‘State Actor’ DDoS Attacks Prod Coinkite to Enter ‘Next Phase’

Bitcoin-based service Coinkite has just recently revealed it will cease its web wallet service to concentrate on hardware initiatives. The “Wind-Down Plan” begins immediately with certain objectives, and in thirty days users will be forced to withdraw funds after logging in.

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Coinkite Ends Its Popular Web Wallet Service

Founded in May of 2012, Coinkite has been a member of the Bitcoin industry for quite some time. Its popular web wallet claimed to be one of the “easiest and safest way to use and accept Bitcoin.” The Toronto-based service was founded by Rodolfo Novak, and Peter D. Gray and also produced POS and merchant payment processing devices within its operations. The business said it has been “incredibly proud” to serve Bitcoin customers and companies, helping the community transact over a billion dollars worth of the currency.

However the team is moving to the “next phase.” The company blog post explains:

It’s time to focus on fulfilling Bitcoin’s real potential, and enable individuals and businesses to ‘Be Their Own Bank.’

Another notable reason to initiate the next phase for the company was the hassles of DDOS attacks they consistently dealt with. “As a matter of fact, we’ve been under DDoS since the first month we launched—over three years–yay,” said the company “Plus we have put real fiat dollars into our lawyers’ pockets, to defend our customers from their own governments. This is not what we love to do, which is coding and delivering awesome services.”

Coinkite believes that state-sponsored “actors” have created a headache for the service and the team has done the best they could dealing with these issues. It states that it had a great adventure in the Software as a Service (SaaS) sector and are still huge Bitcoin fans. But now they want to put their work into where their “heart” is by offering new hardware products and other possibilities.

New Hardware Solutions & Terminal Phase

Some of the concepts being discussed for the Coinkite future include physical bitcoin manufacturing, a standalone BTC terminal for merchants, and hardened servers for hosting hot wallets among other solutions. So in fourteen days the company’s API and Tor access will be disabled with refunds planned. Zero balance accounts will be closed, and users will be continuously reminded to withdraw funds until the thirtieth day. When that period ends, users will be required to take out funds as soon as they are logged in. The company wants to remind customers also to be careful of phishing attempts throughout these time frames.

Coinkite intends to hear from the community members if they would like to discuss the Coinkite source code or if people have any exciting ideas. They recommend some alternatives to their service, which include wallets such as Ledger and Electrum. There was some disappointment in reaction to this announcement in forum posts within the community, but most have wished Coinkite well as they have been reviewed as a reputable Bitcoin company for the past three years.

What do you think about Coinkite ending its web wallet service? Let us know in the comments below!

Images courtesy of Coinkite websites, and Pixbay