Tally Ho Is The Wallet Web3 Needs

Web3’s founding vision is clear: the creation of an open, decentralized Internet where people have the right and the capability to maintain sovereign ownership of their data, identities, and virtual assets as they traverse online landscapes. But in order to make this vision a reality, users need access to the right tools.

That’s why we created Tally Ho – the world’s first truly decentralized wallet browser extension.

Tally Ho embraces the Web3 ethos at every level. Its code is entirely open-source, and all the service fees it generates benefit the ecosystem. Most importantly, the wallet is completely owned and operated by its community. The Tally Ho decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) ensures that all decisions about its future are made by its network of users, not by a cadre of executives or a small group of shareholders.

To demonstrate how seriously we take the principles that underpin Web3, we created The Tally Ho Community Pledge, a public vow to never forget three essential values:

• Access for everyone: You should have direct access to Web3—no matter where you live.
• Radical transparency: All code should be 100% open source—for you to copy, fork, or remix.
• Full community ownership: Value must flow transparently to you and the community—not to corporate insiders.
  

Our community has responded enthusiastically to this commitment. More than 72,000 users have already signed the pledge, and the number ticks higher daily.

So here’s why Tally Ho’s community-driven ownership model is so important, and how to get started as a user.

MetaMask and the Pitfalls of Centralization

If you’re new to the cryptosphere – or even if you’ve been here for a while – chances are you’ve used MetaMask at some point. After all, it was the first browser extension wallet to serve the Ethereum ecosystem. And in its time, MetaMask was revolutionary. It made navigating the decentralized ecosystem a relatively easy experience for hesitant event newcomers. It took ordinary Internet browsers and transformed them into gateways to the Web3 world: dApps, DeFi, NFTs, DAOs, and more.

But as useful as MetaMask may have been for those engaging with the decentralized world for the first time, the wallet itself was – and still is – highly centralized. MetaMask has always operated as a traditional Web2 business with a top-down hierarchical structure. This means the vast majority of MetaMask users have little say over how it works or how it will evolve over time.

This Web2 approach toward ownership and management of the wallet has had serious implications for its users and for the DeFi community at large. In 2020, MetaMask announced it would end its open-source practices. The decision, which came after it received a grant from the Ethereum Foundation and dozens of contributions from devs on Gitcoin, was seen as a blow to the Web3 ethos. Those open-source developers who had contributed to MetaMask – believing they were helping give back to the Ethereum community – were surprised to discover their work had been suddenly gated behind a proprietary patent.

MetaMask replaced its commitment to open-source with a so-called “tiered proprietary license” that limited how people could use its code. This caused issues for projects that had used the code in their initial builds. One such example was Brave, which was eventually forced to “fork off” of the wallet following a particularly contentious exchange between its developers and the creators of MetaMask. This shift to closed-source also made it impossible for users to audit and test MetaMask’s code themselves, leaving them more vulnerable to errors, hacks, and other problems that plague centralized systems. This is because any code that is difficult to audit is less likely to be battle-tested by community members, and therefore more likely to contain bugs and errors that its creators don’t know about. And since MetaMask’s code is both opaque and notoriously unwieldy, the risk of problems is elevated.

MetaMask’s lack of transparency has had a significant impact on users in far-flung regions of the world. In March 2022, an error in some of MetaMask’s infrastructure temporarily blocked all users in Venezuela (and some other countries) from accessing Ethereum.

There are other issues with MetaMask’s centralized business model. For instance, despite being completely funded by its substantial user base, MetaMask has never shared any of its growing profits with community members. This has attracted notice.

In February 2022, Tom Schmidt pointed out in a Tweet that “while no one was looking, MetaMask just started .. making $170K a day in fees at $20 million a day in volume.” Today, MetaMask is earning more than $1 million each day, according to some estimates. And it’s unlikely that any of that money is being used to improve the wallet itself – instead, given the Web2 structure of the company, it’s much more likely that the funds are being distributed to MetaMask’s cap table, which includes Mastercard, JPMorgan, and Consensys.

A Web3 Structure for the Web3 Community

Despite its Web2 business model and corporate structure, MetaMask remains the most popular wallet for Web3 users. According to data from Consensys, MetaMask surpassed 10 million monthly active users (MAU) in mid-2021 and has now reached more than 21 million MAU. The main reason behind this? MetaMask has been around for a long time, which makes it seem both safe and familiar to users.

But the Web3 community deserves a wallet that offers more than longevity. They deserve a wallet whose business practices and ethos reflect their core values: decentralization, transparency, and sovereignty.

That’s the driving force behind Tally Ho.

We set out from the start to provide Web3 users everywhere with a browser wallet experience that upholds all the values of Web3.

Unlike MetaMask, Tally Ho is completely open-source. Its code is displayed on GitHub, where anyone can view or audit it at any time. And thanks to Tally Ho’s GPLv3 license, it will never transition to a closed-source project. This license guarantees that Tally Ho will stay open and community-controlled for good. And to make doubly sure, the license requires any project that forks Tally Ho’s code to be open-source too.

Tally Ho’s commitment to openness helps promote a culture of transparency and safety for users across the Web3 ecosystem. We strongly believe all Web3 projects should be open-source, offering users visibility into the underlying code and allowing them the opportunity to evaluate security for themselves. Additionally, users should be able to see any changes made to the code base of a given project, so they can better assess the overall security of the software they’re using.

In addition to Tally Ho’s open-source code, there are a number of other features designed to make sure users can keep their assets safe, including:

• The ability to add read-only wallets into Tally Ho’s browser extension, granting users the ability to view assets – NFTs included – in an account without being able to make transactions.
• Access to dApps without unlocking a wallet’s keyring, ensuring that users maintain total control over who can access their assets.
• The power to create 24-word recovery phrases and import multiple recovery phrases for each account, so users can separate their assets into different sections that can only be recovered with their unique phrases.

Getting Started with Tally Ho

If you haven’t tried Tally Ho yet, or even if you’re a newcomer to the crypto space, never fear. The wallet is designed to be exceptionally easy to access and user-friendly. And we’ve made it easy to migrate your funds from MetaMask, so you can use it to find your way around the DeFi sphere from the get-go.

Simply download and install the latest version of the Tally Ho browser extension wallet, currently compatible with Firefox and Google Chrome. After you’ve completed the installation process, you can migrate your MetaMask account over by importing your Recovery Phrase from MetaMask to Tally Ho.

This process takes just 3-5 minutes. Here’s how it works:

1. First, get your recovery phrase from MetaMask. To do this, click on the account image in the top right corner of the user interface, and then select Settings in the drop-down menu.
   
2. Once you’re in the Settings menu, select Security & Privacy.
   
3. Select the option Reveal Secret Recovery Phrase. This will allow you to copy the phrase to your clipboard or save it as a CSV file. This is the phrase that you will use to import all of your account information and private keys to Tally Ho.
   
4. Open Tally Ho and select Add Account. This is where you’ll be able to input the recovery phrase to import your MetaMask wallet.
   
   
5. Follow the prompt to set a password.
   

If you’d like to explore Tally Ho without granting it access to your assets just yet, you can add a read-only wallet by pasting in any Ethereum address in place of the recovery phrase. It’s important to note here that if your MetaMask wallet has multiple accounts, only the first of these will be visible in the Tally Ho Community Edition after the import process. If you have funds in other accounts, those won’t be displayed. But not to worry! They’re still safe in your MetaMask wallet.

Tally Ho: Faster, More Secure Transactions

Tally Ho’s secure, user-friendly wallet browser extension clearly demonstrates that there is nothing that can be done with centralized technology that can’t be done just as well (or better) with decentralized tech. And as the first-ever community-owned Web3 wallet, Tally Ho has all of the features that MetaMask users love – and many, many more coming soon!

For instance, Tally Ho is in the process of building infrastructure that will support a higher transaction rate than MetaMask, via a partnership with Web3 development platform Alchemy. This architecture will also make transactions more secure than those sent through MetaMask, which relies on the failure-prone infrastructure of ConsenSys-owned Infura.

Decentralized Management with The Tally Ho DAO

Beyond all these great features, Tally Ho users will have the added benefit of knowing they can play an important role in the future of the wallet through the Tally Ho decentralized autonomous organization (DAO).

The DAO will govern the community treasury, along with budget requests and operational plans. This includes the right to revoke budget allocations. Additionally, the DAO will elect community members to key positions when necessary and appropriate, and decide on fees and other protocol parameter changes.

The DAO will consist of several different types of member-led groups, including Elder Doggos, Packs, and Dens.

• The Elder Doggos will be a group of 12 elected representatives that will be composed of prominent and trusted community members, including Founders, Delegates, and Advisors. The group will offer strategic advice to the community and will hold veto powers for some types of proposals (except for council elections).
  
  
• Packs will act as the DAO’s functional departments, responsible for bringing organizational structure to the community. They will provide functional expertise and will have the authority and budget to work autonomously. It has been proposed that, following Tally Ho’s alpha launch, three initial Packs will be formed: Growth, Build, and Operation (Ops).
  
• Dens can either be suggested by Pack leaders or by community members. Dens will have varied purposes – some will be structural, with ongoing tasks and responsibilities, while others will be convened on an as-needed basis with concrete assignments and deadlines. A Den can be led by a maximum of three people.
  

The structure of Tally Ho’s DAO ensures that proposals for all changes that will affect the future of the wallet or the ecosystem will require community approval.

As a result, it would be extremely difficult for Tally Ho to misdirect wealth or act against its users’ interests. Tally Ho will be unable to block users on the basis of nationality, conduct surveillance on them, or enrich shareholders over community members. Users will be empowered to reject any measures that would go against the project’s underlying ethos. All decisions about how Tally Ho is run will happen out in the open, not behind closed doors.

How to Swap on Tally Ho

Speaking of swaps, let us introduce you to Tally Ho’s decentralized swap feature, which allows you to trade assets directly in your wallet. To start, simply click on the Swaps option in the user interface. Then follow these three easy steps:

1. Select the tokens you’d like to swap and configure the settings according to your wishes.
   
   
2. Follow the prompts to sign the transaction.
   
   
3. Wait for the swap to be finalized.

One key point: Tally Ho’s swaps are not only every bit as user-friendly and accessible as MetaMask swaps, but they are also much less expensive.

MetaMask introduced its in-wallet swap feature way back in October of 2020. But in this case, convenience came at a high cost, literally – MetaMask was charging as much as 1% per trade. Over the year that followed, MetaMask generated more than $237 million in service fees. Seemingly, none of this revenue was redirected toward the community, nor to improving MetaMask’s product.

In contrast, fees collected from Tally Ho swaps go back to our community. Tally Ho has also proposed that 2.5% of the total token supply be routed to a Gitcoin Aqueduct, which automates public goods funding and ecosystem building with a single line of code. If this proposal is approved, the allocation will be split evenly between funding general public goods and building the Tally Ho ecosystem.

Ultimately, all revenue will be managed through the Tally Ho DAO. Until its launch, however, these fees will be safely stored in a community multisignature wallet. All five of this wallet’s signatories are volunteers and Discord moderators who have helped steward Tally Ho for six months or more – you can read more about the process here.

Tally Ho’s Growing List of Partnerships and Collaborations, & Added Features.

Since the beginning, we’ve been committed to making Tally Ho as interoperable as possible.  Because the wallet’s codebase is designed to work flexibly with other open-source projects, we have formed collaborative relationships with a number of different platforms that have led to some fantastic additional tools for wallet-holders. These include:

• A top-notch Ledger integration feature that allows users to easily migrate their assets in and out of cold storage. And Tally Ho's UX lets you know when you need to make an adjustment (e.g. your Ledger gets disconnected, blind signing isn’t enabled, or you’re not in the Ethereum app), so you’re never left wondering why your hardware-wallet connection isn’t working.
• Native support for Sign in with Ethereum (SiWE) allows users to smoothly navigate the decentralized landscape with a decentralized single sign-on system created by and for the Web3 community. Only a handful of dApps use SiWE today, but we’re confident that usage will proliferate in the months to come.
• Full support for the Ethereum Naming System (ENS.) Our collaboration with Unstoppable Domains (UNS) allows wallet holders to use UNS domains to send and receive assets with a single, easy-to-read name.
• Native support for Polygon, a leading Ethereum scaling solution that provides faster and lower-cost transactions. This integration comes pre-loaded on Tally Ho, so there’s no need to manually add the network to your wallet’s user interface.

Tally Ho is adding more features, integrations, and collaborative partnerships all the time, and plans to take full advantage of DeFi’s expansion into the long tail of EVM chains. To stay abreast of what’s new and what’s planned, check out our blog here – and sign up for regular updates to make sure you never miss a beat!

How to Get Involved in Tally Ho

Whether you’re a developer, an experienced trader, a dabbler, or a total crypto newbie, there is room for you in the Tally Ho community. Anyone can download Tally Ho and start using it today. And after the alpha launch, all users will receive $DOGGO tokens and take part in ecosystem governance.

We understand the huge importance of communication in making community-driven organizations work. This is why Tally Ho has designed its communication channels to be clear and available to all community members, wherever they are in the world. The main Tally Ho Discord channel is open to all – check it out here and join the conversation. And if you’re interested in taking a more active role in shaping Tally Ho’s future, try volunteering to be a delegate or joining the DAO.

And if you’re a developer, there are many ways to contribute to Tally Ho’s protocol. Check out our GitHub here. We’d also love to hear from you directly, so don’t hesitate to get in touch.

Tally Ho isn’t just the wallet that the Web3 community needs – it’s the one that it deserves. Since the very beginning, our mission has been clear: to create a community-owned wallet that provides users with the best possible experience. That’s why we built Tally Ho from the ground up, integrating lessons from the community to lay the foundations for the safest, most flexible, and most user-friendly wallet out there.

Tally Ho’s code is open, forkable, and aligned with Web3 values to incentivize user participation for the long term – and there’s so much more to come.

So are you with us, or are you with us?

Click here to download the latest version of Tally Ho.