Countless coin-holders have lost their private keys, which allow them their only access to their cryptocurrencies. This can amount to thousands, or even millions, of dollars in losses for users.
No matter how you store your key — whether on a piece of paper, or on a hardware wallet — there are always risks. These can vary from the extremity of a fire or freak flood to simply misplacing the private key.
With demand for protection rising, Crypto Key Stack has created a solution: credit-card-sized element-proof steel plates that customers can engrave their seed words onto, which allow you to access your private and public keys.
CEO of Crypto Key Stack Chris Gonyo, 29, from Chicago, contemplated those same security risks when first opening his cryptocurrency wallet. He wanted an affordable, secure cold storage device to protect his assets in case of emergency, but did not see a product on the market that fit his, and many others’, needs.
Thus, the idea for the Crypto Key Stack was born.
“I really wanted to kind of come up with a way that made it very convenient for people to [not] have to source out all these different materials,” Gonyo says. The steel is even recyclable, but users should wipe the funds from their wallet first.
Plates are sold at USD 15 each and can hold 24 seed words in total, with alternate packages available for purchase ranging up to 10 plates. “[Crypto Key Stack] sorts everything out so everyone can get a cheaper rate on what they are actually buying,” Gonyo says.
There are similar devices on the market, such as paper wallets, USB drives and hardware wallets, such as Trezor and Ledger. However, each has a downside. Paper wallets are not safe from fires, floods or human error. USB drives and hardware wallets are also vulnerable to the elements, as well as electromagnetic pulses.
“They say that an [electromagnetic pulse] strike would be more catastrophic to the United States than a nuclear strike,” Gonyo says, adding that Crypto Key Stacks provide a sense of physicality to an otherwise cyber industry: “It’s like a physical, solid thing that you can hold in your hand and look at it. It’s that true ownership.”
