Unbound Tech, a leader in cryptographic key management and protection, today announced that it has entered into a strategic partnership with crypto-asset security startup KeyFi to develop specialized software and services using secure multi-party computation (MPC).
The initial solution released under this partnership enables institutional-grade key management for continuous and automated staking of the QTUM cryptocurrency and will quickly expand to support other crypto-assets and value-added services.
As part of this relationship, Unbound and KeyFi are also announcing the first of many native DeFi MPC modules for Unbound Tech: non-custodial stake-pooling for groups of distributed, trustless participants through shared vaults.
The first version of KeyFi’s key management platform will be released in Q2 2020 with a consortium of partners including Celsius Network and Monarch Wallet.
CASP Technology
KeyFi’s platform, built upon new developments in Unbound’s Crypto Asset Security Platform (CASP) enables users to securely manage their keys, while at the same time offering rails for an array of value-add DeFi services. By combining the low cost of MPC-based self-custody with the value created by seamlessly accessing DeFi services such as staking, lending, and derivative products, KeyFi customers will be able to significantly increase the potential lifetime value of holding a coin while simultaneously reducing their cost and complexity of custody.
“For too long, secure key management has been a problem that has hindered the widespread adoption of digital assets such as cryptocurrencies,” said Professor Yehuda Lindell, CEO, and Co-Founder of Unbound Tech. “The traditional means of safeguarding private keys that control these assets have proven to be cumbersome, insufficiently flexible or difficult to implement at scale. Unbound’s CASP, in partnership with KeyFi’s enterprise solutions, will enable users to more easily add digital assets to our MPC-based platform while also utilizing DeFi services such as staking.”
“KeyFi was formed for two reasons,” said Cindy Zimmerman, Co-founder and Lead Security Engineer of KeyFi. “First, to support projects that want professional investor adoption and enterprise support by quickly offering MPC-based wallets and services. Second, to simplify key management processes while adding functionality to support novel value-added DeFi services — such as continuous and automated staking — that coin-holders deploy to maximize the value of holding that coin. By combining MPC-based key management with DeFi services, KeyFi will significantly lower the lifetime cost of custody for many institutional coin-holders.”
“It’s an incredible honor for QTUM to be the first cryptocurrency supported jointly by KeyFi and Unbound Tech,” said Patrick Dai, QTUM Founder. “This is particularly appealing for the QTUM ecosystem because the Unbound-KeyFi custody solution is a tremendously enabling tool for businesses that will lend new opportunities to QTUM holders. Since the blockchain space has such a well-recorded history of security lapses, we are glad to see companies make key management easier to implement, especially for staking.”