Frame.sh — A refreshed approach to privacy for your wallet address.
In November 2022, Consensys made some changes to its terms of agreement. The agreement allowed Infura to retrieve information, including the IP address of a user. Infura, one of the most prominent Remote Procedure Call providers, allows developers access to reliable RPC nodes. RPC nodes allow developers to transmit data between their applications and the blockchain.
Metamask and Infura also began censoring users and declining users from certain jurisdictions, including Iran.
They could do this because, during use, Metamask and Infura can detect a user's location by retrieving the user's IP address. This goes against the entire ethos of decentralization.
Frame sets out to solve this problem of doxxing users and offers a privacy-first wallet.
How does Frame Differ?
Running on macOS, Windows, and Linux, Frame is an Ethereum wallet with a privacy-focused design. Frame only lives on your computer; as such, you can manage your accounts, tokens, and NFTs with Frame because it is a native desktop program that keeps the contents of your wallet out of the browser. In addition, Frame supports several Ethereum virtual machine (EVM) compatible chains, including the Ethereum mainnet, Arbitrum, Optimism, Polygon, xDai, and others.
Setting Up Frame
To set up Frame, visit the Frame website - https://frame.sh/. Upon seeing the website, you will be prompted to download the application depending on the platform you are visiting the website from. Frame is available on Windows, macOS, and Linux.
Once you have installed Frame you should get a welcome message. You can then add an account and hot signers - these are addresses that would sign transactions within Decentralised Applications (Dapps).
Some critical items displayed on the Frame wallet include:
Signer Status - This shows a user's status if there is an active account. Once you connect a wallet, the red sign turns green.
Selected Chain and Connection Status - This shows your connected chain. At launch and by default, Frame connects to the Ethereum Mainnet. Therefore, when the color is green, it means there is a connected chain, but it turns red when there is an issue with connecting to the blockchain.
Gas Indicator - This gives you an idea of the costs of gas on the network you are connected to.
Ethereum’s Price - A real-time price update of the price of Ethereum.
A chain Manager - This option allows you to choose between the Ethereum blockchain, rollups like Arbitrum and optimism, and sidechains like xDAI and Polygon. Use Chainlist to get the complete list of EVM-compatible chains you can connect to using Frame.
Settings/Global Options - This pane contains settings you can use to customize your experience while using Frame.
Key Features
Support for a wide range of hardware wallets: Frame allows users to plug in different hardware wallets, including devices from Ledger, Trezor, and Lattice. On the other hand, you can import wallets using seed phrases generated from wallets like metamask, using a Keystore (JSON) file or an externally generated private key.
Frame lives on your computer and never intrudes on your privacy by storing or retrieving any personal details.
Final Words
With the rise of privacy-focused products proliferating within the Ethereum and crypto community, embracing products that enhance users' privacy in the digital asset markets becomes pertinent. For example, technologies like zk-EVM enable users to transact on-chain confidentially. However, a technology like Frame provides privacy-enabled wallets that would serve as the first touch-point to usher in greater levels of privacy.
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