Unlike a bank account, cryptocurrency wallets require users to manage their own assets. It’s decentralization characteristic is beneficial, however, at the same time it makes it difficult to manage. In fact, there’s been a situation where an asset is frozen due to the loss of the “private key” that opens the wallet; this becomes an entry barrier to the industry. Could there be a way to manage the cryptocurrency assets without the danger of losing the key? Blockmedia met with the CEO of Crypto, Inc., who is making a revolutionary cryptocurrency wallet:

Q: Crypto, Inc., what does it mean to you?

A: “The word was chosen to represent all businesses in this realm of cryptocurrency. Our first project “My Cold Wallet” is based on a smart-contract technology based wallet”

Q: What is a ‘smart-contract technology based wallet?’

A: “We create a separate ‘protection account’ where the assets are stored, and it is controlled by the user’s signature. Then the private key is only used for the signature purposes. In other words, the assets are not stored in the key, but within the protection account that has been created using the smart-contract technology. The account contains both the company’s signature and the user’s. By default, only the user’s signature is activated. The user can specify the validity-period of the signature, after which the signature is deactivated and the company signature is activated instead. At this point, the user must decide whether he or she wants to continue using the signature. Even if the user loses his or her signature, the company can issue another so it’s safe from the danger of losing the private key. Let’s say you lose the unit – if you receive a new application and verify through email, the existing protection account will be displayed and you can continue to use the wallet by registering new signature. The bottom line is that there’s no need to keep track of the private key.”

Q: The fear of losing the private key became the entry barrier of the cryptocurrency wallet.

A: “I agree. It can be difficult, especially for people who aren’t used to the software. As such, it is usually recommended to early-adopters who are akin to using software, but not to people who are not familiar with IT. Such cases of difficulty in managing the digital asset can be found anywhere in the world. For example, when the representative of a cryptocurrency exchange died, the private keys disappeared, causing all of the accounts to freeze. It caused almost 200 billion Korean won damage to the investors.”

Q: Recently similar ‘wallet’ companies have struggled with generating revenue and eventually have been acquired by other companies. What is your revenue model?

A: “We charge a fee when opening the accounts or withdrawing assets, and the fee is then converted to tokens. We also have a token model where we return a portion of the fee to the people who has the tokens. Though this is not ideal because we cannot list the tokens due to STO characteristics.”

Q: “Why did you start the company?”

A: “It wasn’t always a ‘wallet’ business. I was the president of the community called “Know Ethereum” since 2016, and did some youtube videos since 2017. At the time, we discussed the features and technical background of Ethereum and the overall blueprints that cryptocurrency will create in our society. People who watched the broadcast back then had a major issue with managing the assets due to the loss of private keys. I got the idea from there; I thought in order to get more people to start using, the risk of the security had to be lowered.”

Q: “Do you have any other business ideas?”

A: “As can be assumed from the name of our company, we are thinking about every direction in the cryptocurrency realm. As we are only in the developing stages, I’d rather not share the details. But as an example, there’s Dex (decentralized exchange) where you can freely buy and sell cryptocurrencies by linking to the My Cold Wallet account.”

Q: What was your first encounter with blockchain?

A: “I learned about Ethereum before Bitcoin. I used to be in 3-D Animation business; while thinking about other ways to utilize the 3-D animation equipment, I got to know about mining cryptocurrencies. From learning about Ethereum mining, I got myself familiar with blockchain too.”

Q: Watching Ethereum for that long, you must have a pretty good knowledge of it.

A: “I understand that many people find the updates of Ethereum slow. But I think what’s important is that it’s keep evolving. Ethereum has ‘difficulty bomb,’ per se. Because of this, we don’t have any choice but to keep upgrading it. It’s almost as if the bomb forces the Ethereum blueprint to be drawn. The development of the idea itself doesn’t take much time, but it take a long time to verify the development. Even a small bug can be critical. So here, I think what’s important is that we keep upgrading it.”

Q: As you move forward, what’s the goal?

A: “My goal is to lower the bar for entry of the cryptocurrency industry. And I believe the first step is the wallet that doesn’t have any risk of losing the private key. Starting from this, I plan to scale up the service in various directions.”