While being in Moscow during his East Europe Tour Ian Balina had a chat with Coinstelegram team leaders. And after the question about his TOP ICO List and the project with code name Belarus (12th on the screenshot below) – Ian noted: “I can not say about it. But, if you follow my Instagram, I sometimes give hints and clues”. And after being asked: Is it blockchain? – he replied: No!
We followed and it seems we found the project “Belarus”. It was not so difficult if we remembered Ian Balina was hacked on $2M and therefore his interest to security now is very sharp. So – this is Spatium – secure hardware and software (desktop or mobile) wallet both for crypto and fiat. See our review below.
Landscape
“Hint and clue” from Balina’s Instagram is his photo with Marat Zhanispayev (https://www.linkedin.com/in/marat-zhanispayev-61568024/), Co-Founder. Marat Zhanispayev also known as Edenchain advisor. And by the way he owns ADV, marketing company (https://www.linkedin.com/company/adv/) since 2003, and founded ADV Marketing Kazakhstan in 2005. Due to his organizer’s abilities the team of Spatium unite best forces of the former USSR empire. Marketing and rulers are from rich countries such as Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan, brains – from poor Belarus and Ukraine with some Indian programmers. Cool composition – or even fusion? Details in Team section.
Idea
“Nothing is unhackable — but the Spatium wallet is as close as it gets!” – says Dilya Zhanispayeva, 23, Co-Founder and daughter of Marat Zhanispayev.
Spatium propose distributed signing of transactions – without private key stored on the user’s device. Why this is a key (sorry) advantage? As for hard wallet – users have to get “a piece of hardware in order to secure private keys”. An attacker can gain unauthorized access to a user’s wallet by infecting device with malware and retrieving authentication and authorization data. If the device is infected with a virus or gets hit by a hacker attack (encryption viruses, intentional erasing of data), immediate access to data is lost. An intruder can extract critical information from RAM or from the data storage system. If a device is damaged or lost and the recovery phrase is lost, access to funds cannot be recovered. If an attacker gains the recovery phrase, backup or password, all the funds will be lost – and so on. As for software only wallet – everyone knows that there is no totally secure software solution. That’s why Spatium combines software solution with hardware approach. And brings a lot of proven advantages to crypto sphere. The full list of advantages is as follows (very impressive by the way):
Spatium allows a user’s wallet to be stored on a combination of several physical devices. Even if one of the devices becomes infected, access to their crypto assets will not be obtained since only infecting every single device used in the combination would allow a hacker to access all the sensitive data required for controlling the assets. This architecture has been achieved by implementing the Spatium Protocol, which is based partly on Secure Multi-Party Computation (SMPC) algorithm over distributed secret data. Within SMPC Spatium incorporated a variety of proven algorithms: “Elliptic Curve Diffie-Hellman exchange algorithm, Paillier homomorphic encryption scheme, and Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm (ECDSA) extension under the name of Threshold Signature (TS)” – O, Lord! It’s hard to repeat – so it is quoted. But in fact this is impressive and seems to be serious.
A generalized scheme of the interaction between parties explained as follows:
“A) Each party uses its own partial secret independently generated and stored separately from other parties. B) Wallet addresses are formed and transactions are created as a result of the interaction of K out of N parties. Private keys are never generated and are never used, which eliminates the possibility of secret data loss due to one of the parties getting compromised. SMPC parties can be any devices running Android, iOS, Windows, or Unix operating systems, as well as other certified devices and specialized payment terminals”.
For convenient interaction between user and product, Spatium implements a flexible “authorization tree” method. Secrets are not stored on the user side. Instead, they are stored in a distributed manner that provides access to data through authorization factors. Secret data is protected by multi-layer encryption using various methods of generating password phrases based on user-supplied data — named “factors”. Factors can be alphanumeric (password, passphrase, PIN code), file-based (a photo with a .jpg extension, a document with a .txt extension), biometric (fingerprint, retina), or material (QR code, NFC label). The authorization tree builds up a hierarchical algorithm of identification and authentication. The tree presents a sequence for inputting factors with an option of selecting several parallel branches independent of each other.
Such fundamental approach to project is combained with precision plan of its realization.
Milestones
There are 3 levels of goals as for priority.
First priority goals and objectives: Develop safe storage of crypto assets – based on Spatium Protocol – that provides security and reliability comparable to that of a hardware wallet, but will eliminate the necessity to use a specialized device. Offer a software (mobile, desktop) wallet and a hardware wallet shaped like a credit card that will surpass the security of other wallets available on the market today. Provide flexible access to assets with the use of biometric factors (fingerprints, retina, etc.) and physical factors (NFC tags, QR codes, etc.) with factor access requirements that can be set up for your home or work. Integrate the decentralized storage of sensitive information that will be used to access personal funds without giving hackers a chance to access them.
Second priority: Enable fast transactions for slow cryptocurrencies (such as Bitcoin). Enable Peer-to-Peer (P2P) exchange transactions that will not require transferring funds to an intermediary (e.g. third party, stock exchange). Offer investment services: portfolio investment management, ICO investment panel. Offer fixed denominated digital checks secured by any currency held in the user’s wallet.
Third priority: Instant point-of-sale (PoS) transactions at brick-and-mortar retailer terminals. Offer an option to create different wallets for one cryptocurrency using different authorization data for each wallet. Protect funds using “plausible denial” algorithms. Allow for easy inheritance of wallets by persons designated by the user based on timing and authorization factors predefined by the user.
Benefits
Fast transactions using slow cryptocurrencies. Spatium Protocol allows to split calculations securely and autonomously among several nodes, which allows any open (and trusted) or even closed (and not trusted) subject to take the role of a node. In plans – to develop a blockchain-like distributed system for processing data that will act as an additional node.
Exchange services that do not require intermediaries.Organizing escrow services, which makes it possible to perform operations without an intermediary within the same blockchain.
Verification makes it possible to conveniently transfer funds just by knowing the receiver’s name or phone number or by seeing the person’s photo or an organization’s logo.
B2B wallets with an unprecedented level of security for corporate clients.
Investment service do not require a transfer of funds to a third party. So created trading portfolios are secure and easy to use.
ICO Platform provides a secure solution for both the initiators of ICOs and the people who want to safely participate in ICOs. The ICO platform ensures that the integrity of critical information cannot be violated even if an attacker gains unauthorized access to one of the participating parties: users, organizers, or the product.
ICO.2 – tokenization of anything. This allows for investing in assets that are currently outside the cryptocurrency space. Examples of what can be tokenized include property (such as real estate), art (including crowdinvesting for musicians and their albums), and businesses. The technology is there; it is up to the market to decide what will make sense as a tokenized asset on the platform.
What is essential: i) own hard wallet will be issued just (this is above mention “other certified devices”) – in 2018; ii) own blockchain will be developed for DEX establishing and to back own ecosystem – in the future.
At the moment, more than 520,000 hardware wallets are produced monthly (Trezor, Ledger, and Keep Key). But it is noted that “even the Ledger has been shown to be vulnerable”. The Spatium wallet has important and distinct advantages over current hardware wallet devices. It have 100+ currencies (rivals – up to “at most around two dozen”). The Spatium wallet is shaped like a credit card; it fits easily in any wallet. And you don’t need to connect it with a cable – wireless NFC transactions make using the Spatium wallet as easy and practical as a credit card. It is universal – can be used across platforms (hardware, mobile, desktop, etc.). If it is lost – it can be resumed (no data is stored within the actual device). And it has really great feature in case of criminal accident: “Under duress to give up your wallet? Pre-program plausible denial to only give access to a separate wallet with a tiny amount of crypto in it (while alerting a trusted contact and locking away the majority of your funds)”.
Roadmap
Economics & Tokenomics
As for own wallet, the team is ready to take 20% of the market due to distinct advantages. And they expect a profit of over $80 million from sales of 1.2 million devices annually.
Income from fees is counted, according to average daily cryptomarket trading volume more than $70 billion with exchange commission fee equal to 0.1%. In 2017, the total amount of funds raised through ICOs reached more than $7 billion. Spatium’s ICO contribution platform will charge a commission of between 0.1% and 1%. Portfolio investment platform fees will range between 0.01% and 1%. Spatium aims to capture 1% of the turnover of the cryptocurrency market. This would earn Spatium around $12M on a monthly basis from commission fees.
Private round will propose Bonuses: during the private sale = 5% – 20%
Cap : $12M
Ticker: SPT
Type: ERC20
Token distr
49% to be sold
21% to be hold as a reserve
19% – Team
8% – Advisors and partners
3% – Bounty (Airdrop)
Funds Allocation
57% – Release the 1st batch of hardware wallets
21% – Promotion
12% – Complete the product and develop the new features
7% – Maintenance and support
3% – Administrative and legal
Team
Everyone in cryptocommunity knows now that the key factor of any project is it’s team. We start this review with team and we will end it with team. Its correct approach as for project realization and perspectives.
Geray Yusifov, Co-Founder & CEO, MBA from The University of Chicago Booth School of Business, 10+ years AdTech Enterpreneur from Azerbaijan with experience of McCann – top USA marketing company, CEO McCann Baku (Azerbaijan) and Business Partner/CEO at ADV Azerbaijan & Georgia.
Marat Zhanispayev- Co-Founder, 20 years senior management experience, Kazakhstan, General Manager at McCann Erickson (USA), founder of ADV Marketing Kazakhstan, Owner/CEO at ADV.
Dilya Zhanispayeva – Co-Founder, Director of Operations at Caspian Technologies Pte Ltd (Singapore), Business Development at Zero Terra, Marketing Analyst at CivicSolar (USA). Bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Berkeley.
Ideologist: Yuriy Hotoviy – Co-Founder, Ideologist, 6+ years of algo-trading & analytic, Ukraine.
Key security specialist: Valery Vashkinel, Co-Founder & CTO – 5+years in capital markets & security systems, 3 years as blockchain developer.
Key developers: Aleksei Ivanou – 8+ years experience in IT security, Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH), Offensive Security Certified Proffesional (OSCP).
And Ilya Ulyanich – 8+ years of firmware engineering.
Both men are from Belarus and with impressive background: graduated from TOP State High Schools (BSUIR and Military Academy) concentrated on IT security, with years of experience in MoD and EPAM (TOP dev outsource company listed on NASDAQ).
Conclusions
An amazingly well-assembled project – if compared with others from the post-Soviet space and even from Asia. Here, apparently, business is led by marketers, while in others – developers. Here, marketing (not hype!) reigns – therefore, market success is assured.
Experienced businessmen at the head will not let the project collapse, they ‘d like to save face at least. Moreover, this is already partly a family project (Zhanispayev involved his daughter). The team is well balanced. It is in Belarus, where the main developers come from – an excellent school of IT security. By the way, Kazakhstan, when creating the state IT infrastructure, bought the whole top of such specialists in Belarus for good money.
Therefore, ideas and technologies – the most realistic, in the majority – proven in practice. And innovative too, due to the deep expertise of Belarusians. The project brings together the best achievements in terms of security. Attention is drawn to almost all the vulnerabilities that have appeared for now (many of them have not been used, but they have been dicovered by military and experts). These factors are eliminated both technologically and ideologically.
Leaders with their experience in business (of course, this is not ideologist Yuriy Hotoviy, but Marat Zhanispayev and his longtime colleague Geray Yusifov) meticulously calculated the economy. Tokenomics serves to aims of marketing success. And besides – there is also a very realistic development plan for 2 years. They’ll see – how it will go, to success or no. And it may be success for sure. Then there will be own blockchain, and decentralized crypto-exchange – and there are not so many pure DEX by now.
Coinstelegram Rating: Pre-High.
