ABN AMRO considers trial with cryptowallet

There are a lot of different options when it comes to storing your crypto currency and the security keys that make it all possible. You can store your coins in hardware wallets, software wallets and the stock exchange where you bought them. But banks also want to respond to the market. ABN AMRO also seems to be considering this.

Earlier this week, ABN AMRO confirmed on Twitter that it was conducting a trial with a new cryptic currency wallet. It keeps it under five hundred customers. The wallet, which ABN AMRO Wallie baptized, would offer a digital storage tool as part of the regular online banking portal.

No trial version yet

An ABN AMRO spokesman told the Hard Fork site that earlier this month it had indeed asked 500 customers if they would be interested in a crypto wallet. And if they were interested, they could follow a link in the mail to a fake design and answer questions about features that a bitcoin wallet should have, according to the spokesman. This is one of our ways to contact our customers and find out what services they want.

But the mock-up that could be seen was interpreted in social media as the design of the app. But that doesn’t seem to be the case. A spokesman of ABN AMRO emphasizes that no actual bitcoin wallet is being tested; there is not even a trial version. The bank only rolled out the trial to see what role it should play in the world of cryptographic currency.

ABN AMRO is currently in talks with the Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets (AFM) and the Dutch Central Bank (DNB), in an effort to better understand the role that the bank should play. The fact that ABN AMRO is seriously considering the possibilities of an app like Wallie is certainly encouraging. The fact that the bank is taking things very slowly is also a good sign, because hasty steps can have undesirable consequences.