Hi Patatas, yes sorry about our vague introductory post. Security is VERY important to us, and a few of our key security points are listed below.
Multi-signature, on blockchain order escrowIn the first step of a Cancoin order, the seller deposits the full amount to a unique 2 of 3 multi-sig wallet that gets created by the application when the order is initiated. This escrow wallet is verifiable on the blockchain, and the escrow wallet address is shown throughout the order for third party verifications. The bitcoins are held in escrow until the seller has received payment from the buyer. Once all parties are satisfied, the seller applies their signature with their 12 word mnemonic (which is generated in browser when a user signs up for a Cancoin account during the wallet generation process, and is an encrypted version of their private key), the second signature is applied by Cancoin and the bitcoins are sent to the buyer. A combination of 2 of any three private keys - The buyer's, the seller's or Cancoin's - can unlock and send the escrow bitcoins.
We think this approach is more secure and transparent than what is currently offered. Transparent, third party verifiable escrow deposits and the inability for Cancoin to sign escrow funds with a single private key. All user signatures are done in browser, meaning that our servers only ever see a half signed transaction which doesn’t include your mnemonic or private key.
OpenPGP encrypted order chatEach order comes with a single-use chat window, and all communications with your trading partner during the order are OpenPGP encrypted. We include a simple process that allows you to generate and encrypt your OpenPGP chat key with your 12-word mnemonic (private key) and store it in your browser in a few simple steps. Because Cancoin doesn't know your mnemonic (private key), we are unable to decrypt your messages and any communications in the done in the order are kept between the buyer and seller.
On a sidenote: we do offer in order support as well, to request it you can decrypt single line messages for Cancoin and alert our support staff using @cancoin in the body of any messages you would like Cancoin support to have access to. All other messages will remain encrypted for us. We will receive your decrypted message and respond in the order chat window to help resolve any issues.
HSM Server signingAlthough our Marketplace is in Beta, our HSM (Hardware Security Module) secured servers have been signing transactions for our multi-signature wallets for over two years without fail. We use a federated array of Ledger.io HSM1s in our co-located datacenter to sign our half of user transactions. If the chips are ever pulled out of our servers, they will reset and require re-authentication. After three tries at authentication the HSM is wiped and all private keys are deleted.
I hope that helps a bit. This is just the beginning of the Marketplace, so new features and functions will be added as we go. I’ll also let Ty, our lead developer, know that a few questions are being asked here… he’s really the ‘technical bitcoin guru’ type, so hopefully he will jump in here and expand on what I was saying as well.
Thanks for your inquiry though, if you have any ideas or other questions feel free to ask!
Shawn
shawn@cancoin.coMore info about the Marketplace, wallet, security etc:
https://cancoin.co
