HardenedVault —— a security firm to provide full-stack open source infrastructure security

HardenedVault is a security firm to provide full-stack open source infrastructure security from hardware, firmware, Linux kernel and secure communication protocol.

HardenedVault provides the building blocks for the customer to build their own Cyber Bunker by utilizing 0day/Nday exploit defense techniques, trusted/confidential computing with next-gen firmware security and cryptography.

Meanwhile, from the boot process of each node (machine), the root of trust anchored in multiple hardware components, then the chains of trust extending from firmware, operating systems to application. The crucial parts of each component follow compliance/regulation while are still able to defend against the known and unknown vulnerability and exploit vectors by integrating the modern mitigation and access control.

In addition, the communication between each nodes must guarantees the confidentiality and integrity but it’s not enough from advanced threat protection’s perspective. HardenedVault also provides the secure communication protocol with metadata protection (to protect machine’s privacy) and deniability to help the customer to build their own decentralized data center/cloud.

User Persona and Corporate Vision

After the FTX debacle, a large number of encrypted users have greatly reduced their trust in the security of exchange assets. Even hot wallets are no longer enough to meet the asset security needs of some users. Therefore, for users with a large amount of funds, cold wallets have gradually become a rigid demand. However, cold wallets are not only not as safe as people think, but also reduce the convenience of asset flow.

In response to this situation, HV plans to provide a full range of custody services and products. By combining these products in different ways, they can be customized into various customized products to meet the demands of customers at various budget levels.

The full range of custody services (high price) provided by HV will be 100% licensed and compliant, which is relatively friendly to large and medium-sized financial institutions; while its relatively economical product - home self-custodial nodes, will allow users Participate in blockchain activities, but under full direct control of the owner.

The HardenedVault team consists of a group of old-school hackers, cypherpunks, and stubborn engineers who have spent decades tweaking around interesting things in their respective fields

Their vision is to help users build their own Cyber Bunker at the infrastructure level. Achieving this goal requires high performance, security and transparency (open source) that takes into account the industry compliance, as well as decentralization (it’s federated protocol actually) in communications.

For user portrait, HardenedVault’s target user are relatively precise, and its targets are mainly individuals or institutions that hold 1-100 Bitcoins, or 10-1000 Ethereums, or equivalent values in their digital asset portfolios .

It is estimated that Bitcoin alone has 770,000 wallet addresses with balances of this size. That number could triple to 2.3 million if Ethereum wallets or wallets with hybrid coins of equivalent value are included.

About Products

According to CoinTime, HardenedVault’s initial offering will focus on two main areas:

1. Homebox market

The Homebox marketplace is a 100% self-custodial node that can extend cold wallets to live blockchains. Currently, Homebox has entered the prototype stage and is finalizing ODM suppliers. According to the HV team, all technical capabilities for the licensed custody service are ready, but are still awaiting the green light from the regulator.

2. Custody center

In addition to the Homebox market, HV is also building a high-security custody center (the first in Hong Kong), which uses hardened Vault technology and MPC multi-signature layer, supported by local SOC.

Ultimate Vision - Decentralization

According to the HardenedVault team, even though the crypto industry has always been centered on decentralization, in the flood of development, centralized intrusion is inevitable. Even the most basic node operations are often undertaken by centralized organizations, which not only brings huge risks to data security, but also falls far short of the ultimate vision of decentralization. Therefore, HV tries to build nodes that individuals can fully control through technology, so as to realize true decentralization.

However, in reality, this goal is still quite distant. The cost of HV service is still too high for most individuals, and there is no doubt that there is a long way to go to completely reduce the cost and to the level of civilian use.

Even so, the way that HV is doing is commendable, and the ultimate vision of Web3 can only be achieve if the idea of decentralization is embedded in everyone's mind.