Company Name: Basic devices
Founders: Zach Herbert, Ken Carpenter and Jacob Johnston
Date of Establishment: March 2020
Headquarter Location: Boston, Massachusetts and Outlying Areas (Worldwide)
Amount of Bitcoin in the vault: The institution holds the bitcoin but has not disclosed the amount.
Number of Employees: 24 full time employees
website: https://foundation.xyz/
Public or private? private
Zach Herbert wants to make self-custody of Bitcoin available to everyone.
This is why the co-founder and CEO of Basic devicesHerbet, the company that makes hardware and software wallets for Bitcoin, has spent the past four years building Bitcoin technology that is not only secure and open source, but also as usable as products made by Apple, a brand that Herbet loves (or at least I do — read on).
What sets the company’s flagship product apart, the physical wallet called passport“What sets this competition apart is the combination of design and user experience,” Herbert told Bitcoin Magazine.
He added that the foundation also has “very strong principles that we try to uphold regarding open source, privacy and freedom.”
The strength of the foundation lies in its ability to balance staying true to its principles with crafting products that Bitcoin novices can use with relative ease.
“I think you have to define those principles from day one and you have to really know why you’re doing what you’re doing,” Herbert said of how he and his team achieve this balance.
“I don’t think that’s at all inconsistent with the idea of wanting to build the best hardware or products ever designed,” he added.
Company products
The institution is best known for its physical wallet, the aforementioned Passport.
The device looks like an advanced version of the feature phone, but with a higher resolution screen.
One of the selling points of the Passport is that it is isolated, meaning it never has to be connected to an internet-connected device, providing additional protection for the user’s private keys.
When it comes to private keys, Foundation has come up with a simplified way to back them up compared to the traditional method of writing them down. With Passport, users can save their seed phrase to the industrial microSD card that comes with the device.
“We think not having to type those 12 or 24 words helps you get into the program faster,” Herbert said.
Signing transactions with Passport is also significantly less complicated than with most competing devices. You can do this simply by scanning a QR code with Passport and your mobile phone.
The passport works most conveniently when used with the institution. envoy Mobile app, which also acts as a standalone hot wallet.
Again, to make it easier for users to integrate, Herbert and the foundation team created a system that allows users to start using the app securely and almost instantly.
“We created something we call Magic Backup where we store the seed in an iCloud keychain or the Android equivalent, which is just for the hot wallet on your phone,” Herbert explained.
“The amazing thing about Magic Backups is that you can join the program within 60 seconds of first downloading the app, so you can always import your own seed if you want, or create your own seed and save it instead,” he added.
“We try to hide things that might be complicated, but we do things based on industry standards.”
He acknowledged that this is definitely not as secure as recording your seed phrase on a microSD card or writing it down because keeping your seed phrase offline is safer than storing it online, and he shared that a hot wallet is only intended for small amounts of money — the same dollar amounts you keep in your physical wallet as cash.
Another advantage of Envoy is that you can buy Bitcoin via KYC-free P2P marketplaces like Hodl Hodl and Bisq within the app and then send those purchases directly to hot or cold storage.
🎬 Start your Bitcoin journey right!
Avoid KYC hassles and take control of Bitcoin P2P platforms.
Inside Envoy, you’ll discover the best P2P platforms to help you achieve a truly sovereign future.
We work to support your journey every step of the way 🧡 pic.twitter.com/hbCeAOCWZl
— Foundation (@FOUNDATIONdvcs) July 8, 2024
Part of the foundation’s intention in building Passport and Envoy the way it did was to keep all levels of Bitcoin holders satisfied.
“We try to make products that die-hard users use and love, but that they will also feel comfortable recommending to their friends and family,” Herbert explained.
Why the governor?
Herbert entered the Bitcoin space in 2013 – in the early days of physical wallets.
“When I first got into Bitcoin, physical wallets were just starting to emerge,” Herbert recounted.
He was using a software wallet called Armory, which was difficult to use to say the least.
“The recommendation was to install Armory on a computer that was separate from the network, and it was best to remove the Wi-Fi card from it and use it only to run Armory,” Herbert said. Essentially, the computer became the hardware wallet in this case.
Herbert explained that there were no seed phrases at the time and that you would have to print the private key on different pieces of paper, creating a physical copy of Shamir backup System.
While Herbert is well aware that using e-wallets is much easier than it was in 2013, he still finds most e-wallets to be an unnecessary challenge. He said some e-wallet manufacturers pride themselves on making products that are difficult to use, claiming that learning how to use them is like a “rite of passage into a new world.”
With Foundation, Herbert wanted to create technology that was “more accessible and more thoughtful.”
Love-hate relationship with Apple
Herbert’s vision for the organization includes building more products that sync together the way Passport and Envoy sync.
“We want to be the Apple of the industry,” Herbert said. “We want to build hardware, software and services that are tightly interconnected and work seamlessly together.”
Herbert explained that the company plans to launch a “potential new category of products” by the end of the year.
Could this be the Bitcoin-focused phone his followers on X have been asking about?
What features do you want in a Bitcoin-focused smartphone? https://t.co/8dIon71apI
— Zach Herbert (@zachherbert) May 18, 2024
do not hold your breath.
There are a few things that are holding such a device back from being released to the market. Ironically, one of those things is Apple.
“The phone is definitely there, but I think it’s just a project further down the decade, because I think we need to be more advanced as a company, and I also think the industry needs to be more advanced as well,” Herbert said of the projects he wants to work on.
The other problem is that Apple has been holding back the adoption of decentralized technology, according to Herbie, who has written a series of blog posts about the issue titled “Getting Out of Love with Apple” In 2020.
“Apple’s restrictions on apps are very bad for the Bitcoin space,” Herbert said.
“I think this is a really basic and simple example of near field communication technology “Payments on iPhone. There’s a reason why Bitcoin wallets can’t do Tap to Pay using NFC, and that’s because Apple doesn’t allow it. You’re only allowed to use NFC for Apple Pay,” he added.
Herbert also pointed out that Apple is also hampering the design of mobile Bitcoin wallets, which affects not only the quality of mobile Bitcoin wallets for Apple users but also for Android users.
“More than half of your users are going to be iOS users, and you don’t want to offer a completely separate Android experience,” Herbert says. “Whatever Apple ultimately does, even if Android allows more features, you’re going to end up deciding to stick with the restrictions Apple imposes.”
So, for the foundation to continue its quest to become the Apple of Bitcoin, it will need to get Apple out of the way.
What’s next for the organization?
Beyond the idea of making a mobile phone in the distant horizon, the company is also looking to implement and develop other technologies.
Herbert said the foundation is considering merging Multi-signature root Within the next few months.
“When it gets to the point where there are actual users actively using it, we will add support,” said Herbert, who also noted that Passport already offers an excellent multi-signature experience.
On another front, the company will retain the Samourai Whirlpool. Postmix extension A new app called Passport Live has been launched, which allows Passport users to connect to Sparrow Wallet to join their bitcoin directly into cold storage with the click of a button.
We do not remove the Whirlpool Postmix accessory on Passport🌀
We eagerly await the return of Whirlpool and Samurai after their names have been cleared and the charges dropped.#Samurai_Freedom pic.twitter.com/SltJpDThFv
— Foundation (@FOUNDATIONdvcs) May 9, 2024
While Sparrow suspended the service following the arrest of the Samourai Wallet developers, Herbert and the team at Foundation believe the wallet will restore the service once the Samourai developers are proven innocent.
“We believe the Samurai team did not break any laws, and we have donated half a Bitcoin to their legal defense,” Herbert said.
Herbert also noted that the organization was close to adding the Whirlpool feature to the Envoy mobile app before news of the Samourai developers’ arrest broke.
Finally, the foundation plans to bring Lightning to Envoy to make sending and receiving Bitcoin as fast and cheap as possible.
“When we have Lightning in Envoy, we can deliver the best possible user experience,” Herbert said.
“We can hide a lot of the complicated stuff that goes on behind the scenes and provide an easy transfer flow from Lightning to cold storage or from your hot wallet to cold storage. You’ll just be able to tap the transfer button in the app, just like you would when you make a transfer from your checking account to your savings account in your online banking interface,” he added.
It’s clear that Herbert and his team at the foundation are not short on ideas or vision.
Given what the company has delivered since its founding just four years ago, it’s easy to imagine that future versions of its hardware and software — as well as any new products it makes — will become even easier to use and more dynamic from here.
“We are just beginning to explore what Bitcoin wallets can do,” Herbert concluded. “We will see a lot of rapid progress in the coming years.”