You shouldn’t trust anyone with your bitcoins, and Case is well aware of that. Over the past few years, Mt.Gox, Bitstamp and countless other centralized services have suffered serious security breaches. But Case is about to put an end to all this, as this startup has built one of the most secure hardware bitcoin wallets in the world. The startup is launching onstage today at Disrupt NY.
“There’s no easy and secure way to use bitcoin. You’re either getting security, or you’re getting ease of use,” co-founder and CEO Melanie Shapiro told me. Case wants to provide both — security and ease of use.
Case is a small credit card-shaped device with a tiny screen, a fingerprint sensor, a camera, a built-in GSM chip and a few buttons. Any time you want to make a bitcoin transaction, you press the bitcoin button, scan the QR code with the camera, swipe your finger and you’re done. Everything happens on the device; you don’t have to log in with a complicated password or use a smartphone app. You can even buy and sell bitcoins from this device.
It’s always good to see that companies are working on solutions that would make using bitcoin more secure and easier. It seems that it’s not only Case but potentially also other companies are exploring improvements in security protocols and interface. The idea to make bitcoin transactions safer and more accessible is appealing. Having said that, we’re not entirely sure that making an additional piece of hardware to go with the bitcoin system is the way to go.
Part of bitcoin’s appeal is that it might potentially offer quick, cheap and easy transactions. We, however, expect the development to heavily involve smartphones rather than separate hardware. The trend seems to be to streamline payments into simple transactions where you confirm payment by tapping your phone against a wireless reader. It doesn’t seem that adding new hardware to the process is the way to go. We would expect solutions like the one proposed by Case to transpire to smartphones in the next couple of years.
Read more: Bitcoin on the decline?