Casa adds support for Ethereum.
Casa, a well-known company that provides cryptocurrency self-custody services, has historically focused solely on the Bitcoin blockchain. On Wednesday, the company announced that it has added support for Ethereum, thus completing an expansion plan that was announced late last year.
The fully revamped Casa app now offers private key management services for both Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH), with plans to support other Ethereum-based assets, including non-fungible tokens (NFTs), ERC-20 tokens, and stablecoins, in future rollouts.
Centralized platforms have traditionally been the preferred custody solutions for cryptocurrency consumers due to their ease of use. However, the collapse of entities such as Celsius, BlockFi, and FTX last year, along with the current legal issues facing two of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, Binance and Coinbase, have made consumers wary, resulting in billions being withdrawn from centralized platforms after each scandal.
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Companies like Jack Dorsey’s fintech firm, Square, have begun to move into self-custody, and now Casa, a five-year veteran of the industry, is reaffirming its position in digital self-custody by offering private key management services, which were previously only available to Bitcoin customers, to Ether holders as well.
“Securing ETH has consistently been our most frequent customer request,” said Casa CEO Nick Neuman to blockchain. “That was the core driver behind the decision to build Ethereum support in the first place.”
Casa’s services primarily rely on multisignature or “multisig” functionality. Multisig crypto wallets require more than one signature to spend funds. A Casa user holding Ether in a 2-of-3 multisig would have three potential keys that could sign transactions, but only two would be required to sign at any given time.
This means that a user could keep and use two keys, hand off the third to Casa for safekeeping, and if the user loses one key, Casa would help sign transactions with the third key in its custody, ensuring the user’s funds remain accessible.
“We’ve seen all the problems that come from using centralized custodians,” Neuman said. “We’ve seen how important it is to get the average person holding their own keys. We’re just providing the software to make it easier to use those keys.”
Edited by Bradley Keoun.
