Coinkite, one of the earliest Web-based Bitcoin wallet services, has announced today plans to discontinue its service and focus on a hardware-based Bitcoin products, all because of a barrage of relentless DDoS attacks.

Coinkite, which launched in 2012, started off as a cloud-based cryptobank, with support for Bitcoin and Litecoin. Operating out of Canada, the service became very popular, allowing users to store Bitcoin in the BIP32 HD system, send and receive Bitcoin via email, and even accept Bitcoin as a merchant via a PCI-complaint Bitcoin POS (Point-of-Sale) system.

The service expanded in 2014, when it was one of the first to introduce multi-signature wallets with support for up to 15 members and started offering Bitcoin debit cards.

In recent years, Coinkite began paying more attention to Bitcoin's hardware possibilities, offering some pretty innovative solutions, like Opendime, a USB stick that contains encryption keys that will authorize Bitcoin transactions. Coinkite says that Opendime can be used as real Bitcoin money, and users can pass along an Opendime USB to their friends, as they would dollar bills.

DDoS and state-sponsored cyber-attacks forced the service to shut down

According to a blog post published yesterday, Coinkite is now saying that hardware is where it sees its future on the Bitcoin market, opting to close down its Web-based wallet service and only focus on its hardware products.

While this is all fine and dandy, the service has also grudgingly admitted that a significant role in their decision to move on was how their Web service has faired in recent years.

"Being a centralized bitcoin service does attract attention from state actors and other well funded pains in the [expletive], and as a matter of fact, we’ve been under DDoS since the first month we launched—over three years–yay," the Coinkite team has explained. "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 will move on to the Bitcoin hardware business

The company's plans include continuing developing Opendime, standalone Bitcoin hardware wallets and terminals (with optional printing ability and QR scanners), hardware products for authentication and security, and a line of hardened servers for hosting Bitcoin wallets.

The company plans to shut down the Web-based wallet service in the coming 30 days, but also its adjacent API. Alternative solutions for retrieving funds for users who have failed to claim funds during this 30-day period will be provided at a later point.

Additionally, Coinkite is also warning users of possible phishing scams taking advantage of their announcement and tricking members into revealing their Coinkite credentials, or sending Bitcoin to the wrong accounts.