Advertisement
Today at CryptoNewsZ, we are joined by Shixing Mao “Discus Fish,” CEO and Co-founder of Cobo Wallet and F2Pool, and Co-founder and COO of Yibite.
CryptoNewsZ: Welcome to CryptoNewsZ, Shixing, our readers would love to know more about your journey and how did you come up with this innovative idea of Cobo?
The reason I started Cobo was mainly due to an automated hack into my mining pool in 2017. As most people know, Ethereum suffered an ecological security defect on Valentine’s Day. At that time, we were using Alibaba Cloud’s VPC service but it started experiencing a bug in its system. Because we were experiencing lags in transactions, we decided to temporarily use the Ethereum node in another VPC to pay for the mining fees. But because there were lags caused by the heavy online traffic, automated attacks programmed by hackers managed to intercept my wallet password and stole 8000 Ethereum. This incident left a lasting impression as I suddenly became aware of the large presence of crypto hackers. We are now faced with an ever-increasing amount of hackers creating automated attacking programs in this still-new industry. It is very difficult for non-technical people to safeguard their private keys from hackers, hence I felt the need to create a wallet with an improved security architecture allowing more people to have the peace of mind to store and use cryptocurrencies. This is the vision we had in mind when we started Cobo.
Discus Fish
CryptoNewsZ: You are one of China’s earliest cryptocurrency pioneers and are known for writing the very first Chinese-language mining tutorial; what attracted you towards the cryptocurrency industry?
The first time I read the Bitcoin whitepaper, I was absolutely speechless. My understanding of money completely changed from then on. Now, I believe the new generation of money should be easily traceable and freely transferred over the Internet. However, this is hard to achieve for fiat money. Satoshi Nagamoto’s ideology aligned perfectly with my vision of the future of money and it’s why I am so optimistic about blockchain technology. In the earlier days, I also knew many Chinese crypto-enthusiasts could not understand the latest crypto news due to the language barrier. On top of that there were also a lot of Chinese people with sufficient computing power for crypto-mining but who found it hard to get started. That’s why I wrote a few tutorials about crypto-mining to help them participate in crypto-mining and be connected to the blockchain community worldwide.
Discus Fish
CryptoNewsZ: How does Cobo work and what kind of measures has it integrated into its ecosystem to guarantee complete security?
We experienced a severe automated attack from hackers before we started Cobo. This is why security was to be Cobo’s priority. We created many security protocols which can be classified into 2 categories: one is to use the traditional isolation between hot wallets and cold wallets and the other was to focus on the technology behind the former. The majority of users’ crypto-assets are stored in offline cold wallets and are required to pass through multiple security identifications before they are distributed around the world. Therefore, errors are almost completely eliminated or can be easily resolved.
Secondly, our technological focus on the hot wallet leads us to use the HSM bank-level security encryption for maximum security. All cell generations and signature destructions are deployed as GSM encryption machines. In addition, we have traditional Internet security, infrastructure, and defense. We also emphasize and educate our users to maintain good user habits, and use password management software, regularly modifying passwords and two-step verification to ensure the security of assets.
Discus Fish
CryptoNewsZ: The Cobo vault removes any USB port from the device and transactions are done through a dynamic QR code, what was the reason behind this unique concept?
Transparency. You never know what data has been transferred out from a USB connection. with a QR code, you can verify and check it by yourself.
Discus Fish
CryptoNewsZ: What are the major differences between Cloud wallet and HD wallet?
The main difference between Cobo Cloud Wallet and Cobo HD Wallet is where the private key is stored. In the Cloud Wallet, private keys are stored by Cobo Wallet on our hardware security module and we help execute transactions for our users. You have access to your funds and have the freedom to do whatever you want while leaving asset security entirely to us. As to the HD Wallet, the private keys are encrypted into a recovery phrase (12 or 24 words), which the user is the sole owner of. Meaning, if you lose your recovery phrase or private key, you lose your assets forever! Please be careful with your private key and recovery phrase and never give it out to anyone. You won’t need to input the private key every time you make a transaction because Cobo automated the process. However, for HD Wallet you must remember the recovery phrase in case you need to restore it.
Discus Fish
CryptoNewsZ: How does the Cobo wallet function? Please elaborate.
Cobo is a company that aims to be a one-stop-shop for everything related to digital assets. We already have three developed product lines at present. The first one is Cobo Wallet, which is our flagship mobile app wallet. It’s also the first wallet in the world to offer pooled staking which currently supports more than 40 chains and 900 tokens.
For security-forward asset owners, we also offer a military-grade hardware wallet product called Cobo Vault. The Vault has a series of defense mechanisms, such as a self-destruction mechanism and patented dynamic QR code technology to ensure absolute security for your assets. We also have Cobo Custody, an asset management service for institutional users, which provides customized token storage, usage, and reward methods. Cobo Custody also offers a range of solutions for blockchain startup companies.
Discus Fish
CryptoNewsZ: Shixing, our readers would love to know more about the Cobo team and how they always manage to keep Cobo up and running.
Our team includes professionals and experts in the blockchain and cryptocurrency industry and people from many different professional backgrounds. We come from corporations like Facebook and Google, and we also have founders and partners of many blockchain startups that joined the team. Thus, we are an international team with many small partners that have a deep understanding of the industry. The team is diverse but has an optimistic outlook on the future of blockchain, including the fact that it has massive potential for growth. Cobo will serve more users directly and even indirectly, in the future. We will bring more financial derivative services based on asset security to users. This is the reason why the Cobo team continues to upgrade and emphasize the security infrastructure of the wallet.
Discus Fish
CryptoNewsZ: Cobo entered into a strategic partnership with CocosBCX. How will this partnership benefit Cobo and its users?
We announced a strategic partnership with Cocos on August 30, 2019. By partnering with Cocos-BCX, Cobo is expanding our business spectrum with the integration of more high-quality blockchain game DApps built on Cocos-BCX, as well as the NHAS 1808 standard of Cocos-BCX.
Discus Fish
CryptoNewsZ: Getting Cobo to where it is today clearly hasn’t been easy; what advice would you give to those currently trying to get a start-up off the ground?
Since I have been in this industry for a while, I have gone through a few large industry cycles. The blockchain industry is different from the traditional internet or financial industry due to the fact that it has a very fast-paced industry cycle.
There is a saying in China, a day in the crypto industry is equivalent to a day on earth.
Blockchain start-ups must have enough resources to keep up with this cycle. Additionally, this industry is becoming increasingly popular so everyone should filter to get partnerships and products that are beneficial in the long run. At the same time, they should maintain a good capital reserve and cash flow to ride on the pace and changes of the industry.
Discus Fish
Advertisement
Thanks for your valuable time Shixing, we wish you tremendous success in all your ventures.
