Step 1, Get a Wallet. Step 2, Get INF
Whether you’re a cryptocurrency trader, a HODLer or a regular guy with just a few coins in his crypto wallet, you have to adopt a set of rules, habits if you will, to keep your digital assets secure. It doesn’t matter how much you own, every satoshi is important, so the security of your cryptos should be of the upmost importance at all times. First thing you have to do is get a reliable crypto wallet and then find a way to protect that wallet. Let’s dig deeper into the ways of securing your wallet.
INF — One solution For All Wallets
Until recently, protecting our wallets meant simply writing down the private keys or storing them in a cloud, on a USB stick or on an offline hard drive. Keep doing that. There’s no such thing as too many layers of security. However, now that Infinitus (INF) has successfully finished the crowdsale and the MVP is out, we have another option: to store our private leys on the blockchain itself, behind an impregnable security wall.
The first step is to get a crypto wallet and as you may know, there are tons of options out there: web-based, desktop only, mobile or hardware, they all come with different features, strengths and weaknesses. For example a desktop wallet gives you a higher degree of security (less likely to be hacked) but can be accessed only from the computer where you have downloaded it, while a web-based wallet offers greater mobility (can be accessed from everywhere as long as you have internet connection) at the detriment of security. Hardware wallets on the other hand are the safest option but they come at a cost (literally) and you will have to cough up to 300 bucks for a high end solution.
No matter what type of wallet you opt for, they all offer a recovery method for worst case scenarios. That method comes in the form of a recovery phrase, mnemonic seed or private key, depending on the wallet. For example, Ledger Nano S (one of the most popular hardware wallets) will display a recovery phrase of 24 random words during initial setup. Those 24 words are your key to restoring your wallet and the crypto coins in it. If you lose the Ledger, you simply buy a new one, select Recover during initial setup and then insert the 24 words. All the settings and contents (including crypto assets of course) from the lost wallet will appear on the new one. All that can happen because your coins are not actually stored on the Ledger itself but on the blockchain.
This type of wallet backup can be stored on Infinitus Smart Repository, but also private keys that come in the form of a complicated series of alphanumeric characters, used to sign (encrypt) a transaction. Think of your crypto wallet as a mailbox: your address is public so anyone can send cryptocurrency there, just how the mailman (or anyone else) can put a letter in your mailbox. The private key is similar to the physical key you have for your mailbox so only you can access it. Obviously, you don’t want to share your private keys with anyone and you don’t want to lose them because apart from signing transactions, these keys can also be used to recover the contents of your wallet, just how the 24 words work for the Ledger.
As you can tell by now, different wallets have different ways of recovering and protecting their contents and that’s why when designing Infinitus, we wanted to be able to store all of them. In other words, INF is adaptable to all wallets and all ways of recovering their crypto contents. A non-exhaustive list includes: public & private keys, alphanumeric passwords, numeric PINs, recovery seeds (24–96 words), mnemonic phrases, keystore files, UTC files, JSON files, wallet files and even short text. All stored information is protected by AES-1024 military grade encryption but it is also replicated and fragmented across a decentralized network of nodes in order to eliminate single point failure. To sum it up: unhackable and versatile.
Wallet or Repository?
Ever since inception Infinitus was meant to be a Smart Designation Repository, not a crypto wallet. The goal was to offer protection for the private key that helps recover the contents of the wallet — call it a vault for your vault key if you want. The truth is there are many good wallets out there and the crypto world is not in need of another one. However, there wasn’t any blockchain solution to preserve passwords and private keys, or at least there wasn’t until INF’s creation.
And on top of that, INF works with all types of wallets, as outlined above, so there really wasn’t any point for us to build another wallet from the ground up. We’re not trying to reinvent the wheel but rather to give you a better spare tire that can help you reach your destination. In other words, Infinitus complements your crypto wallet and is not meant to replace it. Continue using your wallet of choice but always be prepared for the worst case scenario and store your recovery credentials on the blockchain with INF dApp.
Low Cost Doesn’t Equal Low Standards
Infinitus almost acts as insurance against loss of crypto assets but there’s one caveat with regular insurance: low cost usually means subpar performance. With Infinitus it’s the opposite: the cost is very low ($0.24) and that actually makes it better because the sensitive information is stored on a decentralized peer to peer network of nodes and with this type of network, the more users, the better functionality and security.
A small token price allows the network to grow so you can get the best protection, at a tiny cost. That being said, if you are going to invest in crypto, two things are essential: a reliable wallet and INF protection for all your recovery methods.
