October 2017 will be milestone of Ethereum. According to block number, the third phase of Ethereum network Metropolis hard fork will likely occur between 12:00 UTC and 13:00 UTC on Monday, October 16. The upgrade will improve the performance and security of Ethereum. imToken made fully preparation to support Metropolis hard fork and imToken users don’t need to do any futher steps. Meanwhile, in order to make users to use imToken in a more secure way, we released imToken 1.3.3 and the update includes:

Addition of risk assessment system

Update imToken terms of service and privacy protocols

Addition of system maintenance page

Addition of pop-up notification

What’s the necessicity of assessment system?

Blockchain is a new technology, it’s different from traditional Internet technology as it’s decentralized, irreversible and self-control (account, asset, data). Wallet is a passport for the new world and the essence is private key. imToken is a tool to help you manage your private key.

As imToken is a decentralized wallet, the private key need to be backup and stored by users themselves. For example, if the cash in your pocket was stolen or lost, you can not turn to a centralized institution like bank to complain. So we developed the function to force backup. You can avoid loss of tokens by backup. However, it’s possible to be hacked if you do not backup in a proper way. Due to lack of basic knowledge of blockchain, a lot of users keep their Mnemonic, private key and Keystore in an unsecure place (like email, cloud, note). Some even send their Mnemonic to wechat group which leads to tokens stolen.

We realized that in order to secure users’ asset, the forced steps in imToken are not enough. Without basic knowledge of blockchain or wallet, just like driving on highway without license, which is quite dangerous. So we added a risk assessment system on imToken 1.3.3. The item bank includes basic knowledge of blockchain, wallet safety and decentralized wallet transaction. 10 items will be chose randomly and you can begin your journey with imToken after you pass the assessment.

After some invited tests for a week, we optimized the assessment system, lower the difficulty and improve the interactive mode. We also prepared some related materials to help users learn these knowledge.

Update terms of service

Our updated (2017.9.26) terms of service and privacy policy were finished with the assistance of Dentons which is a well known law firm. After the upgraded version, we will ask users to read carefully about all the terms when they begin to use or import wallet. So that users will know clearly about the service, rights and obligations. For old users, please go to “about us” to click the link and read the updated terms of service. If you do not accept the updated terms of service, please stop using imToken. Continuing to use imToken will been regarded as accepting the updated terms of service. Note: if our system detect high risk users or if some users violate our terms of service, we keep the right to terminate the service.

Turn off watch wallet

Recently, we found that some users transfer tokens to watch wallet (without privacy key and unable to withdraw). In order to prevent this kind of mistake being made, we turn off this function at this moment. We will turn on this function after a proper design.

Anouncement for new program: in order to help users use imToken in a secure way, we made two broadcast before. During the broadcast, we figured out that there were too many unexpected issues and the contents are not easy to review. We prepared new format of medium and the Demo was already taped.

Last remind

Please make sure you backup each of your wallet before upgrade the application (write down Mnemonic on paper rather than upload through internet). Reference & Tutorials:

https://token.im/support/questions/how-to-backup-wallet