With UKISS Technology’s Hugware® — the world’s simplest and safest hardware wallet — full safety comes in two: an Authentication Key and a Rescue Key.
Can you give us a brief insight into the team behindUKISS Technology?
Ben Chan: The four founders of UKISS Technology are Chief Technology Officer Desmond Hsu, Chief Executive Officer James Gan, Chief Strategy OfficerTan Ze Chong, and myself, Ben Chan, as Director. We and our management team are very experienced in our respective areas of expertise, ranging from software development to security architecture, hardware engineering, blockchain, and crypto.
We complement each other very well. We are not new to the market, but we are100% focused on making UKISS Technology a decentralised security unicorn in the Web3 industry.
Let’s talk about Hugware®, are you able to sum up in two sentences for the layman what it is and what it does?
Hugware® is a revolutionary crypto hardware wallet that makes Web3 adoption viable for the masses. The device is simple for the average user to safely keep their private keys.
What was the light bulb moment for it? Were there any personal experiences with digital security compromises that spurred you to create Hugware®?
We have all faced challenges when it comes to creating and maintaining crypto wallets for ourselves or our families: I once managed an active crypto community of over 400,000 and had first-hand experience of all the horror stories they went through. This motivated me to create a much more user-friendly, simple and easy wallet for myself and the community.
When the technology behind Hugware® was first presented to me in early 2021, I knew instinctively that this would be crucial in making mass Web3 adoption feasible.
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Hugware® is a seed phrase-free wallet. What does this mean and what other kinds of wallets are there in the market?
The seed phrase is required by most self-custody wallets, also called non-custodial wallets, as a method to recover the private key if the wallet is ever lost or compromised. Hugware® uses patented hardware recovery technology that makes it safer and more convenient for average users to manage their private keys.
On the other hand, custodial wallets mean that you must entrust a third party to secure your funds and return them. These are usually maintained and owned centrally by third-party organisations, and in these cases, users have no ownership of the private keys.
What was the design of the product like and how was its USB-like design decided on? I’d like to ask too if it will change.
Hugware® has two USB connectors for users to plug into their desktop or mobile devices. This is the most secure and easy way to use a crypto hardware wallet. No battery is needed, and it can last a very long time. In the future, we plan to add more features to Hugware® that will make it even more convenient for our users.
We want to make the mass adoption of self-custody wallets possible, and one way to achieve this is by designing Hugware® as an affordable lifestyle device. As the UKISS ecosystem grows with more applications and services made available to the community, we may be able to make Hugware® even more affordable.
What are the most common digital security lapses that Hugware® addresses?
One of the most critical issues that Hugware® addresses is the managing of the seed phrase. Seed phrases – essentially a list of words that can be used to access funds in a crypto wallet – make your most important and sensitive private key information public and open to the world. By transforming the private key into plaintext, the seed phrase exposes a whole world of possible loopholes for a hacker to exploit.
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Seed phrase phishing and seed phrase thefts are some of the most serious problems that crypto users face today. Unfortunately, most people are not security experts and do not realise how important it is to secure their seed phrase. For example, most users cannot resist the temptation of taking a photo of their seed phrase using their phone, potentially exposing them to hackers. Some also regularly misplace their seed phrase or incorrectly copy it, ending up with invalid seed phrases – and possibly losing access to their wallets for good.
With Hugware®, the hardware wallet removes seed phrases from the process altogether. It lets users overcome the above issues using our patented technology, which provides a secure backup and recovery of private keys:Now, there’s no need for seed phrases at all. It is also designed for users to have self-custody of their private keys.Users use the Rescue Key (R-Key) to recover the Authentication Key (A-Key) if theA-key is misplaced. Users can also self-backup multiple R-Keys to avoid situations where the R-Key is misplaced.
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Hugware® currently manages up to 30 coins and tokens. Are there plans for itto manage NFTs in the future?
Yes, definitely. NFTs are a major trend in the crypto industry, and our suite of NFT-friendly features will be made available on our mobile wallet very soon. These features will allow users to manage their NFTs without going through external wallets or seed phrases – this allows even crypto novices to easily own and use their NFTs.
What do you think are some everyday digital processes that will be migratedto Web 3?
Web2 improved upon the successes of Web1, resulting in the explosion of the internet that has affected every aspect of our economy and society today. However,Web2 has become centralised and inefficient, with user and data privacy affected in the process. Web3 offers opportunities for further innovations and improved efficiency, making the transition in some ways inevitable as it allows data and asset ownership to be returned to the user while allowing everyone to participate actively in the internet ecosystem as contributors and beneficiaries.
Web3 innovations can even replace human intermediaries, improving efficiency and trust systems. Such innovation scan be achieved through automation and smart contracts, as well as crypto graphic proofs that enable instant verification of credentials, identities and ownership.
How is UKISS Technology positioned when this transition eventually happens?
UKISS Technology provides the tools and infrastructure that support the mass adoption of Web3, especially for non-tech savvy users who want something simple and easy so that they too can participate in Web3. We make self-custody of private keys secure, easy, and decentralised.
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