A key advantage to cryptocurrency is that it allows you to be your own bank. The idea of truly controlling your own money without literally hiding it under your mattress is a powerful one. But it is not something everyone wants to do and for certain applications, it would not be appropriate.
ChainFront[1], launching today, wants to eliminate the need for private key storage. Instead, they want the handle all of that inside a secure virtual environment. Users would be able to sign transactions by using a username, password, and two-factor authentication.
They insist that they can make it more secure than any other option. I have my doubts. Any system is subject to security failures. By moving private key storage to a secure virtual environment, it only moves the attack vector. Rather than securing private keys, it’s a username, password, and two-factor authentication. Even 2FA has proven to be susceptible to hacks, just like anything else.
However, ChainFront is correct that private key security isn’t for everyone. Furthermore, it is too cumbersome of a method to use for a lot of use-cases cryptocurrencies have. If one’s goal with cryptocurrency is to be your own bank, then ChainFront probably isn’t the solution for you.
You want absolute control of your money. For that, you need to hold your own keys. Your next step, if haven’t already, is to stop reading this article and research how to keep your private keys secure.
But what if you are a game developer looking to utilize blockchain technology? Are you going to ask Fortnite addled thirteen-year-olds to write down seed phrases and to store encrypted wallet.dat files?
They will probably turn your game off and return to Fortnite before they finish reading your private key security tutorial page.
But if you could
