Overview
Vendano is a beginner-friendly wallet app that lets you send ADA to a friend by typing their phone number, email, or $handle instead of a long blockchain address. The app does the address lookup for you, the way Venmo or Cash App finds people in your contacts. It is aimed at first-timers, with plain-language guidance on every screen and a quick sign-in by one-time code rather than a password1.
Vendano runs on Cardano and is published by Vendano, LLC. It ships today as an iPhone app on the Apple App Store, with an Android version being built openly on GitHub23. The team also welcomes the situation where your recipient does not yet have a wallet: you can still send, and they get a prompt to set one up.
Key Features
- Send by phone, email, or $handle. Type in a contact and Vendano scrambles it into a code that matches against registered users, so you never paste a 100-character address. The $handle is a short, readable name from ADA Handle that points to a wallet4.
- Sign in with a one-time code. No passwords. Enter your phone or email, type in the code Vendano texts or emails you, and you are in. Setup includes a recovery phrase you write down on paper5.
- Self-custody by default. Your secret keys stay on your phone in secure storage. Vendano's servers never see them, which means only you can move the funds in your wallet4.
- Dollar value shown before every send. The confirmation screen lists the ADA amount, the equivalent in US dollars, and the 1% Vendano fee, so the total is clear before you tap Send1.
- Open-source on GitHub. The iPhone app's source code is published openly under a BSD 3-Clause license so anyone can read it, raise issues, or build on it3.
What to Expect
You download Vendano from the App Store, sign in with your phone or email, and the app walks you through setting up a Cardano wallet. One screen shows your recovery phrase and explains why to write it down on paper rather than store it in your photos or a password manager. If you do not yet own ADA, a built-in "How to Get ADA" page points you to well-known regulated exchanges (Coinbase, Kraken, Binance, Gemini, Bitstamp, Crypto.com) where you can buy some and send it to your new wallet6.
Once funded, the send flow is what makes Vendano feel different from most other mobile wallets. You type a friend's phone number or email, the app looks up their address, and you confirm the amount with the dollar value and fee shown side by side. Receiving works through push notifications. The app stays focused on the basics: send, receive, transfer history, contacts, and a built-in help screen on every page. It does not (yet) include staking, NFT browsing, or DeFi features.
Vendano is iPhone-only on a public app store today, so Android users will have to wait2. The source code is open for anyone who wants to review it3.
