As many of you now know, we’ve just released our Whitepaper for WalletPort. Thanks to everyone for their patience and support over the last few weeks as we’ve started rolling things out. This write-up is just to give everyone a brief synopsis of what we discussed in our spaces on Thursday past. We’ve written the Whitepaper in a way to convey the seriousness of the message behind the protocol whilst keeping the terminology as simple as possible, so anyone unfamiliar with crypto will still understand how it can help them.

As we’ve discussed now on several occasions, this is a protocol that is very important and can resonate with anyone holding assets securely in a self-custody wallet for themselves or their loved ones. We’ve all seen the existing pitfalls around the area of self-custody in recent months and we’d all like to rest assured that in the worst possible scenario involving our health, our assets can safely transfer to our loved ones. Our aim is to provide a remedy for all those situations and scenarios that cannot be prepared for.

Harry outlined during the spaces how after initially having the idea, he approached trusted people to collect their thoughts. It’s been a gradual progression of ideas and growth since then.

The overall concept is quite simple. Interact with the protocol, set a time-lapse period and upon expiration, your assets are moved to your selected backup wallet. A lot of consideration has been taken regarding the design end to make it as user compatible as possible.

It was important to develop something that didn’t involve moving the assets or taking control over them, which was an important aspect for us. There’s been a lot of back and forth throughout the whole process to ensure this notion was at the forefront of everything in development.

A little bit about how it all works from a payment point of view. Owning an NFT will mean lifetime access to the protection of assets within that wallet. Otherwise, users can sign up for the subscription model at a monthly cost that will be tiered and dependent on the value of assets secured. With the NFT, all assets are covered regardless of the value of the assets covered. There’ll be a variety of options for different users. After the subscription process is in place, we will launch the token. Some of the revenue of the subscriptions will go towards token holders, a split revenue model. There are more stages to get through with the token, this is just a light overview of what’s happening on the backend.

From a user experience POV, you can edit and amend the selected security measures and update them as you please, meaning you can change the time you select to secure your assets before they’ll be transferred to your backup at any time. It will all have a very convenient and easy flow. As simple as possible. The back-end stuff is incredibly complex, but the focus is on making it as user-friendly and easy to use as possible. The overall process should take 5–10 minutes tops. Gas fees are covered by WalletPort for transactions to move also, so users don’t need to worry about gas either.

The NFT itself, you’ll need to stake it to utilise for protecting assets. WP NFT will also transport on the timelapse trigger. It will work with all self-custody wallets. There’s also a feature included where in the event your wallet is somehow compromised, there’s an emergency withdrawal function which skips the time period setting and will move funds immediately.

It’s worth concluding with the fact that Harry confirmed on the spaces that the White Paper doesn’t fully encompass the full scale of the project. There’s still plenty of work to be done. However, development is coming on well. We’re being cautious with dates and roadmaps for now, but we cannot wait to share more exciting updates with you all very soon.

Harry - WalletPort

WalletPort Whitepaper Spaces Recap

Not even one week into the new year, the contentious debate around self-custody is still hot on everyone’s lips. This time, the catalyst came in the form of a New Year’s Day hack involving Luke Dashjr, one of the longest-contributing Bitcoin core developers. Whilst the total sum of Bitcoin stolen is unknown, it appears as though around 216 BTC, over £3.5 million was lost. From his official account, 

My PGP key is compromised, and at least many of my Bitcoins stolen. I have no idea how. Help please.

” PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) is an encryption program that provides cryptographic privacy and authentication for data communication. He went on to claim that he believes everything is compromised, even including his Twitter account and has strongly cautioned others against using Bitcoin Knots, a Bitcoin Wallet signed by his now compromised PGP key.

This news will no doubt send a shiver down even the most battle-hardened crypto veterans. The full details behind how the hack was carried out remain unknown. It has however sparked plenty of debate, yet again, around the issue of self-custody. Following a recent tsunami-sized wave of FUD, Binance CEO, 

 has taken his chance at shining some spotlight on the issue at hand. CZ announced that he had informed the Binance security team of the theft and that any crypto linked to the hack would be frozen if sent to Binance.

Whilst this might seem a noble gesture from CZ, one must ask questions of his motives given the fact the recent wave of FUD against Binance has seen some of the largest withdrawals ever seen. “

Self-custody have a different set of risks

” he included in a tweet relating to the hack. It’s worth keeping in mind that in a recent Twitter space, he warned that “

” if they are holding in self-custody. It’s hard to know whether he has his own interests at the fore rather than us as customers. It’s up for debate.

This whole episode has sparked some vociferous discourse. Popular Crypto Twitter personality 

 was quick to echo the concerns shared by CZ. In his thread, he claimed, “

if this can happen to the world’s leading experts, it can happen you too.

“The first thing to understand about crypto custody is that no single solution is ‘the best’. People have different needs, different skills, and different risk appetites. There’s no one way to cater to everyone”.

This notion is hard to disagree with. There is no one size fits all approach to anything in this space. But perhaps that’s part of the problem. When you have an industry leader in the form of CZ scaring retail investors out of self-custody and a swarm of ‘influencers’ simultaneously scaring everyone about the dangers of storing on an exchange, what does one do? How does one protect themselves and have complete peace of mind amongst a seemingly endless back-and-forth dialogue with no conclusive answer?

Udi went on to outline his rather extreme opinions on seed phrases, labelling them an ‘

’ and something that should have never gotten this popular as they give you too many ways to shoot yourself in the foot. He might be right with the latter part of his opinion but to outright slam, the concept as an abomination might be a step too far. He believes that people shouldn’t handle seed phrases themselves owing to the fact there are many ways to make a mistake even when you are an expert.

 also recently chipped in with some commentary on the issue. In a recent tweet, he claimed,

“The ‘centralised anything is evil by default, use defi and self-custody’ ethos did very well this week, but remember that it too has risks: bugs in smart contract code. Important to guard against it, keep code simple, audits, formal verification and defence in depth”

Adding that ‘defence in depth’ that he references is exactly what we’re aiming to do here. Around 91,363 Bitcoin were pulled from exchanges in November, worth a total of close to US$1.5 billion based on the November average price of around US$16,400. If the concern around self-custody is primarily fixated on the mishandling of seed phrases, WalletPort will be perfectly placed to fix this longstanding issue once and for all.

Another answer to this problem is concise education on the topic of self-custody. No more mixed messaging from prominent figures within the space. But aside from what can be done on the education front for newer market participants, the motivation behind what we are building with WalletPort is to provide much-needed safety, security and overall clarity around an area that is desperately in need of all 3.

WalletPort — New Year, Same Problems

We’re approaching the end of what has been one of the most manic years to date for the crypto ecosystem. The euphoria of the bull market seems like a cherished forgotten memory now. The reputational damage inflicted upon the industry from the number of black swan events that have occurred this year will take some time to cure. The responsibility falls on those that are still here and actively building to pick up the pieces, with the looming threat of regulatory clampdowns doing little to lift the overall sentiment.

2023 we start with a blank slate of sorts. So much of what’s wrong with the industry has been brought to the surface in recent months. Some have likened recent events to a cleansing of sorts that will only benefit the overall space in the long term. We all certainly hope so. For many that have been here for years, it’s still a learning process as we watch a space that is very much still within its formative stages begin to flourish. The central issue that will determine the pace at which this transformation occurs, will be trust. This isn’t just in relation to the crypto industry but the trust that many still have within the fiat monetary system and the transition towards the implementation of the highly contentious CBDCs.

2022 has been a watershed moment outside of crypto for many also. Take for example the incredibly authoritarian measures used in Canada to quash the Freedom Convoy protest that involved GoFundMe, capitulating, and announcing the fundraiser had been officially cancelled and that the platform would withdraw millions of dollars raised for truck drivers through external political pressure. The same government followed up by moving to freeze bank accounts, without a court order, of not only Canadian protestors but also those that made donations to their cause. This is of course one example, but it is no outlier. It may have opened many eyes to the extremities used by centralised entities, but the central issue again is trust. Where can people safely store their funds without the need for an intermediary? Whom can they trust to oversee the process?

We that have been immersed in the crypto space for several years perhaps take for granted this process. We breeze through the process of buying, selling and transferring assets on autopilot at times. It becomes second nature. But for us that see this industry as the future of the global financial system, we have a duty to pass this feeling of competence onwards and instil a sense of trust within new users that will rapidly speed up the rate of mainstream adaptation. But where do we start?

There is no shortage of doomsday headlines from mainstream media outlets that like to paint the worst possible picture of the crypto space. This year has been unprecedented in that regard. Whilst some of this is outside of our control as unfortunately, bad actors are still prominent, some issues we can tackle head-on. Let’s take this headline from Business Insider for example,

“Investors likely to lose almost $545 million worth of Bitcoin in 2022 by forgetting passwords and various other mistakes, 

The report went on to outline various reasons like forgetting passwords to their wallets or making a mistake in recording their “seed phrases” for the reasoning behind these estimations. When we factor in that analysts estimate that at least 20 per cent of all Bitcoin is lost and that most of those funds are irretrievably lost, these estimates don’t seem too far-fetched, even though they’ve used hypothetical valuations in their calculations. Headlines such as this do the crypto space absolutely no favours. That’s just one example relating to losing seed phrases, of which there is no shortage of examples and horror stories throughout the years of fortunes being lost to avoidable mishaps.

This doesn’t even brush on the scenario of an untimely death. A scenario that was recently highly publicised in the Netflix documentary, 

Trust No One: The Hunt for the Crypto King

, following a group of cryptocurrency investors who investigate the untimely death of their exchange’s founder, Gerry Cotten as well as the $250 million that they suspect he stole from them. Customers of QuadrigaCX are out as much as $190 million after Gerry Cotten died. He reportedly was the only one with the keys/seed phrases to retrieve the money. Again, we have the reference to trust in the very title of the documentary that has been seen by millions worldwide. According to a 

 conducted by the Cremation Institute, an online resource for funeral planning services, some 85% of crypto investors feel uncertain about how to incorporate crypto into their estate planning.

These are foundational issues that WE can tackle head-on. There’s no excuse for such events to occur this far into the developmental stage of Web3. As we head into a new year that many within the industry will welcome as a fresh start after a tumultuous period in the history of the space, those that are still here have a responsibility to do everything possible to improve the image of the space and work towards attracting a new wave of users. In a time of rampant uncertainty, we are absolutely certain of one thing,

WalletPort — Reestablishing Trust

It’s time to address the proverbial elephant in the room within the crypto space, self-custody. It’s a topic that divides consensus. Seasoned veterans are vocal proponents of storing everything in cold wallets. Bitcoin maxis in particular favour their ledgers for example. In recent years we’ve seen a push towards attempting to educate newer entrants into the ecosystem on this topic. A step in the right direction. But as highlighted by the recent FTX collapse, we have a long way to go.

The whole topic is centered around trust. “Not your keys, not your coins”. An expression that is synonymous with crypto, yet we still see continuous examples of investors not heeding the warning. FTX on the face of things presented itself as an unquestionably trustworthy entity. Endless celebrity endorsements and a CEO that had done regular rounds with mainstream media outlets as well as being tightly connected to high profile politicians that are tasked with overseeing regulation on the space. From anyone watching from afar, red flags were non-existent. The rest, as they say, is history.

Part of the problem may owe to the fact that many retail investors are oblivious to self-custody or simply put off, but the apparent technicalities are involved. Seed phrases, cold storage, ledgers, we all began our journey towards understanding the space wondering what the hell this all meant, let’s be honest. There’s no shame in being confused by it all, everyone was once in that same predicament. From a convenience standpoint, setting up an account on an exchange and leaving everything on there definitely ticks all the boxes. That is of course until the wheels come flying off, as they violently did with FTX.

The central point we’re trying to convey with this article is that when it comes to trust, there’s no one you can trust more than yourself. It might be stressful but taking adequate steps to secure your assets is worth it. However, as we brushed upon in the introductory article, self-custody is not without its pitfalls. The concept has remained one-dimensional since its inception. Write down your seed phrase and store it somewhere safe. Simple right? Wrong.

This system has never allowed for curveball scenarios of which there has been no shortage over the years. Lost or incorrect seed phrases are a huge one, very costly at that. Premature death is another. None of us knows exactly when we’re going to pass away but we can all agree on the fact that we’d want our loved ones well covered in any event. These are just two scenarios that threaten the one-dimensional concept that exists at present. Even the most well-thought-out plan can be upended by an anomaly.

Therein lay the opportunity to completely revolutionise the structure of self-custody. A safety net mechanism of sorts to allow the user to be covered in all plausible scenarios. This is exactly what motivated us to create WalletPort. Let’s say for the sake of a hypothetical situation you were to have stored 10 BTC within Wallet A. By connecting Wallet A to the WalletPort protocol, you can set your own time expiration period in which if Wallet A was to exceed that period of time without any user interaction, let’s say 6 months, the funds would automatically be transferred to a backup wallet or Wallet B. Lost your seed phrase? No problem, 6 months later you’ll regain access to your funds again via Wallet B. The same applies if the extremely unfortunate scenario if death occurs.

An effective solution to provide an extra layer of safety and security for your assets. Complete peace of mind. Binance CEO, CZ was just quoted as saying that 99% of crypto owners are not ready for the self-custody of their assets. Well, WalletPort begs to differ. Challenge accepted, CZ.

WalletPort — Secure Self-Custody

In recent weeks and months, one major talking point within the crypto space has been around the self-custody of assets. Not your keys, not your coins. We’ve all heard it at least once. It’s a topic that cannot be understated especially given the recent high-profile collapse of FTX and the huge number of losses incurred by users that opted to store large chunks of their net worth within the exchange believing it was too big to fail. It should serve as a stark reminder of the reality of the Crypto space at present that there is nothing that beats the safety of securely storing your own digital assets. However, there are still some existing threats that exist to those that have taken even the sternest precautionary measures to exercise self-custody of their assets.

There’s no shortage of examples of stories from people that have lost access to their seed phrases and therefore lost access to their wallets. It’s estimated that since its inception, around 20% of the current Bitcoin supply is either lost or locked in wallets. Take for example James Howell who first bought Bitcoin for close to nothing in 2009. In 2021 we were notoriously introduced to James and his story as it was revealed that he had mistakenly thrown away a hard drive that contained 7,500 $BTC back in 2013. At all-time high prices, that’s an estimated $516,000,000 of Bitcoin that was lost to a landfill in Newport.

It seems crazy to think that something like this can happen without a pitfall or insurance to aid in recovering lost funds like this. Bitcoin is a powerful technological revolution the likes of which we’ve never seen before and may never see again. With great power comes great responsibility, with regards to self-custody that is. But still, it seems unthinkable that one mistake or oversight can be this costly. How many people have felt this same pain?

This leads to another complex issue when dealing with the topic of self-custody. Death. It’s something we’d all prefer to ignore but must acknowledge. Whether we like it or not, it comes for us all. It’s impossible to accurately estimate how much of the 20% of the existing Bitcoin supply has been lost through the lack of a contingency plan following an untimely death but it’s fair to assume it’s a sizeable amount.

It’s vital to also consider that despite the fact Bitcoin and the crypto space is for everyone, at present, it’s a heavily male-dominated space, with some estimates claiming the gender split in the Bitcoin community alone is 85% male and 15% female. Imagine the plethora of issues that this causes for husbands with partners completely oblivious to anything to do with crypto that suddenly finds themselves without a partner and access to their funds. The same situation, of course, can apply to the reversal of genders but the fact remains at present that this scenario does seem the most plausible of the two.

Herein lies the opportunity. We are all duty-bound to educate others as best as we possibly can about the Web3 space. Unfortunately, sometimes it’s still not enough. This has led us to create Walletport. Walletport will act as an additional layer of security for both you and your assets. A safety net that protects your crypto from being lost in the event of lost keys or sudden death as we brushed on above. The number of crypto users is continuing to grow year on year, despite the unfavourable market conditions we’ve seen in recent months. This places greater emphasis on the need to safely and securely help in the onboarding of new users into the space.

Everyone by now has heard something about crypto, whether it be negative or positive. We’ve all heard of the cut-throat nature in which mistakes can be costly and users can lose out on fortunes through simple mistakes, mishandling of information or unforeseen circumstances like an untimely death. WalletPort has been created to combat a number of these existing issues with the hope of making the space safer, more secure, and more approachable for outsiders. You need only connect to our protocol and WalletPort takes care of the rest.

With an extensive background in banking, asset management and private investing in stocks, Harry entered Web3 initially in the form of investing in Bitcoin mining stocks. Soon after he found himself delving into Altcoins and has since been operating as a fund manager for a Crypto VC, managing a portfolio of over 100+ crypto assets. An insatiable interest in the space has led him to spend time within a variety of communities within the Crypto ecosystem, running Twitter spaces weekly and networking from the ground up. In addition, Harry has worked with many projects within the DeFi space, as well as several NFT projects and DAO’s, contributing to community growth and marketing. His collective knowledge and experience landed him spots on a number of podcasts including 

Dominic started his career in traditional finance as a Derivatives Trader, Wealth Manager & spent time working for a VC, specialising in asset-backed investing. After branching into the Web3 space, Dominic established himself as the CEO of vEmpire DDAO, a project of his own making, which grew to over $600m fully diluted MC at its ATH & is currently listed on Tier One exchanges like KuCoin & Huobi. Additionally, Dominick serves as an advisor to multiple other successful projects in the space. His vast experience has allowed him to help other founders in a variety of ways and in recent months he has been integral in establishing TONSMA, a specialised marketing agency which primarily focuses on the Crypto ecosystem.

A massive Web3 enthusiast, Artorias is the co-Founder of CULT and RVLT. He has spent the majority of 2022 working with the CULT community with the vision of helping to construct a pathway towards a more decentralised future. Artorias is most comfortable when reading smart contracts and the documentation of any number of DeFi protocols. He’ll bring a cutting-edge technical perspective to WalletPort, as well as an extensive network of like-minded, experienced Web3 contributors.

With over 11 years of experience in the blockchain sector, Kyle Chasse leads Master Ventures, a venture studio with over 65 employees. His contributions to the blockchain industry started as early as 2014, with Kyle notably creating the first Bitcoin lottery. Kyle has advised on tokenomics, product development, business growth, and fundraising for numerous businesses listed on Binance.

Knowledge base

WalletPort Whitepaper Spaces Recap

WalletPort — New Year, Same Problems

WalletPort — Reestablishing Trust

WalletPort — Secure Self-Custody

WalletPort — Introduction

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WalletPort Whitepaper Spaces Recap

WalletPort — New Year, Same Problems

WalletPort — Reestablishing Trust

WalletPort — Secure Self-Custody

WalletPort — Introduction