Source: AdobeStock / vania_zhukevych
Twitter Payments company of founder Jack Dorsey block shared more details about its previously announced wallet, focusing on plans to combine security and ease of use/access to create a broader and less “hesitant” customer base.
A little over a year ago, in July 2021, the company at the time called square, confirmed that it aims to build a Bitcoin (BTC)-first hardware wallet “to make Bitcoin custody more mainstream.” Dorsey had revealed that a month earlier Square had considered developing a hardware wallet for BTC.
“One of the most important roles of a Bitcoin wallet is to keep your funds safe even if something goes wrong,” tweeted Max Guise, a member of the team working on the wallet.
It’s important that people can know they can access their wealth at any time to “make the leap to self-government,” Guise argued. The fear of making a mistake when using self-custody wallets makes people reluctant to use them and keeps them on depository platforms, the team’s blog post explained.
The second important aspect is keeping everyone else out of the wallet except the owner – the problem with this is that
“Each additional protection to keep a bad actor out increases the risk that they will trip up the owner too, and each new backup or alternate means of access creates a new potential security hole.”
What needs to be done, the team argues,
“We need to create forgiving recovery experiences that prioritize easier ways to get customers back on their feet when things go wrong, with more tolerance for simple mistakes and without a steep learning curve.”
Rather than having users handle multiple different products that serve different purposes and prioritize either security or ease of use, the Block Wallet team “wants to build something that incorporates lighter-impact security practices, more forgiving recovery experiences, and that can be used for both easy spending and secure.” Saving, all in one tool” – and they “think we can do that with a 2-of-3 “multisig” design.”
According to this construct, the wallet would consist of three parts:
- a mobile app,
- a specialized hardware device,
- and Blok’s backend servers.
Each would control 1 of 3 keys, and all transactions would have to be approved by at least 2 of them. The customer controls two of these keys using the app and hardware, while Block manages the server key “on their behalf”.
Source: Max Guise / Twitter
The team has also compiled a list of what they’re trying to avoid to make the wallet easier to use and more secure, including:
- plaintext backup material (seed phrases),
- password storage,
- intensive identity verification by sharing extensive identity documents.
“Relying on a circle of people you trust can be a powerful fallback to safer self-custody. A way to allow others to help you take back control without having direct access to the money. How would you feel if you relied on people close to you to protect your assets?” asked Guise, adding that “acting as an emergency contact could be as simple as sharing a phone number.”
So among the goals the team has set for the wallet, they listed:
- the option to enable Social Recovery – selecting a set of personal contacts that can help recover from a situation even if both the app and hardware are lost;
- setting limits on the money that can only be moved using the app, while moving the rest would require hardware approval;
- Basic setup and no need to memorize new phrases.
Finally, the team argues that there must be a better, faster, and more reliable way to notify users of specific events and issues.
10/ We believe that for security and simplicity reasons we will need a reliable way to communicate with customers about recovery events. What are the right channels (email, SMS, other) for a global audience? How strict should Wallet require them to balance privacy and security? option ok?
— Max Guise (@max_guise) August 10, 2022
“Everything here is still evolving and open to change,” the post said, but the team is now looking for feedback on these ideas.
Jesse Dorogusker, Hardware Lead at Block, wrote last July:
“We have many questions and issues to address and we are starting with this product direction: bitcoin first, global distribution, multisig to achieve ‘assisted self-custody’ and prioritizing mobile use.”
Dorsey also stated at the time that they plan to integrate their wallet with smartphones and the code for the wallet will be open source, while they are also exploring a feature that would allow users to invest in BTC automatically.
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Learn more:
– Square enters the crypto hardware market with Bitcoin First Wallet
– Twitter’s Bluesky finds new lead, Square builds Bitcoin wallet team
– Mann pledges approximately 18 million of his lost bitcoins to fund the Newport Crypto Hub and $51 to every Newportonian
– Trezor has seen a “significantly” higher interest in self-custody amid the ongoing crypto turmoil
– Crypto wallet trends in 2022: More privacy, security, features and choice
– Solana blames Slope Wallet for hack, while Slope says “nothing is certain yet”
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