Xapo

Xapo is a Hong Kong-based^[1] company that provides a bitcoin wallet combined with a cold storage vault and a bitcoin-based debit card.

1 Main information
2 Description
3 Security
4 Controversy
5 External links
6 See also
7 References

Main information

Country: United States
Headquarter: Palo Alto
Type: Wallet
Round: First
Cost: $20 million
Date: 13-Mar-2014
Investors: Benchmark, Fortress Investment Group, Ribbit Capital, Slow Ventures

Description

BTC Debit Cards: Xapo, BitPay & Shift

Xapo CEO and entrepreneur Wences Casares became interested in Bitcoins because of the frequent financial fluctuations in his native Argentina. He has said that his family’s finances were “devastated as the economy (in Argentina) rocketed from inflation to deflation to devaluation.” Casares believes that digital currencies such as bitcoin “could solve the disjointed nature of our world economy.”^[2]

In 2011, Casares bought his first bitcoins but couldn’t find a way to store them, so he built a ‘vault’ for his own use. Friends, and later financial institutions, soon asked Casares if they could store their bitcoins in his vault. This became the foundation for Xapo, which was founded in late 2013 by Casares and COO Federico Murrone. Xapo opened its products to the public in March 2014.

Casares said Xapo was founded with the aim of making the bitcoin currency more secure and accessible. The Xapo Wallet operates through a mobile app and online and includes the ability to transfer funds to and from the Xapo Vault. In April 2014, Xapo introduced a debit card that will link to the user’s Xapo Wallet and will function like a standard debit card, except that it is backed by bitcoins instead of traditional currency.

Prior to Xapo, Casares founded and later sold online brokerage firm Patagon to Banco Santander for $750 million. He also launched the first Internet provider in his home country of Argentina in 1994.^[3]

In May 2015 Xapo moved its headquarters from Palo Alto, California to Zurich in Switzerland.

In July 2017 Xapo was granted a European e-money license in Gibraltar allowing it to provide electronic fiat money custodial and transfer services ^[4].

Security

The Xapo Vault consists of physical servers located around the globe that the company says is protected by biometric scanner access, 24-7 video surveillance, and armed guards. The servers are in undisclosed locations underground, according to Casares. Casares claims that Xapo “is the first bitcoin vault fully protected and insured against hacking and bankruptcy.” The Xapo Vault is insured by Meridian Insurance.

In August 2014, Xapo announced it had raised $20 million to further enhance its security measures^[5].

Controversy

In 2015 Xapo CEO, Wences Casares, was sued by security firm LifeLock, which acquired Lemon, a digital wallet company led by eventual Xapo founder Casares. LifeLock alleged Casares and his team developed the source code for Xapo using Lemon’s computers, property and resources while getting paid by Lemon. LifeLock has pulled the Lemon Wallet app from availability and taken the unusual step of deleting all data stored by current users after it deemed the app non-compliant with security standards. “We have determined that certain aspects of the mobile app may not be fully compliant with payment card industry (PCI) security standards,” said LifeLock CEO and Chairman Todd Davis.”^[6]

External links

References

Categories:

Xapo

Xapo

Contents

Main information

Description

Security

Controversy

External links

See Also on BitcoinWiki

References