NGRAVE AMA Recap

CryptoDiffer team

Hello, everyone!

We are glad to meet here

CEO and Co-Founder at NGRAVE (@RUME00)

CTO and Co-Founder at NGRAVE (@Xardas00)

CEO and Co-founder at NGRAVE

I’m Ruben Merre, cofounder and CEO of NGRAVE, thanks for having us 🙂

CTO and Co-founder at NGRAVE

Hi Everyone, Xavier here (CTO), thanks CryptoDiffer to host us. Looking forward to your questions

CryptoDiffer team

Than, let`s start with introduction questions

Q1: Can you introduce yourself to the community? What is your background and how did you join NGRAVE?

CTO and Co-founder at NGRAVE

I am Xavier, CTO and Co-Founder of NGRAVE. I first discovered Bitcoin in 2013, but got hacked on Mt.Gox. What I most liked about Bitcoin & later on blockchain was the potential of that technology to have the power move back downstream to individuals instead of centralized players. I became more involved, and when Ethereum launched I joined Swarm City, a project aiming to decentralize ride-sharing and commerce in general (silk road for services). I want platforms to be uncensorable, giving back freedom to the users. Sadly we got hacked again, in the summer of 2017 losing 44.000 ETH in the infamous Parity Multisig hacks. This is why my focus became security, as it’s one of the fundamentals of the blockchain space that was not good enough yet but ripe for innovation. With my co-founders we launched NGRAVE in 2018, and we are very excited now to launch our product next week.

CEO and Co-founder at NGRAVE

I’ve studied a MSC in business engineering (an engineering degree that covers also all the MBA courses, something special only in Germany, Belgium, and some otherr coutnries), I then joined Deloitte as a strategy consultant for two years, and moved to a startup consulting firm where I scaled the company to other countries leveraging my experience of living in six different countries and the native languages (eg i opened up the italy office, the germany office, etc). It was a great time working at that company, and I also launched the first automated investment platform in my country (“robo advisory”), and scaled it to luxembourg an switzerland. Then there was a big financial institution that asked me to lead the creation of a new business unit revolving around automated algorithmic trading, automated investment platforms, etc. where I lead 20 teams and over 100 people in building this from scratch (links to the stock ecxhange, backend systems like CRM, order execution platform, website, etc) as well as the go to market strategy and so on. That was also the time I fell in love with what blockchain could do, and where I made a click in my mind that my further career had to be directed towards blockchain. I soon realized that security and usability were huge issues, and together with my two cofounders, we asked ourselves the question: “which solution would we entrust with our very first till our very lsat bitcoin with” – we couldn’t find the answer, so we decided to build it ourselves. Two years later, and many world class partnerships further, here we are —> we built it, the first solution that empowers you to start truly owning what is yours!

CryptoDiffer team

Great, thank you everyone for introducing yourself!

now we can move one to 2nd question, which is:

Q2: Can you briefly describe what is NGRAVE in 3-5 sentences? What technology stands behind NGRAVE and why it’s better than the existing one?

CTO and Co-founder at NGRAVE

Good question. NGRAVE is a new way to create keys and sign transactions. Our solution is focused on making the user understand what is going on, in a verifiable way we use QR codes for transactions, invented a new key creation mechanism leveraging the best of secure chips and environmental input.

The software is the first ever to achieve the highest certification ever in the blockchain space (EAL7)

Let’s also mention the Graphene = a dual steel plate storage system for your backup key.

CEO and Co-founder at NGRAVE

Yep, and also, NGRAVE is a blockchain security provider offering a user-friendly, end-to-end solution for the self-sovereign management of individuals’ and businesses’ digital assets and cryptocurrencies. We are on a mission to radically improve YOUR seucrity and YOUR ease of use when you’re managing YOUR cryptocurrencies and other digital assets.

= #ownyourassets
= start truly owning what is yours

Our product suite consits of the ZERO hardware wallet, the GRAPHENE backup solution, and the LIQUID mobile app

CryptoDiffer team

Q3: What are the major milestones you have achieved so far?

CEO and Co-founder at NGRAVE

On a funding basis, we have convinced the European commission, the belgian government, the web 3 foundation to provide us grants; we also have a bank that’s backed us, as well as the world leading R&D institute for nanotech, and some business angels. We are very proud that the company iss till almst fully in our hands and that we got to coinvice these players to give us loans or grants (and some equity). The IP is fully ours.

Also, we have made all these world class partnerships, with imec (world leading R&D hub for nanotech, known for making the first atom-size chip), with COSIC (world leading research group for applied cryptography and hardware security, known for inventing the AES protocol, the worldwide data encryption protocol even used here in telegram and whataspp for encryption, they also hacked the tesla cars multiple times, and are currently leading the NIST compoetition for the post quantum cryptogrpahy standard)

We have several more of theser partnerships, and the recent official addition of Jean-Jacques Quisquater – 2nd reference of the bitcoin paper and legendary cryptographer – joining the team and believing in our products yesterday we officially announced that we received the EAL7 certification for our product (higehest security certificatin in blockchain, no one does better) we also are finalizing the product development and have working products

The industrialization phase is ongoing, we have alreayd built the molds for the casing and have produced a few hundred of these; we are starting with the electronic assembly partner we selected recently ready for starting to build the first batch, for which we need the help of your community

The funds to build the fist batch and ship them to you, also we survived the gross of crypto winter, and even the recent coronavirus difficulties and we are proud to be here, finally being able to show you our solution!

CryptoDiffer team

Awesome, thanks for such detailed and interesting answers!

Let’s move to the Telegram community questions part.

Cryptodiffer Community

Its Great to see someone Like ” Jean-Jacques Quisquater”, author of more than 200 cryptography articles believes in NGRAVE,

How do you see the growth of NGRAVE with these Kind of Experienced people with your team?

CEO and Co-founder at NGRAVE

We will be attracting more people like JJQ, and we already have with eg recently Michael Terpin (sim swap hacked for 24MUSD, a serial bitcoin entrepreneur, aware of security issues, etc.) – we also work closely wit hthe wolrd leading experts of COSIC, and are basically surrounding ourselves with the brightest minds we can find.

CTO and Co-founder at NGRAVE

Well, we hope to be early adopters of new advances in crypto security. Many new inventions are being made, for example post quantum crypto protocols or multi-party computation. With people like Jean-Jacques Quisquater on board we can get expert advice on how to be amongst the first wallets to integrate those new technologies.

Cryptodiffer Community

How NGRAVE manage to keep its hardware wallet % offline? & Why its important ?

CTO and Co-founder at NGRAVE

We use QR codes for communication, which is one-direction, verifiable and small payload: This way you always know exactly what gets communicated and the device needs no connection. It is important because your private keys should never ever be exposed.

Cryptodiffer Community

What If the Device is Lost, Broken or Stolen?

What can we Do in that situation?

How will NGrave help to its users in this situation?

CTO and Co-founder at NGRAVE

If the device is lost, broken or stolen, you can recover your accounts by means of your backup. Your backup will be able to restore all your accounts on new Zero, or even an other crypto wallets because our backup works with them as well. The device has strong protection meaning that a thief is very unlikely to be able to extract your secrets

Cryptodiffer Community

How is the wallet protected from magnetic fields, physical impact and water?

You recently involved two famous advisors. Whatwill be their role in the development of the project?

CTO and Co-founder at NGRAVE

The casing is a metal alloy, which has strong EM (magnetic field) shielding. We have IP rating of 55 meaning the device can resist dust and water damage, although you should not submerge it. You should also not let it fall from great heights. In any way, if your device is brooken, you can recover your funds with your backup

Cryptodiffer Community

What are your strategies in building a big and strong community? Do you agree that the power of the community will lead your project to grow globally? What are the services you offer to the community?

CEO and Co-founder at NGRAVE

Yes, the community is extremely important to us; also because we are our own community. we understand from first hand experiences how harsh it feels when being hacked, with xavier’s example of 44,000ETH being hacked from his previous project as the most painful example. we want our community to be safe and it is our pure mission and big why to rpotect any one of us here; because we believe blockchain needs to reach its true potential; think of a dad in a developing country where a tsnumani passes by and wipes away all the land; then a dictator says – hi guys, this is my database (centralized) and now all the land is mine as per the database – with blockchian at least we have a weapon to fight back, as we can all shjow the real version of the truth; that’s why we are in blockchain, because of the truth, because of all these positive implications. we will be taking great care of our social communiteies, and especially of our backers and customers. We are here to give you the expeience you are missing so far, unboxing, customer support, etc. we know many of the big influencers out there and they will help you understand what we care about, how we build our proucts, why they are as good as we say they are, etc.

Cryptodiffer Community

Q: How will NGRAVE team target and educate people who don’t know about blockchain and crypto?

CTO and Co-founder at NGRAVE

Our device has a high quality easy to use display and touchscreen, which will make it much more user friendly that existing,difficult hardware wallets.

Cryptodiffer Community

1) So many blockchain projects are actually useless without solving any real problems. What problems are you solving in blockchain exactly? Also, what solutions are you providing that’s is not found in current existing blockchains?

2) The recent pandemic COVID-19 has been a big problem to many projects. How has it affected NGRAVE? And have you been surviving so far, and how will you continue to survive even if the lockdown persists for a year longer?

CTO and Co-founder at NGRAVE

We strongly believe offline key storage is crucial in this space, as it is the only way for you to truly own your own coins. QR communication is also very important because it has very strong security features.

Cryptodiffer Community

Q1: What happens if I steal or lose Ngrave’s wallet? Is there any way to recover my information and data? And I see that Ngrave wallet has Camera, what is it used for, will I be monitored via Camera when using?

Q2: I bought many products on Indiegogo, so why do you choose this platform for pre sale your product? Do you have any promotion for this order? How long will your product ship if I buy on Indiegogo, because I have bought a lot of products here, most of them ship very long. Do you have a warranty?

CEO and Co-founder at NGRAVE

1) If you lose your ngrave wallet, you can simply buy a new one and enter your recovery key (just as with any other hardware wallet) ; in our case, we have a special backup called graphene (made of metal, and encryped, so only you know they key), so if you lose your device you can take your backup and enter your key in a new device and all your accounts will immediately be restored

our device is fully isolated against radio frequencies going out or in, so there is no infodrmation leakage, we also dont know what your camera does or what you do with your device, as it is 100°% offline

we start presales next week on indiegogo and we will ship in october; we are already in the indiustrialization process with the first hundreds of zero casings delivered; so we are further than most projects and can therefore make it in a relatively short term, especially compared to indeed other projects. we chose indiegogo for many reasons: 1) it is the largest hardware tech crowdfunding platform, 2) it is pre-order so it can help us fund the building of the first batch; 3) it is global and it can actually show us where great demand is (eg if the philipines show up in our top audience, we will make sure to enter that market as one of our priorities, 4) it is a regcognized platform so that you as a buyer dont need to worry about scams, etc etc

We will have warranty policies etc and you will be able to consult them on the indiegogo page, we are fully compliant wi!th all the relevant oconsumer product legislations

CTO and Co-founder at NGRAVE

2) So far, we had minor production delays but they all fit within our roadmap. Our product can be developed with the team being remote, although we are all working in Belgium and the situation here is now pretty stable. We don’t expect any significant problems because of COVID-19

Cryptodiffer Community

1) It’s impossible for any project to survive alone. So, who are some of your partners in NGRAVE? And, what are their contributions towards your success?

2) How much do you value your community in NGRAVE? Do you see them as important to your success? Also, how will you grow your community more?

CEO and Co-founder at NGRAVE

We have many partners: IMEC (https://www.imec-int.com/en/home) , Cosic (https://www.esat.kuleuven.be/cosic/). They are deeply involved in product development and security architecture as well. IMEC invested in us, more than once.

2) Community will be very important. We want many users and we plan on gradually open sourcing our code. With a strong community the code will be strongly reviewed as well.

Cryptodiffer Community

What advantages does it provides over many competitors in the wallet areana? Why I should buy this over wallets like Ledger, Trezor etc.?

CTO and Co-founder at NGRAVE

Is if ully airgapped because it nevers needs a USB connection. The key creation is more elaborate, combining secure element ranomness + user input and environmental entropy. It’s easier to use because of convenient screen. Our backup solution is new and safe, can also be split in 2 parts.

Cryptodiffer Community

Vast majority of crypto hodlers don’t know the risks and consequences involved in keeping their funds on exchange and the benefits of storing it on Hardware wallet like NGrave Zero Hardware Wallet. For this reason I concluded that most crypto influencers have failed in this aspect of educating people on the benefits of hard wallet instead of focusing solely on the price. What is NGrave doing in ensuring that crypto users are educated on the risk involve in keeping funds on exchange and Benefits of Using Hardware wallet like Zero Hardware wallet?

CEO and Co-founder at NGRAVE

Education is an ongoing concern in the crypto space. We will communicate a lot about the importance of creating a good key that only you know, and our new key creation protocol will be a good example that influencers can show. QR codes will also be an interesting feature that we hope people will more easily understand why it’s secure compared to USB/Bluetooth… Finally, our device looks & feels nice because of the design and high quality touchscreen.

CTO and Co-founder at NGRAVE

We are approaching this from many angles, one of them is making them aware of hacks; therefore we post a hack of the week each week and give some explanation on wht happend, we also charted ALL cryptohacks since 2014 till 2020 in a beautiful video, and we also made elaborate posts on that (e.g. here: https://medium.com/ngrave/the-history-of-crypto-hacks-top-10-biggest-heists-that-shocked-the-crypto-industry-828a12495e76?source=collection_home—7——0———————– ); we also have articles on the issues of security and how to fix all of thse, you can find more of them on our blog www.medium.com/ngrave – you’ll see on all our social media that educationu, awareness, and prevention, is very important in our communication

Cryptodiffer Community

Security is an important factor in the Blockchain and cryptocurrency industry. What is the difference between NGRAVE and hardware wallets as: Ledger, Trezor, …?

CEO and Co-founder at NGRAVE

We approach security from a different perspective: end-to-end; whereas ledger and trezor basically stop with the hardware wallet , and then give you a paper wallet as a backup, we have thought end-to-end: we give you a EZRO, then there is a metal, encrypted backup (also the first recoverable in the indudstry) AND we answer all the what ifs, even if you die tomorrow, your next of kin has means of getting to your keys without anhy third party (not even gnrave ) knowing what your key is;

Regarding the zero itself: it is 100% offline (so no more usb, bluetooth, or any other network connections), so the last remaining attack vectotrs are gone completely. For physical attacks; we have also tamper proofed the device on many, many different layers (yes, we also have a secure lelement), and finally, we have it certified EAL7, the highest in the world; eg ledger nano x has 5.

Finally, all of this is designed and packaged in a beautfiul tocuh screen device, intjuitive, easy to use, and becuse of hte 100% offlien aspects, a whole new leve lof peace of mind; you can find an elaborate comaprison with ledger and trezor on our zero product page: https://ngrave.io/products/zero

Cryptodiffer Community

There are so much crypto wallets present in the market. How ngrave is different from others?

CTO and Co-founder at NGRAVE

1/ Key creation is more involved and doesn’t rely solely on the chip
2/ Communication happens only over QR code
3/ our firmware has EAL 7 certificaion, higher than any other wallet
4/ we have quality look & feel.

Cryptodiffer Community

What if Attacker gets This Device? Will he able to know it Secret Keys?

CTO and Co-founder at NGRAVE

There are many layers of pyshical security, starting with a secure element, tamper resistance, tamper evidence and tamper responsiveness. It is practically infeasible to retrieve the secrets from the device.

CTO and Co-founder at NGRAVE

No, we have built our device to the extremes of security. In case someone gets physically his hands on your device, it is tamper protected in four different layers: 1) tamper resistance: it is very hard to break open the zero (metal casing ,etc.); 2) tamper evidence, it will be clear if someone tried to pen it (broken screen, we also have a cryptographic attestation process the first time you set up your device where we can tell uyou if the device is genuine or compromised; 3) tamper responsiveness, the device knows when it’s under attack and will wipe all the keyus; and 4) tamper resolution, even if tampered with, there are special interations with the user that resolve that tampering; adn finally, in case someone enters a pin code too often wrongfully, the device aslo wipes the keys; you can then take your graphene and enter the key again in the erased device and you will have all your crxypto bacck (after the attacker left 😉 )

Cryptodiffer Community

Most users only care about immediate benefits rather than the real value of the project in the long-term. How can you convince users invest to your platform in the long-term?

CTO and Co-founder at NGRAVE

We only offer them to buy our wallet to store their assets in a safe and convenient way 🙂 I think they will see the immediate benefit in that.

Cryptodiffer Community

Which are main problem you found in cryptowallet that NGRAVE Wallet want to solve !!!!

Which are the main facilities NGRAVE want to provide their users????

CEO and Co-founder at NGRAVE

i refer to the other answer i just gave here: we approach security from a different perspective: end-to-end; whereas ledger and trezor basically stop with the hardware wallet , and then give you a paper wallet as a backup, we have thought end-to-end: we give you a EZRO, then there is a metal, encrypted backup (also the first recoverable in the indudstry) AND we answer all the what ifs, even if you die tomorrow, your next of kin has means of getting to your keys without anhy third party (not even gnrave ) knowing what your key is;

regarding the zero itself: it is 100% offline (so no more usb, bluetooth, or any other network connections), so the last remaining attack vectotrs are gone completely. For physical attacks; we have also tamper proofed the device on many, many different layers (yes, we also have a secure lelement), and finally, we have it certified EAL7, the highest in the world; eg ledger nano x has 5.

finally, all of this is designed and packaged in a beautfiul tocuh screen device, intjuitive, easy to use, and becuse of hte 100% offlien aspects, a whole new leve lof peace of mind; you can find an elaborate comaprison with ledger and trezor on our zero product page: https://ngrave.io/products/zero

Cryptodiffer Community

DeFi and Dapps are 2 pillars primed to rule 2020 in crypto space, what’s your approach to DeFi and Dapps. What roles do you play in innovativeness of DeFi

CTO and Co-founder at NGRAVE

In first instance we will allow the secure storage of any mid-to long term assets. In the future we expect to provide integrations by QR code to DeFi platforms and to be able to integrate a wide variety of smart contracts

Cryptodiffer Community

Explain more about BACKWARD COMPATIBLE TECHNOLOGY

How do I restore my wallet since you don’t provide Private Key?

CEO and Co-founder at NGRAVE

We support everything, so also 24 word mnemonic phrases, but also 12 — 18 words, private keys, etc. and we can convert them on the device to other formats

with that, we are “backward compatible” in teh sense that we invented a new and better key, the NGRAVE PERFECT KEY, you dcan read moer about it here: https://medium.com/ngrave/beyond-mnemonic-phrases-the-path-to-the-ngrave-perfect-key-66ccaf540554?source=collection_home—4——0———————–

Cryptodiffer Community

What are some Security Features of NGRAVE

That are Unique in itself?

There are other Devices with the Same function,

Can you tell me three reason that people should choose NGAVE?

CTO and Co-founder at NGRAVE

of course:

1) tthe ngrave zero is 100% offline removing ALL online attack vectors (unlike usb or bluetooth based solutions);
2) our physical antitampering is the best in calss;
3) EAL7 certification is hte higehst in the world versus trezor which doesnt have any, and ledger nano x has 5;
4) we appraoch security from an end to end perspective covering all the what ifs: no more backdoors in the interior TRNG chip (we also include external entropy), we let the user interact with the keygen process (so that we dont know what the ykey is, unlike ledger, trezore, and any other solution), etc etc

Cryptodiffer Community

Why are you confident that NGRAVE is the safest cryptocurrency hardware wallet in the world?

CTO and Co-founder at NGRAVE

We learned from the mistakes and penetration tests performed on other wallets and architected our solution to mitigate all of them. We use the latest chips, from 2019 and 2020. Our secure firmware is EAL7 certified. Finally, on the operational level we use a new and improved key creation mechanism and QR codes for transactioons

Cryptodiffer Community

What is your views on providing your wallet to use as wallet to buy things on shop through the currency having in it?

CEO and Co-founder at NGRAVE

the beauty of it is that it is actually very possible, as the defvice is pocket size; however hardware wallets arent intended for this use case, they are rather to store your long term holdings; so while you could have two zeros – one at home wit hall your funds, and one you take with you for purchases, it makes more sense to have a zero at home, and just use your phone for doing purchases in a shop directly (unless its an onilne shop, then the zero is great)

Cryptodiffer Community

There are some common issues in today’s technology:

*scalability

*adoptability

*privacy

*potential of tokens!

So, how will #NGRAVE look towards such factors?

CTO and Co-founder at NGRAVE

Many of those are rather blockchain issues rather than wallet problems. We hope our solution will help with privacy and adoption, as people can manage their own coins in a secure & private way. Having more security will also help with adoption

Cryptodiffer Community

What is the role of the Indiegogo platform, and what is more special about Indiegogo than Kickstarter?

CEO and Co-founder at NGRAVE

indiegogo is for hardware TECH, whereas kickstarter is more hardware genaral (llike book cases, backpacks, etc);

1) it is the largest hardware tech crowdfunding platform, 2) it is pre-order so it can help us fund the building of the first batch; 3) it is global and it can actually show us where great demand is (eg if the philipines show up in our top audience, we will make sure to enter that market as one of our priorities, 4) it is a regcognized platform so that you as a buyer dont need to worry about scams, etc etc

Cryptodiffer Community

Can you tell me from where does Ngrave Team Get Funding from?

Does NGRAVE is Financially strong to survive in any market?

CTO and Co-founder at NGRAVE

Cryptodiffer Community

How much secure NGrave wallet is? Which types of securities are applied in NGrave wallet? and What is Ngrave Liquid? What’s the role of NGrave Liquid in NGrave Hardware wallet?

CEO and Co-founder at NGRAVE

The ngrave zero is 100% offline removing ALL online attack vectors (unlike usb or bluetooth based solutions); 2) our physical antitampering is the best in calss; 3) EAL7 certification is hte higehst in the world versus trezor which doesnt have any, and ledger nano x has 5; 4) we appraoch security from an end to end perspective covering all the what ifs: no more backdoors in the interior TRNG chip (we also include external entropy), we let the user interact with the keygen process (so that we dont know what the ykey is, unlike ledger, trezore, and any other solution), etc etc

Cryptodiffer Community

In the bad situation of the Covid-19 epidemic, every industry was heavily affected.

Does it affect on the growth of NGRAVE Team and its ??

What are your plans to turn challenges into opportunities for #ngrave?

CTO and Co-founder at NGRAVE

So far, we had minor production delays but they all fit within our roadmap. Our product can be developed with the team being remote, although we are all working in Belgium and the situation here is now pretty stable. We don’t expect any significant problems because of COVID-19

Cryptodiffer Community

How safe is NGRAVE?

CEO and Co-founder at NGRAVE

NGRAVE has the higehst security certiciation in the world EAL7, which makes it stand out above every other solution, you can find more here: https://cointelegraph.com/news/ngrave-announces-military-grade-hardware-crypto-wallet

Cryptodiffer Community

Do you have any educational programming guideline or any video you can share with us that can help both crypto and non crypto users to learn more about Ngrave wallet?

CTO and Co-founder at NGRAVE

We are releasing tutorials and product videos on a regular basis on our youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJDIZfcaACOTMT_tc3IKaAg

Cryptodiffer Community

Phishing attacks are still a significant and big trap for crypto users. Recently a few days ago hacker created fake Ledger Extention on google chrome and stolen 15000$+ Zec coin from the one user could you explain to me which types of security ngrave provide to prevent a user from a phishing attack?

CTO and Co-founder at NGRAVE

With the NGRAVE Zero hardware wallet, whatever you sign you will receive by QR code and confirm 100% offline on the device. If you are worried, you should always double check the transaction details before you sign them on the device. If you do this correctly, this should be fool proof against phishing attacks

Cryptodiffer Community

DeFi is one of the hottest topic in the blockchain space right now. Can you share your opinions on DeFi with us? Do you think that DeFi will disrupt the existing financial system? What is NGRAVE approach towards the DeFi sector?

CTO and Co-founder at NGRAVE

Cryptodiffer Community

Proven Core is the main feature of NGRAVE WALLET, explain to us what is Proven Core?

CEO and Co-founder at NGRAVE

ProvenCore is the name of our Secure OS, which will take control of the secure boot, secure storage, the crypto signing algorithms & key creation. It is EAL7 certified, first in the world.

Cryptodiffer Community

Some hardware wallets might not have implemented a waterproof wallet, my question is whether NGRAVE WALLET supports waterproof.

CEO and Co-founder at NGRAVE

Not water proof as in immersion proof, but it is rated IP55: Protected from limited dust ingress. Protected from low pressure water jets from any direction