ConsenSys exec on MetaMask Snaps security: ‘Consent is king’

As malicious actors continue their attempts to steal users’ crypto assets, wallet provider MetaMask has developed a way to give users more insights into the transactions and interactions within the application. 

In an interview with Cointelegraph, Francesco Andreoli, developer community head at ConsenSys, spoke about ensuring that the recently released MetaMask Snaps is secure for users. The executive highlighted the importance of consent and ensuring that users know each step of their journey across various chains and decentralized applications.

Andreoli at his keynote speech at Blockchain Economy Dubai. Source: Cointelegraph

As a wallet containing various users’ crypto assets, the security of MetaMask Snaps could be a concern for users before trying out the new feature. However, Andreoli noted that user consent is one of its main priorities, and it has designed Snaps to provide full transparency around how each Snap interacts with the MetaMask wallet extension. 

He said the new update shows users more data points to give them insights into their transactions: “So for security, one big category of our allow list is transaction insights. Basically, what is happening with transaction insights is you really get more data points on what the extension does today.”

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In his keynote presentation, Andreoli also demonstrated how one Snap called Wallet Guard can help protect users from malicious transactions. The executive further explained to Cointelegraph that before signing and approving transactions, users would be shown various information about what they are about to perform:

“Basically, what is happening is that before you’re signing and approving a transaction, you will have different data points. Like if you are interacting with a malicious contract or have a specific interaction. This happens before you’re actually approving the transaction.”

He stressed users would be “fully conscious” of what is happening. According to Andreoli, this is a function to which it gave added attention as it developed MetaMask Snaps. 

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