Keeper: your private bitcoin vault

Multi-sig Secure | Privacy Preserving | Inheritance Supporting

BitHyve, the company behind Hexa Wallet, recently launched their second bitcoin self-custody app, Keeper. The intention of releasing the testnet public-alpha app early is to get more eyes on the project, get feedback from the community and improve the overall quality before the mainnet launch. #buildinpublic

Links for learning more, getting in touch and app downloads are here. Following is an overview of some of its main attributes.

Multi-sig Vault

Keeper is essentially an easy-to-setup multi-sig Vault where you can use a variety of hardware and software-based signing devices. The critical difference, and one of the main reasons for building Keeper, is that multi-sig in this app is multi-device and multi-platform. We can use any available signing devices (hardware wallets) and not depend on a single provider for software or hardware. The app interacts with the signing devices using standard BIP-174 PSBT (Partially Signed Bitcoin Transactions) and HWI (Hardware Wallet Interface).

Currently, there are three configurations for the Vault:

• Pleb: 1 of 1 air-gapped mode
• Hodler: 2 of 3 multi-sig mode
• Diamond Hands: 3 of 5 multi-sig mode

In the testnet beta app, we can upgrade and downgrade levels without any subscription costs.

User Privacy

This app aims to make secure self-custody affordable and easy for everyone. But this does not have to come at the cost of privacy. Bitcoin does not care about your identity, and neither does this app. You should not have to provide any of your PII (Personally Identifiable Information), including email addresses, to do a bitcoin multisig with your bitcoin keys. The app does not need you to register with a company. It also lets you connect your node and enable tor from within the app.

Inheritance Support

If bitcoin is generational wealth, we need to have means and methods to pass it on to the next generations easily. Inheritance Support provides tips, tools and templates that work with your existing estate plan. It addresses both the aspect of inheritance — legal ownership and access to the keys.

Bip-85 Hot Wallets

The app also lets the user create one or more hot wallets, which have keys on the mobile app, unlike the Vault. These wallets are BIP-85 based, meaning that if you add multiple wallets, each will have its independent Recovery Phrase (twelve seed words). These are derived from a single master Recovery Phrase. So you could use individual wallet Recovery Phrases to create wallets in other apps while they are backed up with Keeper through the master Recovery Phrase. The auto-transfer policy in Keeper means that if any wallet balance is beyond a certain threshold, a fund transfer to the Vault is initiated. This means that you can use features of other apps and only risk a limited amount on any hot wallet. So Keeper helps secure your bitcoin that is not even on the app.

Other Features

Other features included in the app are:

• Software-based signing devices: Keeper provides additional options where the user can choose some non-hardware-based signing devices as a part of the multi-sig. These include Soft Key (user to note down the seed words), Mobile Key (one key is on the mobile) and another Keeper App (where you could use another device running Keeper to be a signing device).
• Signing Server: The user could choose Signing Server as one of the signing devices based on 2FA authentication. They could even set signing policies. For example, the Signing Server will not be able to sign a transaction for more than a certain amount, and the user will have to use another signing device. It will also not need any authentication if the transaction is below a specific limit.
• Shake to send feedback: This is a testnet-only (beta app) feature. The user can shake the app to trigger a feedback form. They can attach a screenshot or even a video to give feedback directly to the developers.
• More to come: Other features the team is working on include -buying directly into cold storage, UTXO tagging and management, backing up with Keeper, support for more signing devices etc.

If you have reached this point, we are sure you will be able to help us build a fantastic app by providing us with valuable feedback. So here are some links for you to get more familiar with Keeper and download the app.