Israeli Blockchain Startup GK8 on Wednesday announced the development of a crypto wallet with the security of a cold wallet but with the functionalities of a hot one.
Reported by local news agency Globes, the company also secured $4 million for the development of the unique wallet platform.
The round was led by Marius Nacht, co-founder of cybersecurity giant Checkpoint, and Israel Discount Capital, the venture capital arm of Discount Bank. In addition, venture capital firms including EdenBlock, iAngels, IDEAL-HLS, StratX, and the Israel Innovation Authority also participated in the round.
Based on the firm’s proprietary cryptographic technology, the storage platform, which is basically a cold wallet, uses a unidirectional connection to bring features of hot wallets, including sending and receiving digital assets conveniently. The one-way signaling of the wallet connects to the blockchain without a connection to the internet.
“We found security vulnerabilities in one of the most secured cold wallets in the market. After we saw how easy it was, we understood that hackers will invest millions to steal billions, and we decided to develop a secured end-to-end institutional tool for managing digital assets,” Lior Lamesh, founder and CEO of the company, told the publication.
Bringing military expertise to the blockchain industry
Founded in 2018 by Lamesh and Shahar Shamai, both of whom has experience with the cybersecurity wing of the Israeli military, the company obtained five patents for the underlying technology.
The company also provides custodial services for digital assets for clients including eToro and manages digital assets worth over $1 billion, the report detailed.
With the increasing threats on stored digital currencies, many companies are coming up with different solutions to provide secure storage. While GK8 has brought unique functionality to cold wallets, Bobby Lee’s new venture recently launched a new cold storage platform for crypto - Ballet - and eased the complex process of setting up the wallet.
