What was your motivation to build the FLX Wallet? What have the others been missing or doing wrong in your opinion?
The main motivation, I would say, came from the difficulties and complexity of crypto wallets. There’s a steep learning curve for less tech savvy people who want to get into cryptocurrency. We used some of the mainstream wallet offerings out there and basically said “this is really difficult”. Being an engineer for almost two decades, I immediately thought - we can make this easier. I guess that leads into what’s been missing with crypto wallets - ease of use and convenience.
Tell us a bit about your background in the cryptocurrency world, and the tech/hardware sector.
After working at Qualcomm as Director of Engineering for over 17 years, I founded eSmart Tech Inc. in 2015 for providing world-class product design and engineering services. Our team, with a combined 44 granted and 10+ pending US Patents, is constantly devising innovative ideas. We have delivered over 10 embedded product designs such as Smart IoT devices to our customers. In 2018, I founded FLX Partnership for cryptocurrency projects. FLX has leveraged eSmart's engineering team for building FLX One.
I imagine there's not a whole lot of people with prior experience in building hardware cryptocurrency wallets. With that in mind, tell us about your team, how did you go about finding and recruiting them? What special skill-sets of your team show in the final product?
That’s true, it’s a relatively new type of device. Basically, a hardware crypto wallet is an embedded system. Embedded systems and mobile devices is what I specialized in during my years at Qualcomm. That certainly gave me an edge on finding people with the right skill-sets to make a successful product. I think the speed of our development definitely highlights the skill-sets of the team. We’ve been able to overcome many challenges and add great features to the FLX One, very quickly. There’s a good synergy with this team.
Of course, when it comes to a cryptocurrency wallet in any form - security is the top concern. How has FLX Wallet addressed those concerns?
Security was definitely a big concern from the start of the project. Every decision we made for the hardware and software on the FLX One, security was at the forefront. During development we purchased tools to help us find holes in the design and attempt to hack the FLX One. We also regularly test our firmware and mobile apps to make sure it stays secure. Details like a hardware cutoff for Bluetooth on the wallet, the transaction signing process, the FLX Key, firmware tamper detection, and many other features, were all part of making the FLX One as secure as possible.
Walk us through the process of recovering a lost wallet?
This is probably one of the most exciting features of the FLX One. We wanted to offer something new and easier to the way existing crypto wallets implement back up and recovery. The standard backup method for wallets is writing down a bunch of phrases on a piece of paper, which we also offer as an option on the FLX One. Every FLX One does come with an additional piece of hardware, the FLX Key. This key, which we actually shaped to look like a key, is integrated into the setup of your wallet. During setup, you’re instructed to insert the FLX Key into the FLX One, via the integrated USB connector. The FLX One generates the information needed to backup your wallet and copies it to the FLX Key, all offline, for security. This backup is encrypted and the FLX Key is permanently locked. You store the FLX Key in a secure location in case you lose or break your FLX One. If you need to restore, it’s as simple as plugging in the key during a new wallet, under the restore option. In a matter of a few seconds, your FLX One is restored. This patent pending design makes backup and recovery on the FLX One much more convenient, and we think, almost expected with modern tech users.
Tell us about the iPhone and Android apps...
The iPhone and Android apps are basically the way you use the FLX One to send/receive crypto, use the built in exchange, set your active coins list, and many additional features. The FLX One connects to the mobile app via an encrypted Bluetooth connection. Some individuals hear wireless, and may feel uncomfortable with having a wireless signal for someone to grab. We have taken this potential security concern into account. With the FLX One, nothing a thief can use is transmitted over the air on the FLX One. We like the mobile phone app approach for convenience, and to make using crypto more pragmatic for mass adoption. If crypto is going to be a method of everyday purchases in the future, it needs to be mobile. You don’t exactly want to bust out a full laptop at the counter and connect cables to make a transaction. More people have access to a mobile phone over a laptop in today’s world as well. A mobile app, just makes sense.
Which tokens is the wallet currently compatible with? Any new additions on the horizon?
Currently, the FLX One supports most of the major tokens out there. Our recent release has Ripple and DASH support and the integrated Exchange feature. We are developing support for Monero, which will be released soon as well. There’s about 25 tokens supported, at the moment. We also support any ERC-20 token. These tokens are all natively supported on the FLX One. If you’ve used some of the mainstream wallets out there, this is definitely an advantage. This means that all you need, is the FLX One and the mobile app, no 3rd party apps required. As far as new additions on the horizon - definitely! We have lots of exciting things on the FLX roadmap. Luckily, you can update the firmware on the FLX One, so you can stay up to date with all future features. You can also visit flxwallet.com, or join one of our social media platforms to stay up to date on what we are working on.
Where can the FLX hardware wallet be purchased?
The FLX One can be purchased on Amazon and direct from our website, flxwallet.com.
Author: Justin Derbek
New York News Desk
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