Throughout its existence, the digital currency industry has depended on digital wallets to store biotin. This is likely to changing after a startup called Xapo developed vaults to be used in storing bitcoin.
The company was launched by Argentine entrepreneur Wences Casares has spent a lot of time persuading Silicon Valley millionaires and billionaires that digital currency is world currency for the future. He has built underground vaults, behind blast doors, guards and corridors of reinforced concrete.
How the idea was developed
In 2014, Greylock Partners, a venture capital company, invested $20 million in Xapo. According to reports by Bloomberg, the vaults are able to accommodate around $10 of bitcoin.
Xapo hit the headlines when it announced that it had started keeping bitcoin in secure vaults located in the mountainside in Switzerland a few months after relocating from California.
The facility has since grown and span five continents. The vaults handle bitcoins from both institutional and private clients as well as other crypto offerings.
How it works
The vaults were built underground in what Xapo termed as “geographically dispersed locations on three continents.” The confidential information regarding the vaults is kept on offline servers which have never had access to the internet or any other form of network.
To securely store the coins, the vaults have several layers built with cryptographic security. Some of the processes used are private key segmentation and multi-factor authentication.
The servers are guarded and secured by people plus automated security measures. The vaults are guarded 24/7. The vaults are placed in a location designed to protect user money from loss in the event of a catastrophic event. In the event that on vault is compromised, there is always another vault on standby.
Recovering the cryptos from the vault
It takes about two days to retrieve the bitcoins from the vaults. In the two days, the company undertakes an advanced and highly sophisticated security process of verifying the owner’s identity.
The company then uses authentication measures to make sure that the identity of the owner, which must go through a series of steps before getting the requested bitcoins moved from the vaults to the Xapo Wallet.
