Bitcoin security firm Casa plans to expand its services to Ethereum and Ethereum-based assets, the company announced on Wednesday.
Housewhich offers user-friendly security infrastructure for maintaining self-custodial crypto wallets, will roll out Ethereum compatibility to members in January, according to a company statement.
The company, co-founded in 2018 by CEO Nick Neuman and renowned bitcoin advocate Jameson Lopp, previously offered security services exclusively for bitcoin assets. According to Neuman, it was the overwhelming demand from existing users for Ethereum support that prompted the company to expand its offerings.
“We have continued to ask our members to ask us for Ethereum support over the past two years, to a point where it became very clear to us that this was a huge need not only for our customers, but also for the community at large,” Neuman said Decrypt.
Initially, Casa management had doubts about the sustainability and centrality of Ethereum in the crypto ecosystem. But, Neuman conceded, a lot has changed since 2018.
“The Ethereum ecosystem has evolved significantly since then and has proven some things that we had questions about at first,” Neuman said. “Everything from the reliability of the multisig smart contracts, which we rely on, to the number of people building in the ecosystem, to the size of the community.”
Casa offers a free Casa Wallet app for retail Bitcoin holders, and a new revamped version of the app will debut in January with Bitcoin and Ethereum compatibility. The company also offers more advanced security services for paying customers with larger holdings and will roll out additional membership tiers in 2023.
All plans offered by Casa are fundamentally based on users retaining custody of their own crypto assets.
Following the shock collapse of crypto exchange FTX earlier this month, skepticism grew towards centralized crypto firms that act as traditional banking intermediaries for crypto assets. Companies like Casa claim that the ability of any crypto holder to control their own money is fundamental to the concept and promise of crypto.is.
Although Neuman is by no means happy with the fact that billions of dollars in FTX user funds are currently trappedor maybe lost forever, within the now bankrupt company obscure mechanismshe thinks Calamity could provide a silver lining to self-guard advocates.
“It’s kind of a validation of what we’ve been saying all along,” Neuman said. “The best way to secure your assets, to have real control over your digital heritage, is to hold the keys yourself.”
Neuman hopes that recent events will serve as a wake-up call for all cryptocurrency holders, whether tech-savvy or casual investors, to embrace the oldest principle in the industry: decentralization. And he is confident that the current dominance of once FTX rivals like Coinbase and Binance will soon be a thing of the past.
“This concentration of customers around centralized custodians is likely to be a blow,” Neuman said. “Will they ever disappear completely? No. But for the average person, I think most people will own most of their assets themselves.
