Jaxx Liberty Wallet Review: Complete Beginners Guide

Jaxx was first released in 2014 and became extremely popular as a multi-currency crypto wallet over the years, used by many in the crypto space which is why we figured it was time to write up this Jaxx Liberty Wallet Review.

It’s a great choice for those new to the world of cryptocurrencies, and yet it remains feature-rich enough for experienced crypto users. Created by Decentral, the leading Canadian blockchain company founded by Anthony Di Iorio, who was also a co-founder of Ethereum, Jaxx has been the choice of millions of cryptocurrency users.

In this Jaxx Wallet Review, I will give you everything you need to know about the security, usability and features. I will also give you some top tips when it comes to using the wallet.

What is the Jaxx Liberty Wallet?

Jaxx Liberty has been described as the 2.0 version of cryptocurrency wallets. It is a multi-currency wallet, and can hold more than 85 different digital assets. It has also been gamified to help new users easily experience and enjoy the blockchain experience.

The Jaxx Liberty comes with a host of new features that set it apart from its competitors. One of these is ShapeShift integration, allowing users to easily switch between different cryptocurrencies with no exchange fees or delays.

There’s loads more new features that I’ll go into more detail about below.

New Features of Jaxx Liberty Wallet

One of the favorite features of the Jaxx Liberty wallet is its ability to store and transact with so many different cryptocurrencies. With thousands of cryptocurrencies to choose from most users these days have several and being able to keep them all in the same wallet is a real convenience.

The coins you can store in Jaxx Liberty include: Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Dogecoin, Qtum, EOS, Bitcoin Cash and many more. A full list can be found here.

Some users have complained that there is no support for Ripple (XRP), and there hasn’t been any indication from the Jaxx team that such support will be added. That said, the development team is very involved with the users and is happy to accept requests for new coins to be added to the wallet, either through the support ticketing system or on their active sub-Reddit.

The other features that have excited users are as follows:

• Unified Dashboard – The Jaxx Liberty dashboard gives you a single place too see all your wallets and gives you a complete picture of your holdings.
• Portfolio – Keep abreast of the value of your holdings in real-time with the portfolio module.
• News Viewer – Now integrated into the Jaxx wallet is a blockchain news viewer so you can keep up on all the new developments and breaking news from the blockchain and cryptocurrency world.
• Market Data – Get price, trends and market caps of all your favorite cryptocurrencies with a click or tap.
• Blockexplorers – Interact directly with the blockchain and see transaction data and other raw data points for multiple blockchains.
• Cross Platform – Support for both desktop and mobile lets you interact with your assets at home or on the go.
• ShapeShift – Built in support for ShapeShift allows you to exchange one cryptocurrency for another without ever needing to leave your wallet, increasing both convenience and security.

Downloading Jaxx Liberty

Jaxx Liberty is completely free to download and use. You can get the desktop version (Mac, Windows, Linux) and Chrome browser extension directly from the Jaxx Liberty website here. The Android version is available on the Google Play store, and the iOS version is available from the Apple iTunes store.

If you are extra cautious about the authenticity of the PC wallet, then you can always complete what is called a "checksum" on the wallet install files. These are terminal commands that you can run on your local machine which should output those that are provided on the Jaxx website. Below are the Windows and Mac examples.

There is no requirement for any personal information and once you download the wallet you can quickly install it and begin using it.

Jaxx Liberty Security

Security is very important to Jaxx and Jaxx users after a hack of the old Jaxx Classic wallet in June 2017 led to the loss of $400,000 in various cryptocurrencies from user wallets. Most of that loss was from a single users wallet, and in that case it could have been avoided since the user was managing his Jaxx on a rooted Android device.

The new Jaxx Liberty has both password and PIN protection, and the wallet generation creates a secure 12-word backup seed phrase that is encrypted on your own device. Jaxx never has access to that phrase or your private keys, they are always securely on your own device. You can also use this 12 word seed to sync the wallet on numerous devices.

Warning ⚠️: Make backups to these seed words. Only you have control of them and without them you cannot recover wallets

There is also an improved new security model protects your sensitive information with a strong password, using AES-256 encryption enhanced by 5000 rounds of PBKDF2 password hashing.

Two things that are missing are 2-factor authentication and open source code. That said, they do make all the code viewable, with the exception of the code for the UI. This allows the code to be audited, but keeps others from carelessly using the code the Jaxx developers worked so hard on perfecting. It’s a balance that keeps as much private as necessary while still satisfying the needs of the users.

Since the code is visible it has been audited by knowledgeable users and organizations numerous times and has been found stable, safe and secure.

Jaxx Desktop or Jaxx Mobile App?

There used to be a difference between the Jaxx mobile app and Jaxx desktop platform that made the mobile app superior. In the past the mobile app was very slow to load, which was a complaint of some users. And both the mobile app and the desktop platform had a bug that caused them to sometimes miss transactions, forcing users to repeat transactions.

Needless to say both situations were frustrating for users and in the new Jaxx Liberty it appears the development team has resolved both issues. There are some remaining bugs, but they appear to be limited in scope and often affect single users, indicating either user error or an issue with specific hardware.

In general both mobile app and desktop platform work well, and since they can be synced you can actually use both to access your funds.

Jaxx Liberty Web Wallet

The Jaxx wallet is also available as a web wallet, similar to Metamask, as a browser extension available for Chrome. This option provides users who enjoy the mobile app or desktop wallet with added utility as they can use the Jaxx Liberty Web Wallet to integrate with with Dapps and DeFi applications.

Jaxx Liberty Paper Wallets

Jaxx Liberty has the option to view and copy your private keys, which would allow you to create a paper wallet from those keys if you like. It also has support for importing private keys from a paper wallet.

If you are creating a paper wallet, you can keep your cryptocurrency in cold storage. This basically means that your private keys are kept in an offline environment that is "air gapped". This is generally considered quite safe because your coins are inaccessible to hackers.

If you do decide to create a paper wallet from your private keys remember that it needs to be kept as safe as possible. Anyone who gains control of the paper wallet will also have control of all the funds stored in that wallet. And if you lose the paper wallet the funds are lost with it.

Jaxx User Support

Something that I was quite pleased to see was the extensive support that is offered by the Decentral team for the Jaxx Liberty and Jaxx Classic wallets. While they cannot help users recover lost keys, they can provide assistance to a host of other queries and problems users have with the wallets - this despite the fact that it is free.

Your first port-of-call is probably to head on over to the Decentral support page. They have populated these docs with a compendium of user guides and hints / tips. You can either head on down to the more general user guides or you can search for a resource in their FAQs.

Then, if you are unable to find a solution to your problem on these pages then you can submit a request through their online contact form. If you wanted a more direct access to hurry tickets along then the Jaxx team is also quite active on their social media accounts such as Twitter.

Warning ⚠️: They will not deal with you via email or phone so do not hand over any information to those posing as agents

Indeed, it seems as if the Jaxx developers and customer support teams are quite open to user feedback. If you take a look at the comments that are being made in the Play store, the developers follow up quickly and with concrete action steps.

Jaxx Hardware Wallet

Decentral once said they are planning on releasing a hardware wallet, which will be called the Cube Ice and will pair with a larger hardware device called the Cube. The devices were first announced in May 2016 and the Cube is meant to complement home entertainment systems and will come preloaded with a number of blockchain nodes.

The Ice Cube will be an offline cold storage wallet that is both water-proof and fire proof. It was expected to be both cable and connection-free and will be able to sync with the Cube or any other device that supports Jaxx.

Unfortunately, though, there has been no update by the team on the progress of the Ice Cube hardware wallet. Given that this was almost three years ago, one is left to wonder whether Decentral has placed the hardware wallet on ice.

Jaxx Unity Tokens

At the same time the Jaxx Liberty was announced in May 2018, the Decentral team also announced the upcoming launch of Decentral Unity tokens, which are meant to be a loyalty system and token for the Jaxx Liberty and any other upcoming Jaxx/Decentral products. It will reward users for interacting with Jaxx partners.

Unity tokens will be distributed to users as rewards for engaging with various aspects of the Jaxx Liberty platform. Greater engagement will allow users to level up, unlocking greater rewards and discounts on partner services.

Decentral Unity tokens were meant to be released soon after the Jaxx Liberty, but there hasn’t been any news regarding the loyalty token. Given that the wallet was released in July of 2018, it could lead one to believe that this token launch has also been shelved. This would be quite unfortunate given the failed launch of the Ice Cube wallet as well.

However, if these tokens are still in their pipeline and you wanted to follow the latest on the potential release, then you could head over to their official blog.

Conclusion

Decentral has been improving on the Jaxx wallet since its release in 2014, and the 2.0 version Jaxx Liberty has created the best version of a wallet that’s already been downloaded by millions of users. The vision of the developers is to make a cryptocurrency wallet that unlocks every aspect of cryptocurrencies, and Jaxx Liberty seems to be a step in that direction.

The wallet is well designed, with a good user interface, and once Unity tokens are added adoption of the Jaxx Liberty could skyrocket.

It’s a good wallet for new cryptocurrency users and experienced users alike, and it will be exciting to see where the development team takes Jaxx in the coming years. Given their experience and the already strong product they’re working with the Jaxx Liberty could well set the standard for cryptocurrency wallets of the future.