Published Jan 17, 2023
By Qredo Team
How Individuals Can Benefit from Qredo Governance
Qredo is designed first and foremost for institutions. But the governance tools it provides can also be immensely useful for individuals.
The custom signing schemes and subaccounts of your Qredo Wallet can be used for everything from looking after your legacy to protecting your assets against five dollar wrench attacks, and even securing your DeFi access through our WalletConnect integration.
To give you a glimpse of the possibilities, here are a few ways that Qredo can help you manage your digital assets as an individual.
1. Foiling five dollar wrench attacks
Imagine that someone hears through the grapevine that you have stacks of Bitcoin, and then kicks down the front door, wields a steel wrench threateningly, and demands that you send him your crypto.
Such five dollar wrench attacks, as they are known in the crypto community, are on the rise. They are made possible by the unique nature of digital asset payments, which unlike bank transfers, cannot simply be reversed, and can be received without necessarily revealing the thief's identity.
One way to protect your digital assets against the possibility of extortion is to set up multiple Approvers on your Qredo Wallet.
This may not prevent a criminal from breaking your legs, but it would mean that your assets are less vulnerable to being extorted. As even if you surrendered and approved the transaction under duress, it would still be blocked by your designated approvers. Thus to be successful, the intruder would have to send their cronies to simultaneously threaten everyone in your signing scheme.
Aside from physical extortion, the extra layer of security provided by having multiple Approvers could also help protect you from phishing attacks.
2. Looking after your legacy
“My Bitcoins are stored in our safe deposit box, and my son and daughter are tech savvy. I think they’re safe enough. I’m comfortable with my legacy.” -- Hal Finney, 2014
Do you plan to pass on your digital wealth to your heirs? Or will you be HODLing beyond the grave for eternity?
Legendary crypto pioneer Hal Finney was one of the first to consider this problem. He stored his family bitcoin in a shared safety deposit box, inspiring many others to experiment with different methods of passing digital assets on to the next generation.
Some have tried storing private keys in hardware and sharing the password with their partner; an option that could backfire if the relationship turns sour. Others have written their seed phrase directly into their will; relying on the honesty and technical proficiency of their lawyers. More meticulous investors have even created scavenger hunt documents detailing exchange passwords and methods of accessing the multiple platforms where their crypto is stored.
Although these ideas may work, they all make the same compromise — they sacrifice security to boost the chances your estate will actually be able to access your assets upon your death.
Qredo offers a simple alternative by enabling you to give someone (who could be either an official executor, family member or friend) Approver status on your account.
For example, If you are a buy and hold investor, It may be enough to simply set up a wallet that requires any two of three people (yourself, your significant other, and a lawyer) to approve transactions. Then, on your passing, your significant other will still be able to authorize transactions without your approval. Plus, as Qredo is an easy-to-use wallet, your approvers won't necessarily need to have deep technical knowledge.
3. Dividing funds for different purposes
Digital assets are built on public key cryptography, with each private key corresponding to a single account on the blockchain.
This structure doesn't lend itself to flexibility and can leave sophisticated investors — whether individuals, pro traders, or treasury managers — needing to juggle hardware wallets or surrender funds to a third party, just to be able to manage multiple accounts easily.
Qredo enables digital asset investors to create an unlimited number of subwallets (known as funds) within a single Qredo Wallet. Each subwallet can have its own distinct set of users permissioned for specific roles.
This functionality can be useful in a number of different ways for individuals and institutions alike:
Isolate funds for different trading teams
Create multiple accounts for different trading teams to manage the assets on your behalf. Each one could have custom individual permissions for different traders.
Manage assets in multiple personal buckets
You might have one Qredo Web3 Wallet that you use with WalletConnect to ape into altcoins on decentralized exchanges, and another subaccount with an additional approver that you use as a savings account
Organize accounts for business and pleasure
Keep a degree of separation between accounts that might be subject to different tax treatment, and retain clear transaction records for each wallet.
4. Escrow transactions
Escrow services are typically used for the purchase of big-ticket items — such as houses, companies, or cars. They make the transaction more secure for both buyer and seller by ensuring that it is only fully executed when both buyer and seller have agreed that the terms of the transaction have been met.
Executing an Escrow transaction on Qredo could be as simple as setting up an account that requires transactions to be approved by both the buyer and the seller. Such a transaction would work like this:
Buyer sends funds to the Qredo Wallet
Seller supplies product or service
Both parties sign a transaction sending the funds from the address to the seller
To make the process safer, you could set up a 2-of-3 signing scheme in which you have a mediator (that is, an Escrow) to help resolve potential conflicts. If the product doesn't arrive or is defective, then the third party can find a resolution and sign a transaction with either buyer or seller to finish the process.
Learn more about why you should use Qredo rather than onchain multisig, and check out other Qredo Governance use cases for institutions and for families and friends.
Or get started with Qredo x WalletConnect today by opening a Qredo Wallet.