Atomic Wallet Security

Nowadays security has become one of the most important priorities on the cryptocurrency market.

It’s easy to remember all situations when different exchanges were hacked, as a result — users lost grand amounts of funds because of the lack of security or vulnerabilities of the centralized platforms. We will analyze it in another article soon.

Today lets talk about cryptocurrency wallets and their security.

The rise in the value of cryptocurrency has activated scammers and cheaters, who are looking for quick and easy methods to take advantage of trustful user’s funds.

Custody risks of the centralized platforms and exchanges have led people to the idea of a trustful place, where they can confidently store their funds. Such place should be totally unavailable for hackers and scammers and at the same time should be easy-accessible and convenient for users.

Main limitations of the centralized exchange platforms:

Most of the crypto exchanges are centralized and they are not insured from hacking and vulnerabilities.
They are also frequently undergoing DDoS-attacks.
Sometimes you can’t get instant access to your funds because of the technical issues or technical works performing within an exchanging platform.
These risks endanger the safety of your funds, may cause inconvenience, or give you a sense of insecurity.

The best way to keep cryptocurrency in this situation is to use wallets.

They can be kind of similar to the wallets we use in our real life, but there is one significant difference between them — you don’t store any money in your cryptocurrency wallet, your funds are stored only in the blockchain.

Your information is collected from blockchains and permanently updated.
Within your wallet, you can also manage and store data about different assets.
You always see your balance and can easily transfer your funds to another wallet or make exchanges between different assets.

Small tip: You can store a larger amount of your funds on the cryptocurrency wallet, and also store a smaller part on exchanges for everyday use to prevent yourself from hacking and vulnerabilities of the centralized exchanges.

Cryptocurrency storage methods

There are two main types of cryptocurrency storage nowadays — cold and hot storages.

In the hot method, the coins are always available online, you can literally spend them at any time. Such wallets require access to the Internet, as they are supporting permanent connection with the blockchain.

The cold method is designed for funds storage without the need for internet connection. You can use a personal computer, phone, flash card or just a piece of paper, but the hardware wallets are considered the most secure.

The right choice of a hot and cold wallet is an important and responsible step. You must understand that the security of your cryptocurrency assets depends on your choice. The most reliable method of storage is traditionally considered cold, in this case, assets are stored on your personal device and only you have access to your data.

Atomic Wallet is a cold type wallet, all passwords and data are stored on the user’s device and it is not kept at any server, so there is no custody risks or the possibility of losing funds through centralized services. The main risk in Atomic Wallet is if you lose your backup phrase or send it to another person.

Private password

The first stage of Atomic security is password. User create it by himself, the password is required to confirm transactions, to view the list of your private keys and it serves as the primary protection against unauthorized use of the wallet by another person. But what if you’ve lost your password? Well, here comes the second security stage in the Atomic Wallet Security system — the 12-word Backup Phrase.

Backup Phrase

Randomly generated 12-word Backup Phrase will help you to restore access to your Atomic Wallet at any time. It is vital not to lose this phrase, store it in a secure and inaccessible to other people place. You can even write it down or print it on a sheet of paper.

Encryption

In Atomic Wallet — all data that is stored on the user device or sent when interacting with blockchains is fully encrypted. Local data secured with AES symmetric encryption algorithm and the data which is transferred via BitTorrent protocol or interacting with blockchains is secured with TLS asymmetric encryption.

Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) is a symmetric block cipher chosen by the U.S. government to protect classified information and is implemented in software and hardware throughout the world to encrypt sensitive data. Read more about AES here.

Transport Layer Security (TLS) is a protocol that provides privacy and data integrity between two communicating applications. It’s the most widely deployed security protocol used today and is used for Web browsers and other applications that require data to be securely exchanged over a network, such as file transfers, VPN connections, instant messaging and voice over IP. Read more about TLS here.

Conclusion

Your safety is fully in your hands. We do not store any data on any servers, we do not store private keys and we do not have access to them. Therefore, it is the users themselves who are responsible for maintaining their password and backup phrase.

At the same time, Atomic Wallet is a combination of complicated modern technologies, design and security solutions. We built up a fully secured and convenient platform for users that can protect their funds and keep them in a safe place. We chose the way of decentralization, which always corresponded to the spirit of the cryptocurrency. Yes, there are certain drawbacks to this, but we are fully confident that our platform will attract the attention of many people, our wallet is simple, easy to use, supports a huge number of assets and implement an Atomic Swap technology.