Today Giesecke+Devrient (G+D) unveiled a self hosted cryptocurrency wallet solution, G+D Convego TruSafe, which it aims to distribute via banks. One of the interesting features is it provides a key recovery service.
G+D is best known as providing banknote solutions to central banks. It also has a central bank digital currency (CBDC) offering.
The ability to self host your own digital assets is appealing. That’s especially so following the collapse of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange. However, non technical people are often horrified with the idea that if you lose the keys to your wallet, you lose your assets. The combination of people being wary of crypto exchanges and nervous about losing their keys means they’re less likely to engage with digital assets.
Hence, it would help if institutions with higher levels of trust provide crypto services and there’s a mechanism to recover keys. G+D is targeting both. It quoted a Visa survey that found 55% of consumers require established financial institutions to engage with digital assets.The same 2022 Visa survey said 39% of users in developed markets would purchase crypto from their bank, rising to 56% in emerging markets.
The digital asset wallet
Convego TruSafe combines a typical mobile wallet app with a smart card that looks like a debit card and acts as cold wallet storage. If someone loses the card, it’s recoverable in a distributed manner. People are wary of some centralized entity storing your private keys, and it avoids this. It does so by splitting your private key into pieces or shards. One is held on the card, one by your bank and one by G+D. A wallet holder must use biometrics to request a new card, which recreates the key behind the scenes.
For the recovery technology, G+D partnered with eSignus, which also boasts Infineon and Thales as customers alongside numerous crypto clients, including Crypto.com and Ramp.
One notable point for banks is G+D provides a gateway API to link to blockchain services. It’s not clear whether this is part of its business model.
