Civic, BitGo Announce a Consumer Mobile Wallet

Decentralized identity startup Civic Technologies announced a partnership with BitGo to build a crypto wallet that maintains anonymity while offering a back-up solution.

The eponymously named Civic Wallet was designed alongside Civic Identity, Identity.com, and Civic Pay to operate with BitGo’s multisig solution.

Civic will store minimal user data, in the form of KYC information, for account recovery and compliance purposes only. The firm will not share this information with BitGo, but relies on the cryptographic storage company to retain redundant client signatures.

BitGo primarily deals in enterprise clients, providing a secure hot wallet for institutions that perform a high volume of transactions.

“Civic found a way to leverage the multisig commodity to work at the consumer level,” said Ben Chan, CTO of BitGo.

This retail level wallet starts off with the bare essentials. It “will launch with a handful of currencies familiar to the digital community” and allow users “to store, send and receive cryptocurrency,” said a Civic representative.

The firm believes its scaled down wallet will be attractive to those less familiar with cryptocurrencies. The company also provides a number of features reminiscent of traditional bank accounts, like daily limits – a security feature in case of identity theft – privacy controls, and recoverability. Additionally, keys are stored on the mobile device, to simplify login.

When onboarding to the wallet, the firm will authenticate clients’ identities through blockchain technology. Though a solution from Identity.com, which Civic purchased in 2018, a “decentralized identification verification system allows users to opt in to sharing their underlying data with people they choose,” said Chan.

Civic plans to release the wallet in the fourth quarter of 2019. In April, the startup partnered with 12 vending machine providers to bring age verification and identification solutions to retail locations without human vendors.

Civic held a $33 million token sale in 2017 to build out a decentralized attestations platform.

Photo of Civic CEO Vinny Lingham from CoinDesk archives