Where Chainweaver was better
Chainweaver served Kadena from January 2020 onward and built features that not every successor has matched.
Pact contract deployment. Chainweaver included a developer-focused workflow for writing, testing, and deploying Pact smart contracts from inside the wallet. Kadena Wallet does not include a Pact contract deployment workflow in v1; this is a planned future addition.
Foundation-era audits. Chainweaver received audits commissioned by the Kadena Foundation during its active development. These audits are part of the public record from that period.
SPV proof transparency. Chainweaver's cross-chain transfer flow exposed the SPV proof generation as a manual step, which gave power users explicit control over chain-routing.
Where Kadena Wallet is better
Active maintenance. This is the largest single difference. Chainweaver is archived; Kadena Wallet is actively developed.
Mainstream desktop UX. Kadena Wallet's interface targets the mainstream cryptocurrency user accustomed to wallets like Phantom (Solana) or Rabby (Ethereum).
Multi-format seed import. Kadena Wallet imports recovery phrases from Chainweaver, eckoWALLET, and standard BIP39 wallets without manual conversion.
Mining-payout UX. Kadena Wallet's receive flow is built around the use case of ASIC miners receiving regular payouts.
Ledger hardware integration. Kadena Wallet's Ledger pairing via WebHID is current with Ledger's modern device API.
Migration path
The full step-by-step migration guide is at Chainweaver alternative. The short version: locate your Chainweaver 12-word recovery phrase, install Kadena Wallet, choose "Import existing wallet" and select the Chainweaver format option, wait for the chain scan to complete (30-60 seconds), verify balances match what Chainweaver showed, send a small test transaction before retiring Chainweaver.
The migration does not move your funds; your KDA stays on the same Kadena addresses.