomplete payment address.

• Can a user send a transaction to themselves?

  Yes, sending payments to your own payment address is possible. Users are still expected to pay transaction fees though.

• Can a user send a transaction to themselves?

  Users need to share their payment address with anyone they're expecting to get paid from.

  Things to keep in mind:

  • Anyone who knows someone's Ethereum or Binance Smart Chain address can potentially see the entire transaction history and current token balances (ERC20, BEP20 etc) for that address. Ethereum and alike blockchains are fully public in that regard.

  • When it comes to semi-anonymous blockchains i.e. Bitcoin and alike derivatives (Bitcoin Cash, Doge, Litecoin, etc) sharing payment address doesn't mean that user's past transactions and wallet balances are going to be visible to the sender. That's because, most non-custodial wallets would provide user with a new payment address after each successful incoming payment.

  • The privacy risks are minimal when transacting with privacy coins such as Zcash, Monero or Dash.

• Why is a transaction value shown incorrectly in a recent transaction?

  To be able to display the overall transferred cryptocurrency amount in fiat (USD, EUR etc) for past crypto transactions Unstoppable needs to know the valid exchange rate at the date of transaction.

  At the moment, Unstoppable relies on https://coingecko.com for historical cryptocurrency rates. In the future we expect to have more source for reference incl. the option to obtain historical rates from the decentralized cryptocurrency exchanges.

  If the historical exchange rate in Unstoopable app happens to be incorrect then the transaction amount shown in the transactions list will be shown incorrectly. In such cases refer to the actual amount transferred in cryptocurrency.

• Bitcoin

• How do you send a Bitcoin transaction?

  Тo send someone Bitcoins sender needs recipient's Bitcoin address.

  The full process looks as follows:

  1. Sender gets recipient's Bitcoin address.
  2. Goes to Balance tab, clicks on Bitcoin and selects 'send' option.
  3. Enters the amount and recipient's Bitcoin address.
  4. Indicates the fee for the transaction.
  5. Clicks on the Next button to confirm the transaction.
  6. Reviews and confirms transactions.
  7. Monitors transaction status from Transactions list.

  When sending Bitcoin via Unstoppable the transaction goes directly to the blockchain without passing through intermediaries.

  Most cryptocurrency wallets are unable to communicate with the Bitcoin blockchain directly and have to route transactions through intermediaries.

• How long does it take for a Bitcoin transaction to complete?

  Bitcoin transactions are processed and added to the Bitcoin blockchain every 10 minutes in 1MB sized blocks. The blocks hold a few thousand of recently made transactions.

  A transaction is considered completed when the block that includes it has been added to the blockchain.

  It usually takes about 10 minutes for a transaction to be included in the blockchain but sometimes can take 20-30 minutes or even hours. It depends on the load of the Bitcoin network and fee amount set by the sender of a transaction.

  Transaction steps:

  1. Sender sends a transaction from the Unstoppable wallet app. The transaction reaches the Bitcoin network instantly and remains pending there until one of the network nodes (aka miners) chooses to validate and add it to the blockchain.

  2. It's not uncommon for the Bitcoin network to have more pending transactions than can fit into 1MB blocks that are created by the blockchain every 10 minutes. This results in transactions backlog and network nodes having to choose which transactions make to the next block.

  3. As there are more pending transactions that can be processed, the network nodes give priority to those paying the highest fee. These transaction fees end up with network nodes and therefore nodes are economically incentivized to prioritize transactions paying higher fees.

  4. Transactions may remain in a 'pending' state for hours or even days until the network becomes less bus, and the originally set transaction fees become sufficient to be processed in the next batch.

  5. To ensure the completion of the transaction within desired level of urgency, the transaction fee should be set taking into account the load on the Bitcoin network.

• How does Unstoppable recommend the transaction fee for Bitcoin?

  Non-custodial wallets like Unstoppable estimate the required transaction fee amount in order for the Bitcoin transaction to be included within the next block.

  The fee recommendation setting for Bitcoin provides multiple fee levels, depending on the level urgency

  • Low >> within 400 min
  • Recommended >> within 120 min
  • High >> within 30 min
  • Custom >> user set value

  A general rule here is to choose a higher fee (above the 'Recommended' setting) for transactions where there is a high level of urgency or amount transacted is high.

  At the same time, choosing a very low fee (i.e. 0.01$) is likely to result in a transaction being dropped (rejected) shortly after it's sent from the network.

  The 'Custom' setting allows the sender to set its own transaction fee rate. This setting is recommended for those who are familiar with Bitcoin transaction fee mechanism.

  Keep in mind that Unstoppable fee recommendation service merely makes an educated guess based on the analysis of the network activity. There is no way to guarantee that the recommended setting would always work as expected.

  Also note that, the transaction fee amount doesn't depend on the amount of Bitcoins being transacted.

• When is a Bitcoin transaction considered final and irreversible?

  While a Bitcoin transaction is considered confirmed once it has been added to the blockchain it's not considered final (irreversible) until a few more transaction blocks are added to the blockchain.

  In other words, in order for a transaction to be considered final and permanent, it's recommended to wait for 5 more blocks (about 50 min) after a block holding the original transaction.

  The basic rule to follow when contemplating transaction finality can be as follows:

  • for smaller payments, it's safe to consider the transaction final as soon as it's included in the blockchain.

  • for mid-sized payments (say above $10K) it's recommended to wait at least 3 blocks. Unstoppable wallet will display the transaction as final after 3 blocks.

  • for large payments, it's recommended to wait for 6 blocks, although users can be fairly certain already after 3 blocks have passed.

• How can you monitor the status of incoming/outgoing Bitcoin transactions?

  Unstoppable wallet allows users to monitor the status of their transactions.

  • As soon as a user sends a Bitcoin transaction it should appear with 'pending' status on the Transactions tab, both for its sender and recipient. The transaction appears with a 'pending' status until it has been included in the blockchain.

  • The status of the transaction changes to 'sending' for the sender and 'receiving' for recipient as soon as it gets included in the blockchain. That event also means the transaction got its first confirmation.

  • The wallet app displays status as 'sending' both for its sender and recipient until at least 3 blocks has passed (aka transaction having 3 confirmations)

  Until 3 blocks have passed, Unstoppable will not reflect the transaction amount in the recipient's balance or let the recipient spend the received funds in other transactions.

  Apart from monitoring transaction status within Unstoppable, users may use one of the publicly available Bitcoin block explorers (like https://btc.com) for monitoring as well.

  To monitor the status of pending transactions on external resources, users need a transaction ID which can be looked up in Unstoppable.

• How do you cancel a Bitcoin transaction?

  Unfortunately, the steps to cancel a Bitcoin transaction are a little more complicated than just pressing some 'cancel' button.

  The first point to keep in mind is that it's impossible to 'cancel' a transaction if it has already been included in the blockchain (aka, transaction receiving at least 1 confirmation). So, only unconfirmed (pending) transactions can potentially be canceled.

  Therefore, before attempting to cancel a Bitcoin transaction check whether it received any confirmations. Unstoppable displays unconfirmed transactions with 'pending' status. As soon as transaction status changes to 'sending' the transaction may not be canceled.

  If the transaction has no confirmations yet, there’s still a chance (not guaranteed though) for a sender to cancel it but such functionality should be built into the wallet app itself.

  At this point, Unstoppable doesn't provide this feature but is likely to add it in the future.

• How do you resend a failed Bitcoin transaction?

  When users send Bitcoin transactions with a really low fee value such transactions are likely to stay pending for a short time and get rejected by the network like it never happened.

  When users encounter a transaction with failed (rejected) status in Unstoppable it's recommended to double-check its status using some public block explorer like https://btc.com by searching for transaction ID.

  If it turns out that Unstoppable shows a transaction as failed but public block explorer shows it as pending or confirmed then the problem likely is within Unstoppable. Users should not attempt to resend such transactions to avoid double sends and report the issue to Unstoppable wallet support for troubleshooting.

  The transaction should be considered failed only if both Unstoppable and public block explorer shows it as failed/rejected.

• Why does the Bitcoin transaction stay pending?

  A common reason for the transaction to remain pending for long is when the network is busy, and the fee set for the given transaction is below the network average.

  If the fee set is very low (close to 0) then the transaction should fail and get rejected. Typically, this should happen shortly after it's sent.

  If the fee set by the sender is below the network average due to a sudden increase in blockchain usage then the transaction is likely to remain pending for some time but ultimately will be processed. Sometimes this may take a few days.

• Why did the Bitcoin balance not increase after receiving payment?

  For a Bitcoin payment to be reflected on the wallet's balance the payment should receive at least 3 confirmations.

  Unstoppable considers payment final after it had received 3 confirmations on the network. In other words, at least 2 blocks need to be added to the blockchain after the block with the given transaction. This can be tracked within the Unstoppable app or via a public Bitcoin block explorer using the ID of the transaction.

• Why can't I send Bitcoins that were just received?

  In Unstoppable, for a transaction receipt to be able to spend newly received Bitcoins, the transaction should receive 3 confirmations on the blockchain.

  Only after the transaction has received 3 confirmations Unstoppable makes it possible to use received funds in new transactions.

  Given that the original transaction has sufficient fee this should take 30-40 min since the transaction was sent. The confirmation counts can be tracked within the Unstoppable app or via public Bitcoin block explorer using the ID of the transaction.

• What do BIP 44/49/84 mean in Bitcoin?

  Bitcoin has three commonly-used address formats that can be used to receive Bitcoin payments. Usually, cryptocurrency wallets operate with just one format with some supporting usage of multiple formats.

  Unstoppable supports all three address formats and allows users to have separate Bitcoin balances (and transactions) for each of the three formats within a single multi-coin wallet. So, any wallet created in Unstoppable can potentially have three Bitcoin wallets operating as different cryptocurrencies along with other cryptocurrencies in the wallet.

  The various formats emerged as a result of more and more people transacting on the Bitcoin network. The newer address formats were introduced to make transaction sizes smaller and thus allow the network to process more transactions in each block.

  Legacy Addresses:

  The oldest address format, often referred to as BIP44 format, usually starts with a number "1". Being the oldest format most wallets support both receiving and sending payments to these addresses.

  The issue with using such address formats are higher transaction fees when transacting on the Bitcoin network. Sending a payment from a wallet that holds funds previously received to a Legacy Address Format is more expensive than when the wallet uses other formats.

  Segwit Addresses:

  A more recent address format, referred to as BIP49 format, usually starts with the number "3". Supported by many newer wallet apps.

  Sending a payment from a wallet that operates with funds received to SegWit addresses is cheaper when compared to legacy addresses.

  Native-Segwit Addresses

  The newest address format referred to as BIP84 format, and the cheapest to work with when it comes to transacting on the Bitcoin network. The bech32 address format starts with "bc1".

  An easy way to find out which format the wallet supports is to open the wallet app and check the first few symbols of the address for receiving Bitcoin.

  On a practical level, apart from the difference in transaction fees, there is just one thing to keep in mind. Knowing the address format is also needed when restoring a Bitcoin wallet in some wallet app.

  Unstoppable wallet is able to both create and restore wallets operating in any of the three available address formats.

• Why does the Bitcoin payment address keep changing?

  In Unstoppable, the user's address to receive Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin and Dash cryptocurrencies will change after each received transaction in that cryptocurrency.

  This is done by the Unstoppable to increase the privacy of the user. Using the same address for all incoming transactions would essentially make users' entire activity and balance public. However, when a new receive address is used for each transaction it becomes harder to connect these transactions to the same user.

  Note that all previously used addresses always stay valid and funds sent to any of these past addresses will still be received. The addresses do not expire.

• Why does the Bitcoin payment address keeps changing?

  Yes, a user needs to share a Bitcoin address with others in order to receive payments.

  However, if the user uses the same address for receiving transactions over and over than anyone paying the user will potentially be able to lookup past transactions involving that address on the Bitcoin blockchain. Potentially, this may expose the user's balance as well.

  To address this for Bitcoin and Bitcoin-based cryptocurrencies, wallets like Unstoppable implement a privacy-preserving mechanism that enables Bitcoin wallets to work with an unlimited number of addresses.

  All these addresses are derived from the wallet's private key. Therefore, when a user migrates from one wallet app to another, the destination app would be able to derive all addresses a wallet ever had and check which of them ever received transactions.

• How can you send Bitcoin transactions that can't be spent until a certain date?

  Unstoppable wallet provides the ability to send Bitcoin transactions that can't be spent until a certain date in the future. Such capabilities exist on the Bitcoin blockchain but few wallet applications implement them.

  Being an experimental feature, it's not available by default and needs to be manually activated by the user from Settings >> Experimental Features.

  The recipient of such payments becomes the owner of the funds as soon as a transaction is confirmed on the blockchain; however the funds may not be spent until indicated time has passed. The Unstoppable wallet application shows a lock sign next to the balance amount that has originated from such transactions.

  The recipient of such transaction should be using Unstoppable wallet version 0.10 or higher and use BIP44 address format for Bitcoin. Other wallets may not be able to correctly identify such transactions on the network and therefore likely to simply not see them at all.

• Ethereum

• What is an Ethereum Smart Contract?

  A smart contract is a program that's preprogrammed to do something and can't do anything outside that logic. These programs are programmed and typically remain independent and unalterable by anyone (even its creator) after they have been deployed on the Ethereum blockchain.

  Think of smart contracts as autonomous robots that were designed to do just one thing and can't do anything outside that design. The Ethereum blockchain was created specifically as a platform for smart contracts.

  Currently, there are autonomous smart contracts managing billions worth of cryptocurrency operating as:

  • lending/borrowing facilities,
  • crypto exchange services,
  • lottery contracts,
  • decentralized autonomous organizations,
  • and so on.

  These smart contract powered services can't be taken down as they are hosted on the blockchain itself. At the same time, it's impossible to sue or censor a smart contract even if it operates billions in an unregulated manner, because there is no physical entity behind it.

  The Ethereum blockchain was created specifically to host smart contracts. Anyone can privately create a smart contract and deploy it to the blockchain to provide a public service without any preconditions.

• How to send Ethereum transaction?

  Тo send someone Ethereum coins, a sender needs the recipient's Ethereum address.

  For the transaction sender, the full process looks as follows:

  1. The sender gets the recipient's Ethereum address.
  2. Go to the Balance tab, click on Ethereum and select the 'send' option.
  3. Enter the amount and recipient's Ethereum address.
  4. Indicates the fee for the transaction.
  5. Clicks on the Next button to confirm the transaction.
  6. Reviews and confirms the transaction.
  7. Monitors the transaction status from the Transactions tab.

• How Ethereum transfers differ from Bitcoin?

  Transactions on the Ethereum blockchain can take many forms, going well beyond plain ETH transfers from one address to another.

  Being a blockchain designed for programmable money, an Ethereum transaction can have many steps involving conditional logic and interaction with various smart contracts.

  Currently, there are smart contracts which operate as lending/borrowing facilities, crypto exchange services, lottery contracts and so on. The Ethereum blockchain was created specifically to write and execute smart contracts.

  For instance, there can be a transaction which takes the following multiple steps within a single transaction:

  1. User borrows X amount of token Y from lending smart_contract_1
  2. Trades borrowed Y tokens for W tokens on exchange smart_contract_2
  3. Trades W tokens for Y tokens on other exchange smart_contract_3
  4. Returns borrowed Y tokens to lending smart_contract_1

  The 4 steps above can all be part of a single transaction. Such transactions can be made by someone looking to benefit from arbitrage opportunities between different decentralized crypto exchanges running on Ethereum.

  So, transactions on Ethereum may consist of several steps and involve value exchanges between several smart contract entities.

• How long Ethereum transaction takes?

  Similar to Bitcoin, a transaction on Ethereum is considered completed when a block that includes a given transaction has been added to the Ethereum blockchain.

  Just like on Bitcoin, the duration of an Ethereum transaction depends on the load of the network, and the fee amount set by the sender. When a lot of people are transacting on Ethereum, users are expected to pay higher fees in order for a transaction to be included in one of the next transaction blocks.

  Unstoppable estimates the required transaction fee amount in order for the transaction to be included within the next few blocks. A recommended fee value should typically be enough to have a transaction completed within 10-20 minutes, however there are no guarantees.

  If the user sets transaction fees much below the current average on the Ethereum network, then transactions may remain pending for hours/days until the network becomes less congested.

• How Ethereum fees are calculated?

  The fee recommendation setting for Ethereum transactions in Unstoppable provides two options: Recommended (for processing within 0-20 minutes) and Custom where the user sets a desired fee amount manually.

  A general rule here is to choose a higher fee (above the recommended) for transactions where there is a level of urgency or the amount transacted is high.

  For instance, transactions involving trading one cryptocurrency to another via a smart contract often involve a time period where the given trade should occur. In such cases, the transaction should be confirmed (included in the Ethereum blockchain) without staying too long in a pending state or else the trade would fail.

  Unstoppable gets a 'recommended' transaction fee from an Ethereum blockchain, using one of its native means to estimate transaction fees, taking into account the network load.

  To minimize the chances of the transaction failing or getting stuck when using recommended fee values, Unstoppable recommends even higher fees as the value of the transaction increases.

  • for amounts <= 500$ add 5% (on top of network recommended value)
  • for amounts <= 1000$ add 10%
  • for amounts > 1000 and <= 5000 add 15%
  • for amounts > 5000 and <= 10000 add 20%
  • for amounts > 10000 add 25%

  It's recommended to choose at least the fee value recommended by Unstoppable, when there is a level of urgency and the amount transacted is high. The recommended values would increase the speed of the transaction confirmation.

• Why Ethereum fees are so high?

  Transactions on the Ethereum blockchain can take many forms going well beyond plain ETH transfers from one address to another.

  Some example of transaction types:

  • a transfer of ETH from one address to another
  • a transfer of ERC20 tokens from one address to another
  • exchanging of ERC20 tokens to another ERC20 token
  • borrowing of some ERC20 tokens from a borrowing service

  All kinds of transactions can occur on the Ethereum blockchain. The key parameter that affects the transaction fee for different transactions at any given moment is the complexity of the individual transaction.

  • The more complex a transaction is, the more computational steps it has.
  • The more computational steps there are, the higher the fee is for the transaction.

  Keeping in mind the above, the simplest and cheapest transaction type on Ethereum is the plain transfer of Ethereum tokens.

  At the same time, a transaction that exchanges one token to another is more complex and typically costs several times more than sending ETH tokens to someone. The transaction fee doesn't depend on the amount of Ethereum or tokens being transacted.

• What is gas price and gas limit?

  The fee on the Ethereum network is paid in Ether (ETH tokens) but are calculated in so-called Gas units.

  As long as the user understands transaction fees, it's not crucial to understand the concept of gas. That said, for the curious ones, it's explained below.

  The Gas is like a fuel for doing anything on the Ethereum blockchain and is the unit of calculation used to calculate a fee for a particular action (transaction). It has two relevant parameters which are used in calculating the fee amount:

  1. Gas Limit is the maximum amount of Gas a user is willing to pay for confirming a transaction (a minimum of 21,000). The typical gas limit for a transaction where a person sends ETH to someone is 21,000. Usually, wallet apps estimate the gas limit based on the complexity of the transaction. An insufficient gas limit set for a transaction is a common reason for a transaction to fail with an 'out of gas' error.

  2. Gas Price is the amount (in ETH) a user is willing to spend per each unit of gas. The gas price usually changes with network conditions. When the network is busy, gas prices are high, and low when it's idle. The higher the gas price the sender is willing to pay, the more important the transaction is in the Ethereum network, since the reward of the miner will be higher. An insufficient gas price is often a reason for a transaction to remain pending for an extended period.

  Unstoppable wallet estimates and sets a limit as well as a gas price for each transaction on the Ethereum network. The recommended fee for the transaction is calculated by multiplying the recommended values for the gas limit and gas price.

  For example, if the gas limit is 50,000 units and the gas price is 20 Gwei (subunit of Ether), then it means that the sender is ready to spend 0.001 ETH on the execution of the transaction.

• Why ETH needed to send tokens?

  To execute any transaction on the Ethereum blockchain, a sender of such a transaction is expected to pay transaction fees in ETH.

  Transferring ERC20 tokens from one address to another is a type of transaction on Ethereum.

• When Ethereum transaction considered final?

  While an Ethereum transaction is considered completed/confirmed once it has been included in the blockchain, it's not considered final until a few more blocks have been added to the blockchain after it.

  In order for a transaction to be considered final and permanent, it's recommended to wait 11 more blocks (about 3 minutes) after the block holding the transaction is added to the blockchain.

• How to monitor Ethereum transaction?

  Unstoppable wallet allows users to monitor the status of their transactions.

  When a user sends an Ethereum transaction, it should appear with a 'pending' status on the Transactions tab, right after it's sent.

  The status of the transaction changes to 'sending' for the sender and 'receiving' for the recipient as soon as it gets included in the blockchain. That event also means the transaction has got its first confirmation.

  The wallet app displays the status as 'sending' for the sender and 'receiving' for the recipient until at least 10 blocks have passed (aka. the transaction having 10 confirmations). After that, the status change will change to completed, indicated by a checkmark with a timestamp.

  Apart from monitoring the transaction status within Unstoppable, users may use one of the publicly available Ethereum block explorers (i.e. https://etherscan.io) for monitoring as well. For that, users may simply search for the transaction ID on a public block explorer for the Ethereum blockchain.

• How to cancel Ethereum transaction?

  Once a transaction has been confirmed (included in a block) on the Ethereum blockchain, it cannot be canceled or replaced. The only way to cancel or change a transaction is when it remains in a pending state, awaiting confirmation.

  When the Ethereum network doesn't experience a high transaction volume, transactions are typically confirmed within seconds or minutes. Therefore, there is simply not enough time to cancel a transaction that was just sent.

  However, during busy times when there is a high volume of people transacting, a transaction can remain pending for hours or days. In such a case, there is an option to replace it with a new transaction before the pending transaction gets confirmed.

  The easiest way to cancel a transaction is by sending a new 0 ETH transaction to your own address with the same nonce (as the previous transaction) and much higher transaction fee. While this should cancel the first transaction, there is no guarantee this will work, nor that it will work every time.

  Note: As of June 2021, Unstoppable doesn't yet provide a way to control the 'nonce' setting for the transactions, and therefore the wallet app doesn't provide a way to cancel pending transactions. This feature will be added in the future.

• Why failed transactions consume fees?

  In order for a transaction to be considered completed, it needs to be confirmed and added to the blockchain. However, a completed transaction doesn't mean that all steps in the transaction were executed successfully. A transaction may be completed and yet fail to execute all the steps it was supposed to do.

  There are many potential reasons where this can happen. For example, a transaction swapping one token to another often includes a validity period that defines how long the transaction conditions are considered valid after it's sent by the user. If such a transaction remains in a pending state (waiting for the confirmation) longer than its validity period, it may still get confirmed but the token exchange won't take place.

  Failed transactions are also added to the blockchain and consume transaction fees. The transaction fees are still paid to miners for executing computational steps for it. Network miners have to validate and spend computational power on every transaction without knowing in advance whether it's going to fail or not.

  Therefore, users sending transactions are paying for the computation, regardless of whether their transaction succeeds or fails.

  Transaction fees are paid to the network directly and do not pass through or relate to Unstoppable wallet in any way.

• Why Ethereum transaction stays pending?

  There are two potential reasons a transaction may remain in a pending state for an extended period of time.

  The transaction fee is below the network average: This is the most common reason for a transaction to remain in a pending state. In such cases, transactions get confirmed after the network becomes less busy.

  If there is another pending transaction from the same user: Ethereum transactions are processed in sequence and if there is a pending transaction, it needs to be completed (or replaced) first before other transactions from the same user can take place.

• When Ethereum transaction can fail?

  Some of the most common fail reason errors for Ethereum transactions are:

  Error: Dropped and Replaced

  Dropped and Replaced error means the transaction was dropped and replaced by a new one. Please see more information about a dropped and replaced transaction under the link below.

  https://info.etherscan.com/transaction-dropped-replaced/

  Error: Out of gas

  Out of gas error occurs when the gas limit for transaction is set too low. Please read the below article for a better understanding of the gas limit.

  https://ethgasstation.info/blog/gas-limit/

• What are ERC20 tokens?

  The term cryptocurrency usually refers to a native currency unit within a blockchain. Bitcoin and Ethereum are both native cryptocurrencies on their respective blockchains.

  Some blockchains like Ethereum provide the means to create other cryptocurrencies for all kinds of purposes. Such cryptocurrencies are typically referred to as cryptocurrency tokens.

  The Ethereum blockchain is foremost a platform that enables the creation of autonomous services powered by smart contracts. Some of the popular services include:

  • Uniswap >> a token exchange service
  • MakerDAO >> a borrowing service
  • Synthetix >> a derivatives trading service

  The services on Ethereum can take many forms and have different use cases. Some of these services issue internal cryptocurrency tokens that can be used for things like service governance, voting or profit sharing.

  • Uniswap has the UNI token
  • MakeDAO has the MKR token
  • Synthetix has the SNX token

  As Ethereum started growing in popularity, there was a need for a common token standard and that's how the ERC20 token standard emerged.

  Today, there are many ERC20 tokens around, and anyone with sufficient skills can create one. These tokens make up over half of the cryptocurrencies around and being traded on cryptocurrency exchanges just like Ethereum or Bitcoin. In many ways, ERC20 tokens are a decentralized equivalent of 'company shares' in the blockchain world.

  The value of some ERC20 tokens depends on what capabilities it provides to the owner. For instance, a token that gives someone the ability to claim profits from an Ethereum-based autonomous service would obviously increase in price as that service grows in popularity and generates profits for its token holders.

  The ERC20 is the most common token standard that is being used by many Ethereum services when creating internal tokens. It outlines what base characteristics and capabilities a token should have, how token balances should be tracked, how transfers should work, and so on.

• Why Ethereum and ERC20 addresses are same?

  In contrast to Bitcoin, where the user's payment address changes after each incoming transaction, the Ethereum payment address for the individual wallet always stays the same.

  It should be also noted that someone's address to receive ETH or some ERC20 tokens would always be the same.

• How to add ERC20 token to balance?

  Users may add any Ethereum-based ERC20 token to the wallet using the Coin Manager icon on the balance tab.

  From the Coin Manager screen, users may either search (and activate the coin) or add it manually via the Add Token option.

  To add the token manually, users need to know its ERC20 contract address.

• Is it safe to share Ethereum address?

  While users are expected to share Ethereum payment addresses with anyone they are expecting payment from, there are some privacy concerns to keep in mind.

  Sharing Ethereum addresses with others has privacy issues, as the other party can potentially see ETH and all ERC20 token balances and past transactions for that address.

  Therefore, some users keep multiple Ethereum wallets and use them for various purposes. There can be one wallet for transacting with others and one for long term asset storage that's not used in peer to peer transactions.

• Binance

• What is Binance Smart Chain?

  Binance Smart Chain (BSC) is a clone of the Ethereum blockchain with some differences. While most things are similar in practice, it's a different blockchain with its own cryptocurrency token known as Binance Token (symbol BNB) and ecosystem.

  BSC rose to popularity as a result of high usage and congestion on Ethereum blockchain which resulted in transaction fees becoming very expensive.

  BSC allows for much cheaper transactions as a result of having a fixed number of privileged validator nodes that process transactions on the blockchain. While this makes the blockchain network more centralized and less secure it does make it significantly faster.

  Things to keep in mind when interacting with BSC ecosystem:

  • a standalone blockchain with semi-centralized architecture
  • has its own cryptocurrency token and ecosystem
  • transaction fees are paid in BNB tokens
  • allows for fast and cheap transactions

  BSC managed to attract a lot of projects over a short period of time and is one of the few blockchains that has a thriving ecosystem of decentralized services.

• What are BEP20 tokens?

  The BEP20 is Binance Smart Chain's version of Ethereum's ERC20 token standard. Those who are not familiar with the concept may learn about it in the Ethereum section.

  It should be also noted that someone's address to receive BNB on Binance Smart Chain or some BEP20 tokens would always be the same.

• What are BEP2 tokens?

  The BEP2 is a token standard on Binance Chain blockchain which is another blockchain, different from Binance Smart Chain.

  Binance Chain is a predecessor to Binance Smart Chain blockchain.

• How to add BEP20 or BEP2 token to balance?

  Users may add any Binance Smart Chain (BEP20) or Binance Chain (BEP2) token to the wallet using the Coin Manager icon on the balance tab.

  From the Coin Manager screen, users may either search (and activate the coin) or add it manually via Add Token option.

  To add token manually users need to know its BEP20 / BEP2 contract address.

• Privacy

• Does Unstoppable collect user data?

  Unstoppable doesn't collect any data or use analytics tools that may expose any data about its users. The wallet is designed to ensure a high level of privacy for its users.

  • user data always remains on the user's device.
  • the wallet doesn't collect any data about users.
  • the wallet doesn't share any data about users.
  • there are no user accounts or databases keeping user data elsewhere.

• Are Unstoppable users anonymous?

  For the most part the activity of someone using Unstoppable is anonymous, but there are many other factors that may affect someone's privacy.

  These factors relate to internet privacy in general, and not to Unstoppable directly. Below, we outline some of the more important points to be aware of.

  1. When someone uses Unstoppable to send and receive transactions, the identity and other data of the person remain private. Neither Unstoppable developers know anything about users nor any 3rd party entity, be it a government agency or a financial regulator.

     At the same time if the person regularly uses Unstoppable wallet to interact with non-private (regulated) crypto exchanges or any other centralized wallets, then there is a high chance that user activity on these platforms is being shared with external parties.

     From that activity, it may become possible for a 3rd party to uncover that certain addresses/transactions belong to the same user.

     At the same time, the private user data and activity on cryptocurrency exchanges i.e. deposits, withdrawals, trades, used addresses etc. may also get leaked and become publicly accessible on the web as a result of a hacking attack on the infrastructure powering centralized exchanges.

  2. Depending on various geographical and political factors, some people might consider more extensive privacy measures like hiding any crypto related activity. Those users may require that their activity remains private even from their ISPs.

     ISPs can potentially keep track of users' browsing activities, sites visited, etc. and have means to match that data with real world identities of customers. Depending on sites visited, users may unintentionally expose some data about themselves including addresses owned and token balances.

     Wallets like Unstoppable provide ways to route internet traffic on the app level via encrypted proxy channels (using VPN, TOR) making it impossible for an ISP and similar bodies to know the context of users' internet activity when using the Unstoppable wallet app.

  3. Finally, users should also be aware about varying privacy levels offered by different cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum.

     Users are encouraged to go over the privacy aspects of transactions on both Ethereum and Bitcoin and understand how they differ.

     While Bitcoin comes with some level of privacy, Ethereum is fully open and understanding this part is crucial in order to be able to create a reliable privacy strategy.

  The points above are by no means a complete overview of privacy aspects and there are some other more advanced privacy points.

• Are Ethereum transactions private?

  Every transaction done by an address (user) on the Ethereum blockchain is visible to anyone monitoring the blockchain.

  Furthermore, given any address, it's possible to look up its past transactions as well as its current ETH and ERC20 token balances. In short, everything the account was ever up to.

  The only remaining privacy element here is the lack of connection between an Ethereum address and a person's real world identity.

  A good privacy practice when it comes to Ethereum is to use multiple wallets with clearly defined use cases:

  • a rarely-used wallet for long term storage that never transacts with entities that collect data.
  • a wallet for transacting with centralized exchanges and other data-collecting entities.
  • a wallet for transacting with people.

  With a right approach and some due diligence on the part of the user, some level of privacy can be achieved on Ethereum.

• Are Bitcoin transactions private?

  While all Bitcoin transactions are visible on the blockchain, it's not always easy to link different transactions to the same entity.

  As Bitcoin enables the usage of unique addresses for each incoming payment, it provides a significantly higher layer of privacy than Ethereum. That's why Unstoppable wallet automatically changes a deposit address after each payment. Such an approach makes it significantly harder for anyone monitoring the blockchain to identify a user's balance and past transactions.

  Just like Ethereum, a good privacy practice when it comes to Bitcoin is to use multiple wallets with clearly defined use cases:

  • a rarely-used wallet for long storage that never transacts with entities that collect data.
  • a wallet for transacting with centralized exchanges and other data-collecting entities.
  • a wallet for transacting with people.

  Apart from using a unique address for each incoming payment, wallets like Unstoppable also provide some further advanced privacy enhancing features which have to do with how transactions are structured.

• How TOR and VPN enhances privacy?

  Features such as TOR (on Android), and VPN (coming soon) in Unstoppable primarily helps with breaking a link between a user's internet activity and a physical identity on the level of the internet provider.

  Without such masking features, users' activity like sites visited are clearly visible to the internet service provider.

  If we are to assume that someone's internet activity is being tracked, then without such features, users may unintentionally expose their cryptocurrency addresses and even token balances simply by visiting some block explorer website and attempt to look up activity on the address. Typically, people look up their own addresses.

  People living in authoritarian environments may find such privacy enhancing capabilities useful.

• Is it safe to share data with exchanges?

  Nearly all regulated cryptocurrency exchanges and other service providers are required to conduct extensive Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti Money Laundering (AML) checks for each customer they work with.

  The extent of information requested by these service providers changes depending on various factors including the customer's location, service provider location and its business nature.

  Anyone expecting to deal with large amounts of cryptocurrency should expect to go through such checks with cryptocurrency exchanges, banks etc.

  Some points to keep in mind:

  • the business entity conducting a check may get compromised and leak users' private data as a result. Therefore, preference should be given to more established entities.

  • the business entity conducting a check may (have to) share the information about the user with other entities. Those looking for privacy in that regard, may look for service providers lying outside their own jurisdiction.

• How to buy cryptocurrency anonymously?

  Purchasing cryptocurrency for fiat currency anonymously is difficult, especially for someone looking to purchase in large amounts.

  The only way to purchase cryptocurrency anonymously is to buy it from someone directly or by using P2P cryptocurrency exchanges like https://bisq.network.

  A less private way would be to buy using a cryptocurrency exchange incorporated outside the user's jurisdiction or a service i.e. Tether limited https://tether.to.

  Buying one cryptocurrency using some other cryptocurrency anonymously is possible and can be done through decentralized exchanges like Uniswap or Sushiswap using Unstoppable and similar DeFi-enabled wallets.

• DEXes/Swaps

• What are cryptocurrency swaps?

  Unstoppable wallet integrates the capability to exchange one cryptocurrency token to another via decentralized cryptocurrency exchanges.

  A decentralized cryptocurrency exchange (or DEX) is an autonomous token exchange service that operates on smart contract enabled blockchains (Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain, etc) allowing anyone to exchange tokens privately and unconditionally.

  • DEX allows anyone to swap/trade one cryptocurrency token to another.
  • Trades on DEX are non-custodial with users always in control of the funds.
  • Users trade against the DEX directly.
  • DEX acts both as a maker and taker for any supported token trade.
  • The DEX typically charges a 'swap fee' ranging between %0.2 - %0.4.
  • DEXes are independent and autonomous.
  • Access to DEX is open and unconditional.

• Why Unstoppable supports only DEXes?

  The Unstoppable wallet app is engineered to work outside the traditional finance layer and therefore doesn't integrate any financial services that operate on traditional finance ecosystems.

  Thus, there is no option to:

  • buy cryptocurrency using a credit card (or bank deposit),
  • sell cryptocurrency for fiat currency
  • exchange cryptocurrency via traditional centralized cryptocurrency exchanges (Binance, Coinbase, etc).

  To allow users to buy and sell one cryptocurrency for another cryptocurrency, Unstoppable integrates the biggest decentralized exchanges which allow cryptocurrency trades outside the traditional finance layer.

  Decentralized cryptocurrency exchanges are open and accessible 24/7 by anyone from anywhere.

• Which DEXes Unstoppable supports?

  Unstoppable wallet currently supports the following decentralized exchanges:

  • Uniswap

  supported trades: ETH <> ERC20 / ERC20 <> ERC20

  • PancakeSwap

  supported assets: BNB <> BEP20 / BEP20 <> BEP20

  • 1inch Aggregator

  supported assets: ETH <> ERC20, ERC20 <> ERC20, BNB <> BEP20, BEP20 <> BEP20

  DEX integration enables asset trading within the ecosystem of a single blockchain like trading Ethereum (ETH) for some ERC20 tokens (USDT, UNI, AAVE etc). Uniswap for trading Ethereum based assets (ERC20) and PancakeSwap for trading Binance Smart Chain based assets (BEP20).

  When it comes to the 1inch aggregator, it allows traders to split a single trade order between multiple exchanges within the Ethereum or Binance Smart Chain ecosystem for an optimum price.

  In the future, Unstoppable aims to complete integration with the Thorchain decentralized exchange that enables cryptocurrency trades between blockchains.

  Thorchain integration will enable convenient decentralized token swaps between the following asset types: BTC, ETH, LTC, ZEC, BCH, BNB, ERC20 and BEP20 tokens.

• How to swap cryptocurrency?

  To swap one cryptocurrency to another in Unstoppable:

  • The first step is to activate the cryptocurrency coin (that will be used to pay) on the Balance tab via the 'add coin' button if it's not already active.
  • Then proceed to the Balance tab, click on the coin cell and then on the swap icon.
  • The resulting screen shows two boxes. One for selecting the cryptocurrency coin to sell and the other for the cryptocurrency coin to buy.
  • After both options are selected, Unstoppable displays the real time swap rate for selected coins and trade details.

  By default, Unstoppable attempts to route the order through 1inch for optimum trade prices.

  Users are able to change the default service provider to Uniswap or PancakeSwap if they want to.

• Are there limits to swap amounts?

  Users can swap as much cryptocurrency as they want, given there is enough liquidity on a DEX.

  Users are strongly advised to review the swap risks before executing a swap transaction.

  It should also be noted that the amount of available liquidity on a decentralized exchange may be insufficient to cover some large trades, especially when the trade involves some unpopular token.

  Therefore, users are encouraged to compare the swap price with some other centralized exchange (ex: Binance) before executing a trade.

• Are there any risks when swapping?

  While Unstoppable wallet guides users through a swap action by hiding complexities and automatically setting swap settings, there are a number of points to be aware of when executing swap trades.

  1. Cost of Swap Transaction

  When swapping on a decentralized exchange, users are expected to pay both the transaction fee (to the miner on the Ethereum blockchain) and a swap fee (to a DEX that settles the order).

  These fees are sent to different entities within a swap single transaction. While the swap fee depends on the order size, the transaction fee depends on the network conditions.

  Note that it's not uncommon to see high transaction fees when the Ethereum blockchain is busy and congested. Regardless of the DEX being used, executing a swap transaction on Binance Smart Chain is considerably cheaper than a swap on the Ethereum blockchain.

  Transaction costs aside, DEXes on both blockchains charge more or less similar rates (usually 0.3% of amount) for a swap.

  It should also be noted that DEXes on different blockchains work with different sets and have different liquidity levels for various trading pairs.

  2. Transaction Deadline

  Typically, a swap transaction remains valid for about 20 minutes after it has been submitted to the blockchain. Therefore, when swapping using DEX on a busy blockchain like Ethereum, it's important to ensure that the swap transaction is submitted with a sufficient transaction fee to ensure it's processed within the given deadline.

  Submitting a swap transaction with a low fee (below the recommended value) on Ethereum is likely to result in the transaction remaining in a pending state longer than the deadline set for the transaction. By the time the transaction is added to the blockchain, it's already expired, resulting in a failed swap action. Failed swaps will still consume network transaction fees.

  3. Price Slippage

  Price slippage is the difference in a token price between the time a swap order is placed and the time the transaction completes on the blockchain or is filled. Slippage can either be positive or negative, depending on the direction of the price change.

  Price slippage occurs because of changing market conditions between the moment the transaction is submitted to the network and its verification on a blockchain. The duration between the order submission and its verification depends on the network conditions and the transaction fee set by the user.

  Unstoppable displays the potential slippage amount by providing an estimated and guaranteed amount of tokens users are expected to receive as a result of the swap transaction.

  Users have an option to indicate acceptable slippage levels when sending transactions. By default, the value is set to %0.5 - %1 depending on the DEX being used.

  While users may be tempted to settle for the lowest possible slippage, it can also result in the transaction failing due to its inability to execute the trade within the indicated slippage amount.

  Remember, a failed transaction still consumes the transaction fee!

  4. Price Slippage Tolerance

  Slippage tolerance is a setting for the amount of price slippage you are willing to accept for a trade. By setting a slippage tolerance, you're basically setting a minimum amount on how many tokens you will accept, in the event that the price increases or decreases.

  Slippage tolerance is set as a percentage of the total swap value. For example, if you set the slippage tolerance at 3%, it means that the amount of tokens you will receive can be no higher or lower than 3% of the amount entered.

  For more information on slippage tolerance and the risks of setting it too high/low, refer to this page.

  5. Swap Transaction Fees

  Transacting on the Ethereum blockchain is currently expensive where a plain transfer of ETH tokens (the cheapest transaction type) from one address to another can cost as much as $10 in ETH. Therefore, a more complex transaction type i.e. a swap transaction can easily exceed $50.

  Keeping in mind the above, it's not economically viable to swap on the Ethereum blockchain when dealing with lower amounts. It may not be a big deal for someone swapping $10,000 worth of crypto to pay a $100 transaction fee than someone swapping $500 or lower amounts.

  6. Approval Transactions

  When selling ERC20 or BEP20 tokens, users are first required to execute an Approval Transaction. This transaction grants an approval for DEX to deduct ERC20/BEP20 tokens from your balance when executing a trade. A DEX can't use your tokens for trades without an approval transaction.

• Why approve transaction is needed?

  Users are expected to execute a separate Approve transaction when doing any of the following swap trades:

  • ERC20 -> ETH
  • ERC20 → ERC20
  • BEP20 → BNB
  • BEP20 → BEP20

  Approved transactions are generally cheap to execute and serve as a permission from a user to allow DEX to debit an approved amount of ERC20/BEP20 tokens in order to execute a trade.

  When executing an Approve transaction, users have an option to indicate the amount of tokens the DEX is allowed to debit. If necessary, users are able to approve higher amounts in advance to account for future trades and thus save the need to do another Approve Transaction in the future.

  Approving a lower amount than required by a trade will result in the transaction failing to execute.

• Why swap fees are so high?

  The Ethereum blockchain is busy and therefore expensive to transact on. The more people there are transacting on the blockchain, the more expensive the transactions are.

  Transacting on the Ethereum blockchain is currently expensive where a plain transfer of ETH tokens (the cheapest transaction type) from one address to another can cost as much as $10 in ETH. Therefore, a more complex transaction type i.e. swap transaction can easily exceed $50.

  Keeping in mind the above, it's not economically viable to swap on the Ethereum blockchain when dealing with lower amounts. It may not be a big deal for someone swapping $10,000 worth of crypto to pay a $100 transaction fee than for someone swapping $500 or lower amounts.

  It should also be noted that the recommended transaction fee shown by Unstoppable is the maximum expected fee for the transaction. The fees are estimated and not actual amounts.

  The actual fee known after the transaction is completed is usually slightly lower than the estimated recommended value.

• Why failed swaps consume fees?

  A transaction on the Ethereum blockchain may be completed and yet fail to execute all the steps it was supposed to do.

  The user still pays the transaction fee to the network when that happens. Users are expected to pay for the computation steps of a failed transaction, just like for a successful one. Users sending transactions are paying for the computation, regardless of whether their transaction succeeds or fails.

  There are many potential reasons when a swap transaction can fail:

  • The time duration between the transaction submission to the network and its confirmation time. The transaction will fail if that time exceeds the validity period set by the user for the swap. This is likely to happen when the network is congested and/or if the user's set fee for the transaction is insufficient for processing within the required time frame.

  • Very low price slippage setting. If the user indicates a low acceptable price slippage level then there is an increased chance of a DEX being unable to execute the swap of tokens within the desired price levels.

  • Low transaction fee setting. Setting a lower transaction fee is likely to result in the transaction remaining pending longer than its validity period set for a trade.

• Why not possible to swap Bitcoin?

  Currently swap actions are limited to assets residing on the Ethereum and Binance Smart Chain blockchains.

  Unstoppable wallet aims to add decentralized swap capabilities for Bitcoin, Zcash and other blockchains in the near future.

• DeFi / WalletConnect

• What is Decentralized Finance?

  In traditional finance, also called centralized finance, service providers act as intermediaries between the user and the service. The user's access and participation in the service is conditional and regulated by the respective service providers.

  • Banks place minimum account balances, withdrawal caps and transfer limits on savings accounts.

  • Credit card issuers can cancel your card and service if they see any activity they deem suspicious.

  • Investment opportunities are conditional and exclude most but the wealthiest members of society.

  Typically, Decentralized Finance (DeFi) refers to a category of products which provide access to financial services but are not controlled by a centralized entity.

  • Bitcoin provides a decentralized settlement network for value transfer. No one needs a permission to access and transact on the network.
  • Ethereum provides a decentralized platform that enables anyone to build cryptocurrency-powered financial services as well as make use of services built by others.
  • Non-custodial wallets like Unstoppable provide the means to store and access capital without dependence on a third party.

  Today, a majority of DeFi services operate on top of the Ethereum blockchain and are commonly known as DApps.

  These DApps generally have the following characteristics:

  • Open To All : Anyone worldwide with an internet connection and some cryptocurrency can use a service regardless of location, age, experience, status, etc.

  • Censorship Resistant : DeFi services live on a distributed blockchain powered by thousands of servers. This ensures uninterrupted access to the service to anyone worldwide, at any time.

  • Non-Custodial : The service user always maintain full unconditional control over the assets. No dependence on some entity that acts as custodian of assets.

  • Trustless : DeFi services are transparent and have an open code. Users do not need to trust a service provider as the service is practically unable to do anything outside the scope of the pre-programmed rules. It cannot cheat, steal or misuse funds.

  • Independent : In general, DeFi services don't belong to any single entity. In some cases, these services are moderated by a geographically distributed group of semi-anonymous entities.

  Keeping the above in mind, the goal of DeFi is to reconstruct the financial instruments for the whole world by building open, censorship-resistant, decentralized alternatives.

  Below is a basic overview of how the building, financing and governance of DeFi services takes place:

  • All DeFi projects are expected to have an open source code enabling third party engineers to inspect and reuse various components from the service.

  • To raise funds, DeFi projects generally conduct token sales via a process such as ICO (Initial Coin Offering) or similar. The project sells a specific cryptocurrency token representing governance weight or profit share in a project.

  • DeFi projects are usually governed by a group of entities which may not even know each other. The governance may take place via proposals and voting mechanisms.

• What are popular DeFi services?

  A number of DeFi services have emerged over the last few years. While the majority of them operate on top of the Ethereum blockchain, there are also services using other blockchains like Solana or Binance Smart Chain.

  These include:

  • crypto exchange services like Uniswap or Sushiswap enabling users to exchange one crypto token to another.
  • crypto lending/borrowing services like Aave, allowing users to lend or borrow cryptocurrency for a fee.
  • other cryptocurrency-powered financial services and products i.e. insurance, derivatives, stablecoin issuers and so on.

• How to use DeFi with Unstoppable?

  DeFi services are open to all and can be accessed by anyone with a cryptocurrency wallet.

  While DeFi services operate on top of a blockchain, users are generally provided with a website to interact with them. Users can log into these websites using their cryptocurrency wallets.

  Unstoppable is one of the few mobile-based cryptocurrency wallets that provides an ability to connect to any DeFi service built on top of Ethereum or Binance Smart Chain blockchains using an open WalletConnect protocol.

  Take the following steps to use Unstoppable wallet with a DeFi service:

  1. Navigate to a DeFi service website and look for Connect/Login links.

  2. Select WalletConnect from the options. That action should open a window with a QR code.

  3. Open the Unstoppable wallet app and navigate to the Settings tab.

  4. Click on WalletConnect and then the New Session button.

  5. Scan the QR code from step 2 to initiate a connection. The status of the connection should be shown on that screen. Keep that window open.

  6. After a successful connect, return to the service website. At this point, you should already appear as connected.

  Every user action (on a DeFi website) that requires the spending of funds will have to be confirmed by the user from within the wallet app.

  • The confirmation window will appear on top of the connection status screen from step 5. Therefore, it needs to stay open in order to see the confirmation window when it pops up.

  • If it's dismissed then it can be reopened (without the need to reconnect) from a list of active WalletConnect sessions.

  It should also be stated that Ethereum DeFi transactions are typically complex and require higher processing fees than typical token transfer transactions.

  Apart from the network transaction fees, a service may charge its own fees to the user. For instance, a crypto token exchange service like Uniswap or Sushiswap charges 0.3% for executing an exchange.

  Keeping in mind the above, don't be surprised if you see a transaction fee in the 100$ - 200$ range.

• How To Monitor WalletConnect transactions?

  Just like regular token transfers and swaps, Defi transactions that are executed via WalletConnect will also appear in the Transactions tab.

  In the transactions list, these transactions will appear as 'Contract Call' but may also have a more descriptive name like 'Sushiswap Pool Deposit'.

  The status of such transactions can be monitored from within the Unstoppable wallet app or on a public blockchain explorer i.e. Etherscan using the transaction ID.

• What are risks when using WalletConnect?

  It should be noted that WalletConnect merely acts as a bridge between the DeFi service website and the user's wallet (for example Unstoppable).

  When a user initiates any action on the DeFi service website requiring a transfer of funds, Unstoppable wallet presents a user with the confirmation window to approve/deny the respective transaction. The Unstoppable wallet has little means to know the context of the transaction and merely acts as an instrument to allow/deny the transaction.

  It's important to use a DeFi website provided by reliable entities. If a bad actor overtakes the website of the service, it's potentially possible for a user to be presented with a confirmation window going beyond the intents of the user without realising it. Therefore, only use well-regarded and widely used DeFi services.