Zengo is a non-custodial mobile wallet that dispenses with private keys in favor of threshold signatures to create two ‘mathematical secret shares’ – one stored on your mobile device, the other on their servers. In other words, there’s no single point of failure and no risk of irretrievably losing your coins in the event of hacking or wallet loss. It’s a novel means of dispensing with seed phrases, but there are some trade-offs to consider.
Also read: Bitcoin Verde’s New Project Aims to Promote Bitcoin Cash Node Diversity
‘Safer Than a Seed Phrase’
That’s the elevator pitch of Zengo, who want users to quit entrusting exchanges with their funds and favor a safer option than custodial wallets. They’ve got a point, and judging by the $4 million in seed funding they received last year, others think so too. Incidentally, the mobile wallet is headed up by former Techcrunch editor Ouriel Ohayon.
I decided to check Zengo out for myself – the app is free from the App Store and Google Play, although the company plans to introduce a small monthly subscription fee further down the road. Zengo allows you to store bitcoin core (BTC), ethereum (ETH), Binance coin (BNB), dai (DAI), maker (MKR), USD coin (USDC), tether (USDT), and paxos standard (PAX), with the promise of more coins to come.
After downloading the app and creating an account, I was prompted to back up my wallet to the cloud using face ID. A few seconds later I was cheerily advised that if the app were to get deleted or I switched devices, all that would be required to gain access is my
