BitGo engineers launch multi-signature ether wallet, BitGo plans to enter Ethereum

The Ethereum blockchain platform is attracting more and more people to join. Now, a group of software engineers from Bitcoin security platform BitGo have launched a multi-signature Ethereum wallet service.

The Ethereum platform recently released its first product version Homestead, and also launched the Mist wallet, which is more user-friendly and allows users to configure smart contracts and store Ethereum.

Yet despite the progress Ethereum has made, wallet development may still be lagging behind. Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin recently told CoinDesk that he hopes the broader open-source blockchain community can lend a hand.

There are signs that this situation is improving in an organized way.

BitGo engineers Ben Chan, Mason Borda and Barath Chandrashekar have launched Ether.li, a multi-signature, two-factor authentication wallet for storing and transferring ether.

Chen said:

“There’s a lot of interesting stuff going on around ether lately. I’ve been into ether since the early days of Ethereum and was looking for a way to store ether, and at the time, I only found two wallets.”

There is one problem, Borda and Chen said in the interview: There are technical trade-offs in the operation of the wallet.

Borda said:

“The Ethereum wallets available today look really good and are easy to use. However, they have significant technical limitations because they require running a node in the background, which means that if you want to use the wallet on all your devices or computers, you must use a single signature.”

Borda believes that users will have to make significant compromises in technology if they want to use their wallets more conveniently.

Although both Borda and Chen work for BitGo, they said the product will not be released under BitGo’s umbrella. However, Borda also said that BitGo CEO Mike Belshe has given them his blessing.

Multi-signature and Ether.li

It only takes one minute for a user to create an Ether.li wallet, which is much faster than a Bitcoin wallet user. The block time is short, so the time required for wallet blockchain data synchronization will also be short.

Chen said:

“When you sign up and create a wallet, a 2-of-3 multi-signature contract is generated on the Ethereum blockchain.”

Unlike single-signature wallets, multi-signature two-factor authentication wallets require more than one signature for each transaction. For example, in a 2-of-3 multi-signature wallet, the first signature is the wallet user, and the second may be a text message sent by BitGo.

Borda said:

“When you use your wallet to deposit or withdraw funds, the signatories of the contract are the customer and BitGo. BitGo only signs the contract when the user sends a transaction confirmation message.”

For example, if a user wants to send ether to someone else, they can start a transaction through Ether.li. Then they wait for a text message requesting a code, which is the second signature. Then, the user enters the code and the ether transfer is completed.

Borda and Chen were careful to note that the wallet is still in its early stages. The team said:

“Demand and better security are the reasons why we decided to launch this wallet. However, this wallet has not undergone any security audit.”

BitGo and Ethereum

The team said that the Ether.li wallet is being launched and hopes to gain a certain market share in a relatively short period of time. BitGo intends to apply this technology to Ethereum and continue to develop it.

BitGo CEO Mike Belshe said:

“Our company’s positioning is security, and our work has always been to ensure the security of Bitcoin currency and research the security issues of cryptocurrency. We believe that we can reflect our value in Ethereum.”

Although BitGo has not yet made any official announcement, Belshe said the company will soon launch an industrial-grade Ethereum wallet.

Mike Belshe

Belshe said:

“We have plans to move into Ethereum, although we have not yet announced it.”

Original article: http://www.coindesk.com/bitgo-engineers-ethereum-wallet-ether-li/
By Jacob Donnelly
Compiled by: Kyle
Source (translation): 8btc Information (http://www.8btc.com/bitgo-engineers-ethereum-wallet-ether-li)