Valora Crypto Wallet: Permissionless III Key Insights

Valora, a mobile-first crypto wallet on the Celo platform, shared its vision for simplifying cryptocurrency transactions at Permissionless III. In an exclusive interview with CryptoBit Magazine, Philip Milestone, General Counsel at Valora, discussed its user-friendly interface, multichain support, and innovative Mobile Stack product. Learn how Valora is democratizing finance and empowering users globally.

What is Valora?

Valora is a mobile-first cryptocurrency wallet designed to make managing digital assets intuitive and accessible. It supports multiple blockchains, enabling users to send, receive, swap, and interact with cryptocurrencies like USDC and ETH effortlessly.

Key Features of Valora Crypto Wallet

Mobile-First Interface: Available on iOS and Android, with an intuitive design for beginners and experts.
Multichain Support: Operates on Celo, Ethereum, Base, Arbitrum, and more.
Self-Custodial Security: Users control their funds with private keys, ensuring safety.
Simplified Transactions: Send crypto via phone numbers or live links, as easy as texting.
Token Swapping and Yield: Access liquidity pools and dApps for swapping, staking, and earning yield.
Stablecoin Access: Supports stablecoins like USDC and USDT for stability.
Mobile Stack: Tools for developers to build web3 mobile applications.

Valora vs. Other Crypto Wallets

Wallet	Blockchain Support	KYC Support	Mobile Accessibility	Key Features
Valora	Celo, Ethereum, Base, Arbitrum	Yes	iOS, Android	Simple UI, phone-based transfers
MetaMask	Ethereum, others	Optional	iOS, Android, Desktop	Browser extension, dApp focus
Trust Wallet	Multi-chain	No	iOS, Android	Broad token support, staking
Coinbase Wallet	Ethereum, others	Yes	iOS, Android	Fiat on-ramp, exchange integration

How to Use Valora Wallet

Download the App: Install Valora from the Apple App Store or Google Play Store.
Set Up Wallet: Create a self-custodial wallet with a secure seed phrase.
Fund Wallet: Use Ramp, MoonPay, or Coinbase to add fiat or transfer crypto.
Send or Swap: Send crypto via phone number, live link, or swap tokens in-app.
Explore dApps: Access integrated dApps for staking or yield farming.

Valora website landing page featuring a light green and white background, a mobile app preview with crypto options like send, receive, buy, and swap, and download buttons for Google Play and App Store. — Valora landing page promotes crypto saving, earning, transfers with download links.

Permissionless III Interview with Philip Milestone

Philip Milestone General Counsel at Valora, photographed in a professional close-up portrait at home with books in the background.

Below is the full interview with Philip Milestone, General Counsel at Valora, conducted by James Schwahn of CryptoBit Magazine at Permissionless III in Utah.

Click to read the full Permissionless III Recap

James (CryptoBit Mag): To start, could you introduce yourself and share some insights about the platform? What inspired its creation, and then we can take the conversation from there?

Philip Milestone: Sure. I'm Philip Milestone, General Counsel at Valora. Valora is software that allows people to manage their crypto assets. In everyday language, we're a wallet, but I think we're a lot more than that. Wallets have their place, but I feel like that term is misused in web3. I think people think it's just a place where you store assets, and we want to be much more interactive than that.

Valora was born on the Celo blockchain, but now we're multi-chain. It's a place where you can on-ramp and off-ramp your fiat currency. You can swap tokens, we've got access to a couple of different liquidity pools that allow you to find some yield, and we allow you to access a bunch of different dApps with which we integrate, depending on how you want to interact with crypto assets.

We're mobile-first; we don't have a desktop interface. So find your App Store or Play Store, and you can find us there.

James (CryptoBit Mag): What differentiates your platform from other competitors?

Philip: I think we are beautiful in a way that our competitors aren't. A lot of wallets try to be many different things to many different people, and they tend to get bogged down with features. If I want to go to a hardware store and buy a tool, if I need a hammer, I don't want it to also be a screwdriver and a flotation device. I just need it to do one thing.

Our wallet is accessible in a couple of different ways. It's easy to do everything - to on-ramp, off-ramp, swap, stake, etc., but it's also intuitive and easy to understand. It's the type of wallet that I think a lot of people who are new to crypto would be very comfortable with. That's part of our DNA - to democratize access, to increase distribution and knowledge of crypto assets. Keeping the interface simple is something we do really well.

James (CryptoBit Mag): This is a live product, correct? People can download Valora now?

Philip: Yes, people can download Valora. You can go to your App Store or Play Store. It's not available globally, of course. There are jurisdictions that are different, but if you're in the United States, Nigeria, Vietnam, Brazil - feel free to go for it.

That's one of our offerings. The other is a new product we're calling Mobile Stack. It's the abstraction of the wallet software - think of it as the Lego blocks, the composable blocks of how to build a native web3 application. We're trying to not only increase access to crypto assets through our application but also increase access to the tools necessary to build crypto applications.

We want to democratize access for web3 mobile apps. So people who have an interesting protocol, or folks who have nothing to do with the protocol but want to access it in an easy and intuitive way, we'll give you the basic building blocks, and then you can run with that. We're trying to shorten the runway between ideas and mobile applications.

James (CryptoBit Mag): Is Mobile Stack a separate product? Is it live currently?

Philip: Mobile Stack is a separate product that we are building right now. We'd like people to contact us, and we will work with them to implement it. We're doing that with a number of partners now to refine the prototype and get the product to a point where we are very comfortable having it be publicly accessible. So Mobile Stack is new - by all means, if you want a mobile application, contact us. Just keep an eye on the space. Valora you can download immediately; Mobile Stack, talk to us, and soon we'll be able to work with you.

James (CryptoBit Mag): Is there anything on your roadmap for the future for both of these that people would like to hear about?

Philip: For Mobile Stack, the roadmap is to get more of it built and on-chain. Whether it itself is on-network or the software sort of makes it easy to access, there are definitely milestones there to get us to that happy place.

For Valora, I think you should find new ways to interact with your assets online. In my experience - I don't have a financial or technology background, I have a legal background - I can sometimes get lost in details when presented with ways to interface with crypto. It's just not how my brain works. I like to be straightforward. So I would keep an eye on Valora to find easy ways to do things that people are describing in the industry. People talk about yield farming and staking, and peer-to-peer payments - it should be simple. And with us, it is. I would say, watch our product, because we're going to make even more things simple, easy, and accessible.

James (CryptoBit Mag): How do users secure funding for your product? If an average person wants to add to their wallet, do they need to transfer funds from a platform like Coinbase, or can they deposit directly?

Philip: We partner with third parties like Ramp, MoonPay, and Coinbase. You can use any of these to bring either fiat or you can move tokens over to us. Some integrations are native in the app, so you never leave Valora. Others might require you to leave the app briefly. It's a mix and match depending on the provider.

James (CryptoBit Mag): For security, how can people know that you guys are secure with their funds?

Philip: We don't hold the funds. It's completely self-custodial. One should always be careful with which tokens they buy, and you should be knowledgeable about what that chain does and who has access to it. Don't write down your seed phrase, that kind of thing. But we're a purely self-custodial wallet. Your money is safe from us because we can't touch it - it's never ours. We are just the gateway. So, "not your keys, not your crypto" applies here.

James (CryptoBit Mag): Is it simple for people to transact, send cryptos to other wallets, to other people with your platform?

Philip: Yes, it's very simple. For traditional wallet-to-wallet transfers, no problem. If you have an address, that's great. If you don't want to deal with multi-digit gibberish, you can send it with a phone number through us. We also have the capability to send what we call a "live link." You can set up the transfer, you'll get a link, and you can send that to somebody via text message, and they can grab it from there.

We're trying to simplify that process. You don't need to know their wallet address, which quite honestly, nobody has memorized. Phone numbers we do, and live links are just as easy as a text message.

James (CryptoBit Mag): So the phone number is attached to someone else's account on your platform?

Philip: Yes, that's a solution we have right now where folks who have their phone numbers in can send to and from. And like I said, the live link can be sent via text message, and then that's outside of our system, but the text message involves instructions for them to go get a wallet and pull down the funds.

James (CryptoBit Mag): Are users able to name different contacts through your platform? Say you have a friend - are you able to name that person in the wallet itself?

Philip: Yes, you can work with your contacts and name them within the app.

James (CryptoBit Mag): Is there any social media people can follow you on?

Philip: Yes, we are on X (formerly Twitter) at @valora. We're on Farcaster at @valora.xyz. You can also check out our website, valora.xyz, or mobilestack.xyz. We've got all our socials on there.

We are also on Discord. We steer a lot of our support through Discord, so people can contact us there. We invite that discussion. It's a great forum with both community members and employees who are there to guide.

I don't think Valora has an official Telegram account. You can write to me personally at @PhilipMilestone on Telegram if needed.

James (CryptoBit Mag): How many chains are you on currently?

Philip: Off the top of my head, we're on Base, Arbitrum, Celo, Ethereum, and I'm sure I'm missing some.

James (CryptoBit Mag): Is there a way to add additional chains, like in MetaMask?

Philip: Our team is working to add chains all the time. The individual user can select among which chains they want to use and cross-chain between whatever chains we support.

James (CryptoBit Mag): Does your platform support cross-chain transfers from Ethereum to other blockchains?

Philip: Yes, I believe that functionality is available.

James (CryptoBit Mag): What are your fees like?

Philip: It depends on what you're doing. We have a lot of different partnerships with various providers who are making our experience gasless in some cases. I would invite anybody to go on and take a look at our fees because we're very upfront about it. We'll show you what you're paying and where it's going. There are a lot of situations where you can find us to be gasless or rather inexpensive.

Philip: (Concluding thoughts) As a lawyer, I need to tell everybody: always do your own research, this isn’t legal advice. But I like to think of Valora as an entry point to crypto, similar to how you might recommend a good introductory science fiction book to someone new to the genre. If someone comes to me and says, "I'm just not big on crypto. How do I do this? What's the best way to go about it?" I'd send them to Valora. Let them set up a wallet - we walk you through it. We have a huge support system where people can ask questions, they can read our blog posts, and our onboarding process is intuitive and straightforward. We are truly trying to onboard the next billion users, and the way we're doing that is by keeping it understandable.

Key Takeaways from Valora’s Permissionless III Interview

Valora is a mobile-first, self-custodial wallet focused on simplicity and accessibility.
Supports multiple blockchains, including Celo, Ethereum, Base, and Arbitrum.
Offers unique features like phone number-based transfers and live links.
Mobile Stack is a new product to help developers build web3 mobile apps.
Valora aims to onboard the next billion crypto users with an intuitive interface.

Why Valora Matters

Valora bridges traditional finance and DeFi by offering a KYC-compliant, mobile-first platform that simplifies crypto transactions. Its focus on accessibility makes it ideal for newcomers, while multichain support and dApp integration appeal to seasoned users. Mobile Stack empowers developers to create innovative web3 applications, furthering Valora’s mission to democratize finance.

Pros and Cons of Valora Wallet

Pros:

Intuitive, mobile-first interface.
Self-custodial for enhanced security.
Supports phone-based and live-link transfers.
Multichain compatibility and dApp integration.
Gasless or low-fee transactions via partnerships.

Cons:

Not available in all jurisdictions.
Mobile-only, no desktop interface.
Mobile Stack still in development.

Valora by the Numbers

Metric	Details
Supported Blockchains	Celo, Ethereum, Base, Arbitrum
Availability	US, Nigeria, Vietnam, Brazil
App Downloads	Available on iOS and Android
Transaction Methods	Wallet address, phone number, live link

Who Should Use Valora?

Valora is ideal for:

Crypto beginners seeking an easy-to-use wallet.
Mobile users prioritizing convenience and security.
DeFi enthusiasts wanting multichain support and dApp access.
Developers interested in building web3 mobile apps with Mobile Stack.

Frequently Asked Questions

How can I download Valora?
Valora is available on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store in countries like the US, Nigeria, Vietnam, and Brazil, subject to local regulations.

Is Valora secure?
Yes, Valora is self-custodial, meaning you control your private keys. Never share your seed phrase to ensure fund safety.

What is Mobile Stack?
Mobile Stack is Valora’s developer toolset for building native web3 mobile applications, currently in prototype phase.

Can I send crypto without a wallet address?
Yes, Valora allows sending crypto via phone numbers or live links, simplifying transactions.

What are Valora’s fees?
Fees vary by transaction type but are often gasless or low-cost. Check in-app for transparent fee details.