Crypto Vault, a company that focuses on cold storage for cryptocurrencies, has created “Vault Coin,” made with nickel-copper alloy with high heat resistance. Each of these coins are numbered individually so it is easy to keep track of what currency is being stored on what coin and adds a small bit of collector value.
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In an interview with Bitcoinist, Kyle O’Brien, a founder of the company, said they wanted the end product to be fire and water resistant. He also stated that each coin has a tamper evident label that leaves a “void” stamp on the coin if removed.
Plan to Introduce a Fire & Water Resistant Paper and Label for Crypto Keys’ Safety
When we asked about their plan to introduce a fire & water resistant paper and label to safeguard crypto keys in the future, Kyle O’Brien said:
“When we introduce the fire and water resistant paper and labels what the user will get is the safest and most secure way to store crypto currency offline. There are laser cut titanium cards out there for cold storage, but the user is still transmitting their public or private keys through the internet via email to the producer. This allows you to be tracked and possibly compromised. Our coin will be completely DIY meaning the end user never has to let his private keys see the Internet in any way.”
O’Brien told us they tested the paper itself and confirmed that it can take a direct flame for 45 seconds without catching fire and only sustaining minimal browning. When combined with the high temperature labels, the fire resistance increased dramatically. Additionally, the paper was tested at 600 degrees for 6 hours, and the private key remained secure. Similarly, they soaked the paper in water for 24 hours with no seepage.
Apart from the two products that he discussed with us, he told us about seven future products that are currently in the design phase. Out of these, a limited run of gold plated coins, and free paper wallet designs in all the popular crypto flavors are the two products that are going to excite the cryptocurrency users.
Here are Excerpts from Our Interview With Kyle O’Brien
Tell us about your company? How it all started?
Kyle O’Brien: The long story goes all the way back to 2011. Fellow co-founder Jordan Parks and myself were on a business trip. He mentioned bitcoin almost in passing but it caught my attention. Before I knew it I had spent almost the entire business trip secretly researching bitcoin and anything I could find related to it. We were hooked instantly. In 2012 we began our mining venture and on-boarded fellow co-founder Brett Lanning who had the Tech Savvy to get our fledgling operation running 24/7. We continued to mine bitcoin and litecoin through 2014 when we decided to shutdown the operation and switch our focus to bitcoin security. With bitcoin you are your own bank, there is no FDIC so users need to properly safeguard their digital currencies.
We liked the idea of the physical ‘Casascius’ coin and decided to model our idea after his. We began a kickstarter to fund the most safe and secure DIY physical coin cold storage wallet. If funded, the plan was to introduce a coin that would include fire and water resistant paper and label. The end user prints their private key on the supplied paper and assembles the wallet themselves requiring no third party trust. When we failed to reach our crowdfunding goal, we decided to change up our game plan. We now offer our coins and tamper evident labels that users can still DIY at home and store their coins safely offline.
Are there similar services/product providers? Why should cryptocurrency users trust you?
Kyle O’Brien: There are similar products out there. A myriad of physical bitcoin and altcoin coins have emerged. Our coin is unique in that it is crypto agnostic, meaning any number of altcoins can be stored on our coins. Our coins are also much less expensive when comparing against other physical coins. Users actually don’t have to trust us at all. We never handle any public or private keys, and don’t ask for any information from the end user short of shipping address. Our storefront runs through Shopify and currently only accepts bitcoin as payment. This raises the trust factor vs buying another physical bitcoin on an internet forum, for example.
What future do you see for cold storage?
Kyle O’Brien: We currently have an online questionnaire on our website’s blog and two of the questions deals with how likely people are to use cold storage at the current price of bitcoin. Most respondents said they were not very likely. The same question was asked with the price of a bitcoin changed to $1000.00 and nearly all respondents said they would definitely store a large portion of their coins in cold storage. The problem with this logic is that no one knows when,or more importantly, how high Bitcoin will go in value. Users need to decide what amount they wish to keep safe and store that amount offline in cold storage. When your hard drive fails, or your exchange gets hacked,its already too late no matter what the value bitcoin is.
Any special offers available these days for customers?
Kyle O’Brien: We ran a 33% off deal for 3 months that just ended on May 5, 2015. We will most likely offer more deals in the future, most likely discounts on larger quantities.
Any Message for our readers or special offers for them?
Kyle O’Brien: To everyone reading this. You are your own bank. You need to safeguard your savings. Decide a percentage of your crypto currency that you would like to keep in savings and research how to store them offline in cold storage. We offer a unique and visually appealing solution and would love to have you as a customer.
What do you think about this company’s products? Let us know in the comments below!
Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons and PixaBay
Disclaimer: The writer of the story is not in anyway associated or has interests in Crypto Vault.