10 sats \ 3 replies \ @thrown 24 Oct 2022 \ on: We are Foundation, creators of the Passport hardware wallet. AMA! bitcoin
One of the things I am really passionate about is making custody easier and less footshootery. I just think “what would it take to get my parents into Bitcoin”.
What is Foundation working on to improve this? Things like account recovery, etc
What do you think will be the best practices going forward for the masses of “normies”?
edit: Do you think it is helpful to think of different kinds of wallets? savings vs checking account analogy?
Thanks for breaking the ice, @thrown!
That ability for anyone to quickly and easily learn to self-custody Bitcoin in a secure way is a driving force for us, and a key reason why we've tried to push away from the normal "store your 24 word seed phrase" model and implemented backups to MicroSD cards with a simple 20 digit passcode.
You can read more on that here: https://docs.foundationdevices.com/passport/backup
This simplifies the process of backup and restore, allows us to bundle far more data into the restore process (account names, multi-sig configurations, derivation paths, user settings, and opens up possibilities like coin labels etc.), and makes it a more "traditional" setup for people. We think one of the big barriers of entry to self-custody is the fear of losing funds and being entirely responsible, like if you lose the seed or break the device.
Tools like the Casa seedless 2-of-3 multisig model is very intriguing, and we're always brainstorming ways we can help to bring peace of mind to customers of Foundation.
We're also working to enable Envoy to be an extremely approachable standalone software wallet without sacrificing privacy, with lots of exciting announcements there still to come.
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I definitely like the idea of multi-sig recovery. I think existing fiat banking institutions could transform into Lightning nodes and one of your recovery agents maybe. But even ignoring “institutions”, I think it will become natural for families to start to support each other financially more and become their own little bank together.
For example, my parents would feel more comfortable if they knew that I could help them if they messed something up.
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Definitely agreed, finding ways to help community groups and families "crowd-source" custody in a social way while breaking the dependence on a third-party is something we've been actively exploring.
Moving backups away from seed words help a bit with that, but we agree that using multi-sig in unique ways is really a key approach for the future of broader Bitcoin usage.
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