Cardano Nami Wallet: How “Frustrating” Glitches Affect ADA Price

Key Takeaways

• Users of the Nami Cardano Wallet experienced a bug that sent transactions to the wrong address.
• Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson said the issue stems from the way Nami handles the ADA Handle standard.
• Despite the problems with Nami, ADA continued to rally over the weekend.

When the Cardano developer Input Output (IOHK) acquired Nami Wallet in 2023, it was supposed to mark a new era for the browser-based wallet. However,  four months later, ongoing bugs are still a problem for Nami users.

Following reports of transactions going to the wrong address, IOHK stepped in over the weekend. However, the ongoing wallet issues have done little to dampen ADA’s bullish momentum.

Cardano Rally Outpaces Total Market 

In the past seven days, ADA has surged over 35%, outpacing Bitcoin (BTC) and the overall crypto market.

Having arrived late to the current bull cycle, the token has now closed the gap with some of its peers. In the past year, the price of ADA has increased more than ETH but less than BTC. Among leading alt coins, it has fared better than BNB, DOT and XRP, although not nearly as well as SOL.

While the ecosystem has welcomed ADA’s positive price action, it has not been enough to prevent a deluge of failed projects. One study found that 74% of Cardano projects ultimately flopped. So far, however, Nami has remained afloat.

Nami Bugs Remain an Ongoing Issue

Nami was supposed to be a user-friendly non-custodial wallet for Cardano applications.

While the browser extension received praise for its simple user interface, a small team created the program, which has a history of bugs and glitches.  

The latest issue to affect Nami centered on the wallet naming standard ADA Handle. The Cardano equivalent of Ethereum Name Service (ENS), ADA Handle lets users associate addresses with custom, human-readable tags for easier identification. 

After Nami users reported funds went sent to the wrong address, the protocol’s developer Papa Goose blamed the wallet’s design. They claimed  ADA Handle has recommended steps to avoid the issue which have been followed by other Cardano wallets but have not been implemented by Nami.

Charles Hoskinson Comments on Nami Acquisition 

With the ADA Handle issue still not resolved, on Saturday, IOHK founder Charles Hoskinson reported that the function had been temporarily suspended.

He said: “The team is disabling ADA handles within Nami as an immediate backstop to prevent this from occurring until we fully develop and test a solution.”

Acknowledging users’ frustration, Hoskinson said his company acquired the technology at least partially because of Nami’s ongoing technical challenges.

The Cardano founder explained: “We bought Nami so that we could migrate the great experience to a codebase that is maintained using [IO’s] engineering standards.

“Unfortunately, this migration takes time and bugs like these could be lurking in the acquired codebase.”