Published Sep 2, 2022
By Qredo Team
The Importance of Self-Custody in Crypto
Crypto is all about control and sovereignty.
When Bitcoin first came on the scene all those years ago, it was with an express mission to offer an alternative financial asset class based on immutable code, privacy, and control for individuals.
While that mission remains true today, the surging growth of the cryptoasset market in recent years and its adoption by a much broader demographic has necessitated building ways for users to easily interact with what can be, from the outside, a complex ecosystem.
Unfortunately, with the growth of services offering users new ways to interact with crypto, the fundamental tenets of control and sovereignty have in some cases been eroded.
Easy-to-use platforms can often mean handing over control of your crypto to a third party such as an exchange.
The trade-off means that, while it is easier than ever to manage cryptoassets, the security and control you have is not what it could be.
Recent events ranging from protocols being hacked, exchanges acknowledging their right to bail-in users’ wallets, sanctions on platforms and bankruptcy proceedings where users have lost their assets – all highlight why self-custody is the real future for Web3.
Here’s why it is so important to control your crypto.
Security
First and foremost, self-custody is about maintaining secure access to your cryptoassets.
Third-party platforms can often offer a high degree of security – but, when it comes to crypto, nothing is as safe as your own pair of hands.
Those same platforms can also, on a technical or legal basis, seize those assets in certain circumstances, with many users learning that the hard way.
With Qredo self-custody, however, you maintain control over your assets on the network, which enables complete recovery of assets, even in the event of catastrophe.
Choice
Don’t want your assets exposed to a certain ecosystem?
Want to decide whether some assets are connected to a blockchain, while leaving others in a cold wallet?
Then you need full self-custody over your assets and wallet.
With exchanges and other third parties such as custodians, you don’t have full control over your assets and what they interact with.
On Qredo, you are in charge of what your assets do – and when; no one else can access or move them to suit their own needs..
But how do we reconcile this issue of control vs ease of use?
Qredo Wallets solve many of the trade-offs inherent in crypto wallets by using our decentralized multi-party computation (MPC) encryption to give users full control over their assets, without sacrificing access to the market or ease of use.
On the Qredo Network, private keys are replaced with cryptographic secrets that are distributed between independent MPC nodes, removing the centralized point of attack and protecting against loss.
Ready to join us?
You can open a Qredo Wallet here and take control of your cryptoassets.