Jaxx ERC-20 Token plans & HD removal process
Over the next many days Jaxx will be rolling out support for many more ERC-20 tokens.
In preparation for this rollout we want to announce and provide rationale for our decision to remove the Ethereum HD (Hierarchical Deterministic) implementation we currently have in Jaxx.
When we initially decided to support Ether in Jaxx we made the decision to create an HD structure similar to Bitcoin and other coins we support where by new addresses are created each time a previous address becomes used. We did this for consistency across all our coins, however, while this works well for Bitcoin and similar coins, we've learned that it doesn't work well for Ethereum for one main reason. As sending tokens requires Ether, not only do users need to make sure they have ether in their wallet when they are sending REP (for example) but they also must make sure they have ether in the same address / account as their REP wallet and this has led to a great deal of confusion for our users.
Constantly we receive support requests asking why REP can't be sent even though there is enough Ether in their Jaxx wallet. The reason is because there is not enough ETH in the proper address needed to do the send. As a primitive solution we would recommend to the user to send ether from one account to the corresponding REP address in order to be able to make the transfer.
In a coming release we will be halting new address creation for ETH wallets and only display the "genesis" address for user wallets. This means that across the board in Jaxx your Ethereum address and all your token addresses will be the same and our users will never have to worry about moving funds from one account to another in order to send tokens.
As part of the process we will also be offering a service in Jaxx to consolidate all your ETH from multiple addresses into the genesis address. We will also be recommending that our users only send funds to their genesis address from now on and to also redirect any reoccurring payments to this address as well. Please know that for a period of time it will still be safe to use all your current Ethereum addresses, however, you will be notified that consolidation is required and that after a period of time all addresses (save from the genesis address) will be deprecated.
Happy to answer any questions regarding the removal of HD and our ERC-20 token roadmap.
Anthony