Amid rising curiosity in self-custody options, Bitcoin-centric startup Foundation Devices announced today that it has closed a $7 million seed funding spherical. The Boston-based firm mentioned that it’ll use the money to proceed creating its crypto “digital sovereignty” merchandise, which embrace each {hardware} and software program wallets.
Blockchain funding agency Polychain Capital led the spherical, with Greenfield Capital, Lightning Ventures, Unpopular Ventures, Warburg Serres, and Bolt additionally taking part.
Foundation’s flagship product, Passport, is a Bitcoin {hardware} pockets that options “airgapped safety” with out exterior USB or wi-fi communications. Instead, it makes use of a digital camera and QR codes to talk, and has a built-in coloration show. The agency additionally gives a cellular software program pockets referred to as Envoy. The firm claims that it has bought “hundreds” of the Passport wallets over the previous 18 months.
“Preserving freedom and privateness is extra vital than ever amidst worldwide censorship, privateness violations, and reckless monetary and financial insurance policies,” Foundation CEO Zach Herbert mentioned in Monday’s announcement.
The funding comes as increasingly firms within the house are creating {hardware} wallets and increasing their performance and enchantment. Hardware wallets are a bodily storage answer for Bitcoin and different cryptocurrencies that enable customers to detach their personal keys from the web for safekeeping.
They have risen in popularity this yr thanks to the bear market and the collapse of a number of high-profile crypto firms—together with digital asset trade FTX, which took billions of dollars’ worth of buyer crypto funds together with it.
Original Apple iPod designer and engineer Tony Fadell lately partnered with fashionable crypto pockets firm Ledger to launch a new wallet called Stax, which has an E Ink show and credit score card-like footprint. Jack Dorsey’s Block (previously Square) is also building a hardware wallet, alongside different Bitcoin-centric initiatives.
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