Squarelink, a blockchain account platform, recently added non-custodial private key recovery for several DApps using its wallet management tool. At this time, the Squarelink platform is the only pure non-custodial private key recovery platform for cryptocurrency and blockchain applications. All other solutions rely on OAuth providers such as Google or custodial key-management services like Amazon Cognito.
At present, Squarelink supports non-custodial private key recovery for the following applications:
- PoolTogether
- 1inch.exchange
- Fulcrum
- Totle Swap
- Deversifi
- gDai
- Hedgie
“Other technology providers have advertised private key recovery solutions, but there’s a catch,” says Alex Patin, co-founder and CTO of Squarelink. “Most are not truly non-custodial and rely on companies like Google to create OAuth tokens. Since Google is a centralized authority, a malicious employee with access could arbitrarily create access tokens for every user leveraging that technology, and fetch all the shards on hosted decentralized nodes containing PK information.”
Secured digital wallets and private keys have become paramount for the maturation of the cryptocurrency landscape. According to a 2017 Chainalysis study, the digital forensics firm estimates that between 30 to 50 percent of all Bitcoin will likely be lost and out of circulation — totaling $20 billion in value — due to private key loss. Recent polling uncovered that close to 19 percent of cryptocurrency holders lost digital assets due to mismanaged wallets. With over 42 million digital wallets in existence, Squarelink’s seamless solution casts a wide net to manage funds securely.
“Studies suggest nearly four million Bitcoin have been lost to date, but the reality is this number is likely much higher,” said Myungin Solomon Lee, Head of Product and Growth at Squarelink. “Mishandling private keys is an issue that affects everyone in the crypto community, and has directly translated to the loss of tens of millions of dollars in digital assets. Squarelink is looking to stop those losses by providing a solution that gives users additional control over their private keys and bolsters recovery methods.”
Squarelink’s recovery methods increase security and use familiar processes for users to retrieve and reset their private keys. The Squarelink setup process allows users to recover private keys through any combination of email with PGP encryption, challenge questions, and/or Universal Second Factor (U2F).
“Squarelink facilitates account recovery through encrypted ‘Recovery Seeds’ that only the user can access, ensuring no third parties are granted access,” added Alex Patin. “Today, there are countless threats to a digital wallet, yet so few security solutions. We must equip users with easy-to-use tools to not only keep assets safe but to also recover them should they be mishandled.”
Squarelink recently partnered with blockchain game Hedgie to allow gamers access to Squarelink’s multi-wallet. Squarelink also recently partnered with San Francisco Blockchain Week (SFBW) to enable event vendors to accept payments in cryptocurrency using Squarelink’s Event Pass DApp.
