Venly has just announced the integration of WalletConnect Version 2 into its wallet services. This is a significant upgrade that will benefit users of Venly wallet services. Read on for a full guide to what’s changing.

What is WalletConnect?

WalletConnect is a crucial piece of web3 infrastructure described on the developer’s website as ‘the communications protocol… that brings the ecosystem together by enabling wallets and apps to securely connect and interact.’ 

What does that mean? Well, consider the many thousands of dApps that exist - platforms like OpenSea and UniSwap, and games like AxieInfinity, just to name a few. Now consider all the many hundreds of wallets out there. Without WalletConnect, every single one of these individual dApps and wallets would have to ensure that they were compatible with each other in order to interact. That would take a whole lot of work, and lead to a lot of missing links in the ecosystem.

WalletConnect saves the day, however, by providing a single, unified bridging platform for dApps and Wallets to meet on. If you’re a developer, you don’t have to worry about making your dApp compatible with every wallet - you only need to make it compatible with WalletConnect, and the same is true for wallet creators.

‍What is WalletConnect V2

WalletConnect Version 1 has been making all of our lives easier since 2018. Since then, though, the team behind it has been hard at work building its replacement. That replacement, WalletConnect V2, brings a host of new features which will help to strengthen and grow the broader web3 ecosystem.

These include wallet-to-wallet communication, the ability to sign in to a website directly from your wallet, and to receive push notifications from dApps. Multichain support has been added,  meaning that dApps will be able to request, send and receive information from multiple chains at once, without the need for manual chain-switching. WalletConnect co-founder Pedro Gomes also notes that the platform’s performance and reliability will increase tenfold.

These upgrades are big news for web3. The bridge that connects wallets to dApps is getting wider, stronger, and filled with new features. It’s another step towards mass adoption. 

WalletConnect V2 & Venly

In line with our commitment to onboard the next billion users to web3, Venly was one of the first to integrate this latest upgrade into its services. Our Wallet Widget and API services now benefit from the expanded functionality and comprehensive dApp compatibility provided by WalletConnect V2. More and more, we see the crypto-wallet transforming from a simple container for tokens into a comprehensive tool for navigating and interacting in the web3 world. This points the way to a fully-fledged web3 future.

The update also means that Venly Wallet users will be able to connect through WalletConnect only to those dApps that have already upgraded to V2.

WalletConnect V1 will be turned off by its developers on June 28, so you can expect that, even if some of your dApps become inaccessible for now, they will all have migrated to the new protocol before this date. After June 28, nobody will be using V1 anymore.

What you need to do

So, does this change mean you have to do anything? Well, that depends on the Venly product you are using, and how you use it.

Venly Wallet Widget

If you are a business providing the Venly Wallet Widget to your users, or are a Venly Wallet Widget user yourself, you don’t need to do anything. Venly is taking care of the technical work necessary to integrate WalletConnect V2 into the service.

Venly Wallet API

If you are using the Venly Wallet API to provide your users with your own custom wallet, then it will be up to you  to provide your own integration with WalletConnect V2, if you deem it necessary for your purposes. If not, users of your wallet may encounter difficulties accessing some WalletConnect V2-enabled apps.

You can find assistance for integrating WalletConnect V2 in our documentation.

For Wallet-Holders: How to connect a dApp to the Venly Wallet using WalletConnect V2

If you currently use a Venly Wallet, here’s is how to use WalletConnect V2 to enable a specific dApp.

1. Open the WalletConnect V2-enabled dApp
2. Click Connect and select WalletConnect

3. Select Venly (you may have to search for it)
4. You will be taken to your Venly Wallet, where you can log in
5. Click on the ‘Session Proposal’ of the dApp you are trying to connect to and approve the connection.

a. If you have never used your Venly Wallet in WalletConnect before, you will first  have to connect your Venly Wallet

You’re connected!

Another step forward for web3

That’s all there is to it! You can look forward to a whole new world of expanded dApp and wallet functionality off the back of this WalletConnect upgrade.

If you have any further questions, or are in need of extra guidance, you can always reach out to us via our support channels - on our website or via our Discord channel.