Maria Carola is the Chief Marketing Officer of Guarda Wallet, multi-currency wallet which allows users to receive easily, store, send, and exchange their coins.
Maria joined Guarda in mid-2018. Currently, she is spearheading the Guarda team with her incredible business acumen and pragmatic approach. Before joining Guarda, she was a freelance journalist, writer and language interpreter for a wide variety of projects.
CryptoNewsZ: Hello Maria! Welcome to CryptoNewsZ and many thanks for joining us today. Firstly, our readers would love to know more about you and your idea behind the inception of the Guarda wallet.
Hey! Pleasure to be here! Very brief introduction – my name is Maria Carola, I am the Chief Marketing Officer of Guarda Wallet. You can often see me in various conferences these days, so compare what you see with the picture in this article and drop by to have a little chat about our product anytime. That’s pretty much all the relevant information about myself. Happy to proceed to discussing Guarda Wallet work. Everything started back in 2017 with the first wallet we have released – a single-currency ETH storage for Android. The main idea was that there was no convenient crypto storage out there. So, we have created an interface for truly handy crypto management. Our team pays lots of attention to UI/UX and creating a technologically advanced, yet simple wallet. This is a challenge that we were and still are willing to take and taking every day!
Maria Carola
CryptoNewsZ: Personally, what sparked your interest in crypto and blockchain?
It was quite a ride, honestly. Also a little bit of a funny coincidence. I started working in blockchain first, and then the interest came round. Obviously I have heard some bits and pieces about blockchain back in the day. 2013, 2014 maybe? It was around, no big deal, I had other things to take care of at the time. The actual engagement story is – I got invited to work as a copywriter in a crypto project one day. Spoiler alert – the project was called Guarda Wallet. At the time, I was interpreting for some events, writing articles, and doing my best not to have a job I would hate. So, I checked the project out, agreed, and started writing articles full-time. Being actually IN the blockchain space was a totally new experience. Had some time to read, try to understand the basic notions of the space, shape my own opinions… Everything was super-exciting, it’s like you have opened up a new world, really. So here is how the interest in crypto and blockchain and the general sense of belonging appeared. It’s been less than a year since I have joined the team and look how far everything’s come…
Maria Carola
CryptoNewsZ: With the advent of multiple cryptocurrencies in the market and the subsequent introduction of multiple cryptocurrency wallets, what makes Guarda stand out from others?
I would say versatility. Actually, this is a great word to describe what we do here at Guarda. We want to have as many coins as possible, as many features as possible… Moving rapidly in this direction! Right now, Guarda is possibly the most multi-functional custody-free crypto wallet out there. Let me break down why, exactly. First of all, we have lots of coins and tokens onboard – currently, Guarda Wallet supports around 45 major blockchains and over 10.000 tokens. That’s a lot for a light wallet, especially considering the fact that we have such, so to say, “unique” currencies (at least for multi-wallets) like Monero XMR or Tether. You can use supported currencies across various platforms – Web, Desktop, Chrome Extension, Mobile easily, you can connect your Ledger Nano S for hardware security on top of what you already have, we have single-currency wallets for die-hard crypto fans, a separate application for ZEC Shielded transactions, additional services. It’s a long list. The main point of this is that you can use just one product for all the cryptocurrency-related actions you would like to perform.
Maria Carola
CryptoNewsZ: Your website mentions that Guarda is ‘All coins in one wallet.’ How do you decide which cryptocurrency qualifies to go on your app/platform?
We go with the flow. You know that the crypto space is hugely a hype market. Mostly it is me and our business development monitoring all the incoming information. So, if we see the community being interested in something and feel that a taken project is a valuable addition to our ecosystem, we reach out to their team (if they haven’t contacted us already) to discuss future integration. Sounds easy, but you have to stay alert, you know. The process is pretty exciting, and you really see what is trending right now, projects being born, something new skyrocketing. This is how we work – need to think really fast!
Maria Carola
CryptoNewsZ: According to you, do Non-Custodial wallets have advantages over Custodial wallets?
First and foremost, it’s security. Custody-free wallets do not have access to your personal data and cannot use it in any way. You own your keys, and you are the only person in charge of your funds. I believe that everybody remembers the back cases, data leaks, and so on – well, this will not happen to you if you are using a non-custodial wallet. Besides, there are some more perks – wallets like Guarda do not delist coins. So, the case of your favorite currency being unmanageable will not happen.
Maria Carola
CryptoNewsZ: Security is one of the greatest concerns looming over the crypto space, how does Guarda address them?
Obviously, the security of your wallet is important. We at Guarda take safety seriously, so our backups are securely encrypted and stored on the user’s device out of the public reach. Besides that, Guarda offers more options by having integration with Ledger. If you are into storing your funds offline, but managing and exchanging them in a handy light wallet, we are here with the support.
Maria Carola
CryptoNewsZ: What are the significant developments Guarda wallet has undergone since its inception in 2017?
Oh, wow. How do I start, even? Well, first of all, we have created the whole ecosystem around our wallets. Imagine Guarda multi-currency wallets (those have been developed during that time span, too) as a core and all the other products, services and special features revolving around them. This is how it looks like right now. We started with single-currency wallets, they are still available for everyone to use, but now it is mostly our the all-in-one crypto wallet we have in mind. So, the past two years have been packed with doing everything to achieve this goal. We have supported over 40 outstanding blockchain projects in our wallets, got new partnerships, developed this insane functionality Guarda offers now, made some additional services. Take a look at them, by the way. Token Generator is an awesome example – it allows anyone to create their own Ethereum-based tokens, manage and customize them through Guarda. That’s a nice one!
Maria Carola
CryptoNewsZ: Should we look forward to new technological developments at Guarda in 2019?
Of course! We have lots of plans for this year. First of all, and I think I have already mentioned that Guarda is taking a rapid expansion course. This will be visible in all the aspects of our work, really. There will be newly supported currencies, new special features, and new wallet functions – you will see some of them rolling out very soon already. What I can say – our goals are ambitious, and the future is exciting.
Maria Carola
CryptoNewsZ: Any new partnerships on the horizon?
Oh yeah, there will be some. Both supported currencies-wise and functionality-wise. We are in the process of making Guarda the only crypto wallet you can use for all crypto management purposes; our partners are a crucial part of this movement.
Maria Carola
CryptoNewsZ: Customer support plays a critical role in the success of a cryptocurrency wallet. Our readers would like to know what kind of turn-around time and customer service they can expect from the Guarda support team?
Guarda Wallet customer support deserves separate praise. An important note here – our support is, hands down, the most efficient team on the crypto wallet market. The average time of answer is less than 5 minutes. Regarding expectations – our support is always here to answer all the wallet-related questions our users might have. The team is online and ready to answer all the inquiries 24/7.
Maria Carola
CryptoNewsZ: Very little is known about Team Guarda, would you like to share more about your core team, your mission at Guarda and its vision for the future?
That’s great you have asked! Actually we will be rolling out a neat team page on our website. Recently we have been going to conferences quite a bit, so our team gained quite a bit of exposure – at this point, it would be unfair not to highlight outstanding people who work for Guarda on the main page. If you want to have a little peek in the team life, you can follow both Guarda and myself on Twitter (@MarijaCarola) – I don’t post every 30 seconds, but it gets fun at times. Last, but not least – you can catch us on crypto summits and meet-ups! Stay tuned to our social networks to know where Guarda team is going next, and we’ll be happy to meet in person!
Maria Carola
CryptoNewsZ: What advice would you like to give to those trying to choose between multiple crypto wallets available in the market?
Do your research. It is important that you know the service well. Download/create a wallet, browse through, see all the functions, take a look at the coins it supports. We have many guide articles on our blog where our team breaks down the basics of finding a wallet for a particular currency. I will quote some of the points here, I guess.
The first one is security. Your safety comes first. Choose a good old non-custodial wallet (this is always advised), check reviews, take a look at the social networks – user feedback is the best service description. The second thing you would like to evaluate is availability and support. Will give you information about us right away – Guarda operates worldwide, so geographical area restrictions do not influence us. Moving on.A very obvious thing – you need a wallet that supports the currency of your choice. Multi-currency wallets are great, but some of them often do not support some of the popular currencies. We try to eliminate this problem and support all popular currencies, no matter how hard the integration process might be.
After you have thought about all of the above-mentioned points and found service, just give it a try. You need to feel comfortable. Everything needs to be clear. Check the functions out. In here I mean built-in services like exchanges, purchases and so on. You will really get everything after this trial. Hope this helps! If you are about to give Guarda a try, don’t hesitate to reach out to us with your feedback!
Maria Carola
It was a pleasure having an insightful conversation with you, Maria. We at CryptoNewsZ thank you for sharing your valuable time and thoughts with us.
