Bitcoin storage vault industry
Companies portal Information technology portal. The New York Times. Retrieved 20 June Retrieved 15 October Retrieved 21 June Retrieved 1 October History Economics Legal status. List of bitcoin companies List of bitcoin organizations List of people in blockchain technology. Retrieved from " https: CS1 German-language sources de. Views Read Edit View history. This page was last edited on 18 June , at Its precise location is secret, and access is limited by security measures that would put a Bond villain to shame.
These keys form a pair with particular, public-facing, keys and provide access to the balance of coins stored on the bitcoin network. We pull off the highway and onto a single-track road. We are met by Michel Streiff, who works for Deltalis, the company that runs the facility. Deltalis operates the 10,square-foot data-center that now inhabits the decommissioned bunker. Server racks for banks, and any client who needs secure data processing, fill a cavity dug over meters deep in the granite mountain.
Inside, walls covered with detailed maps and ancient radio electronics serve as vestiges of its military past. We step through about a foot of concrete and enter the lobby. I sign in as I would at any office building, except I also have to present my fingerprints and be photographed. Once through the man-trap, we touch our ID cards and pass through a set of steel revolving doors, then walk down a meter long passageway through the granite.
We pass through a second man-trap and then end up in front of a nondescript white door. Inside is a space about the size of a walk-in closet containing a cooling unit, and yet another door. Rienzi chose the vault for Xapo, and he designed the private suite and its security protocols. There are two more portals inside the suite: For digital assets like bitcoin, thick walls and a secret location are not enough.
A shield against invisible modes of attack like an EMP bomb must be provided for. No one, not even the operator, enters the cold room. The cold room contains hardware, which is never connected to the internet, used to sign bitcoin transactions. Signing a transaction can be performed offline.