Today, we are excited to announce Utila, a self-custodial crypto wallet platform and API that allows organizations of all sizes manage their digital assets and create their own custom wallet offerings.
Simply put, Utila provides self-custodial wallet infrastructure at enterprise scale.
But what is crypto wallet infrastructure and why is it important now?
Utila firmly believes that the next stage in the evolution of crypto is modernization. This means that over the next few years, there will be continual advancements in the fundamental structure of the crypto ecosystem that will lead to more industries and organizations adopting it for various use cases.
Wallet infrastructure is one of these fundamentals. Interacting with anything within the crypto ecosystem, whether it be digital asset management, payments, taxes or NFTs, require wallets that are easy to use and maintain.
By offering both an out-of-the-box platform to manage digital assets and an API to aid in customizing your own wallet configuration, Utila is designed to serve as a foundational piece for this next step in modernization.
Up until now, enterprise-grade wallets have not been very accessible.
With it being so young, the crypto market has leaned towards any solution that touts technical power. But with this focus, many platforms and tools have sacrificed on delivering decentralization and usability in order to ship minimally functioning products as fast as possible.
We believe that it is time that we hold crypto and Web3 to the same expectations we put on traditional tech products, so they can reach the status of being a reliable and trustworthy arm of the global economy.
The way to do this is not through idealistic promises or overused marketing slogans, but by focusing on two straightforward characteristics: self-custody and usability.
Maintaining ownership and security through self-custody
We have heard time and time again about the various security risks within crypto, like fraudsters, scammers, losing secret keys, or accidentally throwing a hardware wallet in the trash. As with anything where there are stores of value or vital data, you want to both maintain control while ensuring that your assets are safe.
Utila has built a multi-faceted enterprise grade self-custodial solution that leverages MPC technology to give you all of that. That’s a mouthful, so let us explain.
Be in control of your assets.
The beauty of self-custody is that the assets are held entirely by the wallet address. That means that there is not a third-party that manages wallets or the assets within them on their own private ledger. What this means for the wallet owners (or in this case, organizations) is that Utila can never hold, spend or move your assets. The opposite of this can be seen in centralized exchanges that settle transactions within their own backend interface. With self-custody, the assets are yours and can only be moved if you say so. It’s that simple.
MPC has become a buzzword for a reason.
MPC technology has quickly become the gold standard in wallet security because of its ability to protect against both external threats as well as internal errors. In the simplest sense, MPC (multi-party computation) allows secret keys to be split up into multiple “shares” and stored with more than one party. By splitting the keys and cryptographically sharing its pieces, MPC wallets allow users to maintain a certain degree of privacy while ensuring that there is never a single point of failure whether it be during a transaction, policy creation or keeping track of your secret key.
But although MPC has become a crucial piece of architecture, the technology has yet to become standardized. That means that despite lots of new MPC offerings, not every MPC protocol is the same. Utila is proud to show off its state-of-the-art protocol, which has been constructed and validated by our team of veteran cryptographers, and offers airtight security that separates Utila from the pack.
Policy engine for complete control.
People are imperfect beings that make mistakes. When it comes to dealing with sensitive transactions, having limitations and rules help keep funds and people safe from critical errors.
Utila has implemented a robust policy engine that compliments our proprietary MPC protocol, which allows admins within organizations to create rules for specific users, wallets, or accounts. For example, a rule can be created requiring a certain number of approvals before a transaction can be completed; or a rule that puts a spend limit on a specific wallet address to ensure that one department doesn’t overspend or over allocate funds. When it comes to institutional grade products, having some degree of control over end users is crucial to avoid critical mistakes.
Technology is at its best when you don’t realize it’s there.
It is extremely important to us that Utila is usable. Of course, this is something that most tech companies will brag about — their “extremely user-friendly” platform. But after extensive research on the processes and offerings that exist today, we have committed to maintaining this as a central core value of everything we build.
Designed to be used by humans.
The crypto economy is extraordinarily powerful and boasts technologies and financial products that are well ahead of their time. But accessing these products has been limited to the “crypto-savvy” who have self-taught themselves to navigate clunky and outdated UI and complicated processes. Pile on the long and confusing onboarding processes and extremely expensive software, there is no wonder why many organizations have continued to keep crypto at a safe distance.
Utila has put a lot of energy into understanding the most common operations that create bottlenecks for organizations, and designed simple processes to streamline them. This includes making it simple for organizations to manage their assets all “under one roof,” as well as a truly seamless onboarding process that gets new users on the platform within 5 minutes (literally).
And this isn’t restricted to end users of the platform, but also for developers that are building with our API. It is important to us that every person that interacts with Utila, no matter their job title, feels like they can accomplish their desired tasks within a realistic time frame.
Connectivity and putting assets to use.
Blockchains are powerful, but each blockchain operates on its own closed ecosystem. In order for crypto to increase adoption, there needs to be connectivity from each blockchain to not only other blockchains, but also to traditional workflows that are already in use everyday.
For example, businesses that want to hold a crypto treasury need to link that treasury to a bank account. FinTech companies that want to pay their employees in crypto, need to connect those payments to their accounting software. Hedge funds that want to manage their crypto assets in one place need to connect to exchange accounts so they can operate within a single pane of glass. VCs that want to invest into Web3 companies want to hold and transfer crypto. But whether it’s treasury management, payments, KYC, compliance, productivity tools, or auditing and reporting support, we have designed Utila to be a compliment to your existing stack and processes — not disrupt them.
Pricing that makes sense
No matter how you look at it, organizations are laser-focused on their bottom line. Enterprise-grade wallets, like many traditional B2B software solutions, have confusing, hidden and generally very expensive pricing models. We believe that we are past the point of surprising customers with outrageous monthly bills or making them pay more for something than it is worth. Paying for quality technology should never feel like a trap.
We are making it simpler for organizations to truly own their wallets.
Utila’s goal is to help businesses employ a secure and simplified way to access the whole of the crypto economy. We aim to make it easy and convenient for those who want to build, launch, store, stake, or simply transact with cryptocurrencies.
We are removing the lengthy, complex operational processes that currently exist, without compromising security or usability.
The new wave of the modernization of crypto is happening right now and we are here to be one of the most trusted and reliable participants in it. We are excited about what’s to come and hope to experience it alongside you.
If you are interested in taking part in the crypto ecosystem, let’s connect:
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