Meet Gem, a new bitcoin startup with a different take and a focus on developer tools.Gem provides a highly available, scalable API for bitcoin developers to abstract the bitcoin storing layer.In other words, Gem will store, encrypt and backup your users’ bitcoins so you don’t have to take care of this cumbersome aspect.The startup is launching today in private beta at TechCrunch Disrupt and is competing in the Battlefield competition.“Our platform allows you to create wallets based on multisignature technology and other technologies,” co-founder and CEO Micah Winkelspecht told me in a phone interview before Disrupt.“It’s more secure than holding your own keys because we provide an extra layer of security.” Gem’s storing approach is very reminiscent of Blockchain‘s model, but Gem is all about providing a better developer API than Blockchain.Some services like Coinbase, Circle and others centralize everything and rely on passwords and two-factor authentication.When you send out bitcoins to these services, your bitcoins are actually stored in a master account.

These startups know how many bitcoins you’re supposed to have.As Mt.Gox has shown us, these services can be compromised and startups are fighting back with insurances.dime coin bitcoinOther bitcoin startups like Gem and Blockchain develop services that don’t actually store bitcoins — they are more like storage services.bitcoin mining thailandGem keeps encrypted files on their servers.bitcoin wallet directoryThe only way to decrypt these files and access your bitcoins is with one or multiple private keys.litecoin all time highGem (1 of 5) Gem (2 of 5) Gem (3 of 5) Gem (4 of 5) Gem (5 of 5) Gem Even if Gem has a server breach, hackers won’t be able to access bitcoins without the keys that are handed out to developers.bitcoin vs paypal volume

At the same time, developers don’t have to store your bitcoins on their servers; they can just give the keys to their users.bitcoin store promo“The industry right now is really focused on payment, but we’re really about empowering the next wave of developers,” Winkelspecht said.“Right now, if you want to build a bitcoin app, you have to be an expert in cryptography and security.We give you a very consumable platform and a client library.” After entering the Battlefield competition, Gem faced a very interesting challenge — it’s hard to demo an API on stage.For the last few weeks, the company thought about a way to make it more visual and interesting for the audience.That’s why the team just presented a multisignature Android app that uses the Gem API on stage.It was a good dogfooding experience.“In just a few weeks, we were able to develop one of the best Android wallets on the market,” Winkelspecht told me.

The company is still tweaking its pricing strategy, but Winkelspecht told me that there will always be a free tier for small bitcoin developers.For more successful services, the pricing will be based on usage.Gem will also provide add-ons to handle other important features for bitcoin developers.“We’re very early in that stage, but we’re talking with third-party developers to become the all-in-one platform to develop bitcoin apps,” Winkelspecht said.For example, you will be able to easily implement two-factor authentification, account spending limits, anti-money laundering requirements and more.Based in Los Angeles, the team of nine has raised $2 million in a seed funding round led by First Round Capital, Tekton Ventures, RRE Ventures, Birchmere Ventures and others.Gem is evidence that there is a lot of excitement in the developer community around bitcoin.But many have shied away from developing new bitcoin services due to the cryptography aspect of bitcoin.Gem tries to remove all these pain points.

“We want to make it so easy for developers that there is no reason not to start a project,” Winkelspecht said.“They can focus on building product and not infrastructure.” gem stephen-messer brady-forrest bindi-karia josh-felser gem-qa judges1 gem1 gem gem4 gem3 gem2 gem1Mobile bitcoin wallet provider BitPay has announced a new version of its eponymous app that introduces biometric security.In addition to other features including UI improvements and support for Portuguese, BitPay version 3.1 now features fingerprint-based app locking, along with a new PIN code feature.Announcing the improvement in a blog post, the company called it “a much-requested security and privacy feature for wallets on shared devices.” It’s a measure that emulates similar security approaches on the leading mobile payment platforms specializing in traditional currencies, Apple Pay and Samsung Pay.Apple pioneered fingerprint-based authentication with its Touch ID system, and while Samsung Pay has supported fingerprint authentication as well, it also now offers iris-based authentication through Samsung’s new Galaxy S8 and S8+ smartphones.

For a cryptocurrency like bitcoin, such security seems all the more important given the purely digital nature of the funds, so many BitPay users will likely appreciate the new biometric lock feature.Tweet Like Plus Pin It ShareWith the implosion of Mt.Gox and the rising popularity of cryptocurrency, it makes sense that someone would want to build an FDIC for BTC.Xapo thinks it may have figured out how.The company, founded by Wences Casares, raised $20 million from Benchmark Capital and Fortress Investment Group LLC, among others, and has been in stealth mode for two years managing bitcoins for large institutional clients – think investment banks and financial firms.Now they’re opening their service up to consumers.“If you have one or a couple rogue employees there’s not anything they can do to take the coins out of our vault,” said Wences.“The coins that are in the vault are on servers that are never online — have never been online.” The private keys — essentially the way you access your BTC — are under armed guard and behind layers of physical security in deep storage spaces around the world.

“In the wild west of Bitcoin, it’s disorder that makes people realize just how much they want civilization,” said Adam B. Levine, Editor-in-Chief of Let’s Talk Bitcoin Network.“Private ‘Vaults’ are a natural response to Mt.Gox, the equal and opposite reaction, but I’m truly excited about these early insurance products.We’re now seeing the evolution of the open source cryptocurrency experiment where the tokens are worth enough and the concept is viewed seriously enough to make it warrant professional, institutional-grade security and insurance.” Users can create a Bitcoin wallet using the service and then move their coins into a vault for an “annual custody fee of .12% of your vault balance.” This service also insures your bitcoins against theft and hacking, a valuable asset for those worried about getting Mt.Goxed.Your wallet is protected by a four-digit PIN, which isn’t very heartening, but it makes the creation and management of BTC wallets far simpler.“To break into that you need to break the technology, break the processes, and break into different vaults on different continents,” said Wences.

Wences noted that one client came to him with a laptop containing 30,000 bitcoins.The IT team had physically ripped out the Wi-Fi card but in the process they had almost damaged the CPU and hard drive, essentially losing those coins.“And these were some pretty sophisticated people,” he said.The wallet, said Wences, works like a checking account while the vault works like a savings account.They have no intention of ever becoming an exchange.If the service sounds simplistic, there’s a reason.The company aims to make the storage and protection of Bitcoin far simpler for everyone, from big banks to the average Satoshi.The $20 million investment is going towards managing the massive amount of security required to maintain a secure bitcoin environment and, more interestingly, apply enough security to convince insurance houses to pay up if someone hacks into the vault.“To this point in Bitcoin, there’s been no way to outwardly tell if an institution is competent or not – they’re all black boxes.