We hear the term all the time. Some of us interpret it as synonymous with anonymity, others think it means safety, the newcomers don’t think twice about it I’m pretty sure if we’re being frank. More importantly, what’s it got to do with ones’ cryptocurrency wallet?
Here's where you should pay attention!
We need to understand/identify the problem before we can even begin coming up with a solution in most cases.
Wallet transactions have to involve Mnemonic or Private Key, so they must be able to be restored to the real text. If the encrypted data (your seed phrase or private key) is stored on a compromised mobile phone, hackers can obtain the encrypted Mnemonic data.
Fun Fact: Any App code has the risk of being leaked or cracked. We’ll touch on this later but this is where you should always enact a particular protocol when being presented with a new wallets’ seed phrase. “Great…? Is DESM some kind of altcoin you’re shilling?”
Listen. I’m just a guy from Los Angeles with a self-taught background in traditional finance & behavioral therapy… and psychopharmacology… ?? According to the wallets’ feature guide called the BitKeep Glossary, DESM is best described as:
“Double Encryption Storage Mechanism, or DESM, is a set of algorithms customized by BitKeep wallet for the encryption and storage of Mnemonic and Private Key. DESM further improves security by combining multiple encryption algorithms.
Three conventional encryption methods are most widely used at present:
1) Message Digest Encryption, a common irreversible encryption such as Message-Digest Algorithm 5 (MD5), Secure Hash Algorithm 2 (SHA256), and so on.
2) Symmetric Encryption, such as Data Encryption Standard (DES), Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) and so on.
3) Asymmetric Encryption, such as RSA designed by three mathematicians, namely Rivest, Shamir, and Adleman, as well as other encryptions. Transaction signatures in blockchain use asymmetric encryption.BitKeep’s DESM uses both Message Digest Encryption and Symmetric Encryption, as well as a combined encryption method of SHA256+AES256+cloud authentication.”
“Remind me why I care?”
All things considered, your seed phrase is akin to your routing/account number and online login credentials for your traditional finance custodian (Wells Fargo, Chase, Bank of America, etc).
It's 2023, let’s be honest here folks – privacy, anonymity & trust - whether you realize it or not have become a hot commodity. So aside from having to constantly check for security patches in any app you’ve downloaded that you’ve entered your wallet seed phrase on, you’ve also got to hope the wallet provider themselves don’t keep a copy. That’s what makes DESM so remarkable, as it ensures the end-user that it’s quite literally impossible their seed phrase / credentials were logged or seen by anyone but themselves.
After being encrypted by DESM, the security problem can be fundamentally solved because even hackers or BitKeep employees cannot crack users’ Mnemonic or Private Key data. The only case for successful hacking that will hardly occur is decrypting the user’s mobile phone data, knowing the user’s transaction password and account password simultaneously, as well as the encryption rules of the BitKeep cloud.
As a non-custodial decentralized wallet, BitKeep ensures asset ownership so that only users can control their assets. In terms of security technology, BitKeep guarantees that the user’s Private Key and Mnemonics are not stolen by third parties through cracking algorithms and provides more secure and convenient transaction services for all Web3 users.”
The full article can be found below, if you want to see the nitty gritty. Otherwise, hopefully this somewhat made sense & shed light on the importance of not only encryption, but your wallet providers’ commitment to transparency.
Cheers to Defi!
