Trust before code: why we started our crypto wallet with a waitlist

Part 1 of building Global MPC in public.

Quick question before we start. Think of one app you trust with your own money. Got it? Now, what actually made you trust it? Hold that thought. It is the whole reason this post exists.

We are the team building Global MPC, a wallet for the on-chain world. This is the first post in a series where we share how we build it, in the open, mistakes and all.

And we want to open with a confession that surprises people: we did not lead with the wallet. We led with a waitlist. And you can join that at https://globalmpc-waitlist-beta.vercel.app/

Why the waitlist comes before the wallet

Here is the thing about a crypto wallet. It holds people's money. And the moment something holds money, "it works on my machine" stops being good enough. A wallet is not judged by its feature list. It is judged by one question: do you trust it enough to put your money inside?

Trust is not a feature you ship. It is earned, slowly, long before anyone sends a single coin.

So instead of rushing out an app nobody trusts yet, we are doing it in the order that actually makes sense:

1. Say honestly what we are building.
2. Invite the people who care to join early.
3. Build the wallet in the open, so trust grows as the product does.

The waitlist is not a growth hack. It is us saying: come watch us build this, and hold us to it.

Our one rule: security first, best practice over speed

Every team says "we take security seriously." Most of them say it after something breaks. We decided to make it the rule before writing a single line of product code, and our leadership put it in writing: security is the top priority, best practice over speed.

That sounds obvious. It is not, because it is expensive. It means saying no to shortcuts that would ship faster. It means doing the boring thing well. But in a wallet, the boring thing done well is the product.

One small, safe example. When you join, we confirm you actually own your wallet without asking you to make any transaction or pay any gas. You simply sign a one-time message. No money moves, nothing leaves your control. It is a quiet, careful choice that nobody notices when it works, which is exactly the point. The best security is invisible. You only ever hear about the security that failed.

We are not reinventing the wheel (and not blindly trusting it either)

There are giants in this space. MetaMask. Trust Wallet. They earned billions in deposits not by hiding their code, but by being reliable when it mattered and honest when things went wrong.

We study them closely. We borrow the good ideas. We are engineers, not people who reinvent things that already exist well. But we also refuse to blindly pull in every shiny tool, because in crypto, the dependency you trust can become the door an attacker walks through. So the rule is simple: adopt what is proven, own what is critical, and never depend on something we cannot stand behind.

That tension, build versus borrow, deserves its own post. It is coming.

No token bribes

One more honest thing. A lot of crypto waitlists dangle a coin: "join now, get an airdrop." We deliberately do not. Joining Global MPC early gets you a front-row seat, access and status, not a token we are waving around to inflate a number.

Why? Because trust built on a giveaway disappears the day the giveaway does. We would rather have a small crowd who genuinely believe in what we are building than a huge one that showed up for free money.

Back to your question

Remember the app you trust with your money? We would bet the real reason you trust it is not a feature. It is a moment. A time it just worked when you needed it most. A time something went wrong and they handled it like adults. That is the bar. That is what we are building toward.

We are at the very beginning. The wallet is not live yet. We will get things wrong and fix them in public. But the direction is set, and it starts with the least glamorous, most important thing in software: earning the right to be trusted.

If you want to watch it happen from day zero, that is what this series is for. More soon.

This is Part 1. In Part 2: build versus borrow, and why "do not reinvent the wheel" and "do not trust the wheel" are both true at the same time.

If you are building something people have to trust, we would genuinely love to hear your answer to the opening question. What earned your trust? That answer is a product spec in disguise.