According to an official statement made by Coinbase on 12th February, the users of the said platform can now back up their encrypted keys on Google Drive or iCloud.
As per the statement, many users tend to lose funds by forgetting their keys, which is the only way through which they can access their funds on the blockchain. Sometimes the users lose their phones or fail to remember the 12-word recovery phrase, saying goodbye to their funds forever. By letting them upload their keys on a cloud, this is their way to prevent such situations in the future.
The new technology will allow the users to back up an encrypted copy of the recovery phrase on their respective clouds. The user funds have stealth security as none of the Coinbase employees or even the cloud services have access to the funds of users. The recovery phrase key can only be unlocked by the password, the knowledge of which is only with the user. The access is granted only via a mobile app, through AES-256-GCM encryptions.
Coinbase also declared that they will be expanding the encrypting technology to other clouds as well in the future. This feature is an opt-in one and does not take place of the original recovery mechanism.
During the start of this month, the founder of QuadrigaCX, Gerald Cotten passed away. The crypto exchange after their founder’s death filed for creditor protection as Cotten was the only one having knowledge of the passwords of keys and cold wallets, consisting of the digital assets worth $145 million.
An E&Y report recently revealed that certain electronic devices used by the deceased founder, including encrypted USB keys have been recovered by the ‘Big Four’ audit firm.
In January, Coinbase came up with resources for their users in the US to claim crypto trades on their taxes. The platform, in addition to integrating with TurboTax software, featured an educational guide for their users seeking help on cryptocurrencies and taxes.
