In the meantime, I would like to invite the community to try out a development build so that we can make the general launch as smooth as possible. Please dm me if you are interested in beta testing Bob Extension. I will then add you to a private telegram group where development build will be distributed.
For all the handshake devs - please check out the repository at: https://github.com/kyokan/bob-extension

The extension injects a Bob3 object to each page, where apps can interact with the wallet via a confirmation pop up similar to metamask.

Matt Zipkin:

Api based wallets are ok too for convenience. @MikeMichelini when you do your video on this (wink) just keep in mind the wallet leaks a lot of privacy. But still cannot steal your coins. Same model as viawallet sorta

When asked about SPV (not needing to download the full node) - response:
SPV is on my list to do... but it's not on top of stack. Extension, and polishing use cases for different handshake apps (h-apps?) would be top of list for me.

I do plan on tackling it before full node syncing becomes unbearably long (around Q4 this year?).

https://github.com/kyokan/bob-extension/releases/tag/0.1.0-beta

Also - I just learned when i posted a screenshot - this same team also was part of making Meta Mask!

Steven McKie, [Apr 26, 2021 at 11:24:09 AM]:
Fun fact kyokan who made Bob wallet also worked on metamask

kyokan.io

One thing that has stopped many from using Bob wallet in the past was they don’t have space on their laptop to download the HNS node (all the transactions on the Handshake blockchain). Which is currently at 6 gb and growing (as more transactions happen)

So IT IS SUPER exciting - you can use bob wallet chrome extension without downloading the node!

Basically - this is like using Meta Mask (where you don’t need to download the Ethereum blockchain node) except this is for the Blockchain of Handshake

Description:

Hi - how can I know if the chrome extension downloaded the blockchain to my laptop? If I have Bob wallet Mac app, and it syncs - if I use the chrome extension - is it using that “node” (sorry if I use wrong terminology) or is it re-downloading a new node on my local computer?

I have asked about SPV wallet in the past - as I know a few of my friends in the community hesitate to download Bob because they dont have enough hard drive space - would using this chrome extension still make them need to download the HNS node?

xnf0k — Today at 2:30 PM

The extension doesn't run its own node (full/spv), it uses a full node hosted by Kyokan (by default).

So block data is fetched from there, and all transactions are signed locally and then sent to that server to interact with the blockchain.

But you could point it to a local Bob Wallet to use it without relying on that hosted service.