Warning: Jaxx Wallet

[Eyedol-X]

I recently started messing with Jaxx wallet for a couple of alt coins and noticed today that one of the instances of the wallet, specifically the chrome plugin, quit updating the Zcash wallet after an extension update on May 25th.

I can still access the wallet from the desktop application and by other methods but I figured I would open a support case with Jaxx regarding the chrome issue since uninstalling/deleting the plugin/resetting the cache had no effect on my system. I did some reading online and found other people with similar issues that appeared to have self resolved over time while others indicated they had to contact support.

So contact support I did and here is the canned message I got

Your ticket request has been received. Our team will get back to you as soon as possible. Please bear in mind that due to the unexpected growth that we as well as blockchain technology are experiencing, we have been overloaded with support requests and will take between 24-48 hours to respond instead of our usual 8 hours.

We understand your concerns and are grateful for your patience; please know that we are working on improving our customer success process in order to provide the best attention possible and keep setting the standard for the industry.

Please note that we have a comprehensive Help Centre which can answer most questions. Take a moment to visit the page below to see if your question can be answered:

FAQ page: https://decentral.zendesk.com/hc/en-us

Here are some of the most common issues that users are currently experiencing:
1. ETH transactions showing up in the ETC wallet
2. Ethereum Classic (ETC) send not fully functional
3. Golem (GNT) send not fully functional
4. Bitcoin (BTC) blockchain network extreme congestion (industry-wide issue)
5. ShapeShift transactions not being received right away (ShapeShift congestion)

We are aware of these issues and will have a fix for you soon. If your issue is BTC related, please increase your mining fee to Average or Fast (Settings) for faster confirmations.

**Please also note that we do not recommend that you point your mining payouts to any of our services. Receiving payouts may cause issues on your end and potentially on our end.**

If you find your answer before we reply, we’d greatly appreciate it if you’d let us know by replying to this email.

Thank you for your patience. You’ll hear from us soon!

Decentral Customer Success Team

Notice that part in bold... all I can say is "Wow" when I read that piece. Jaxx is very up front about this in their support case canned e-mail but no where on their website do they say "Hey miners, don't use our wallets"

Thought I would pass this info on as a warning to those out there using this platform for mining payouts.

[VoskCoin]

I recently started messing with Jaxx wallet for a couple of alt coins and noticed today that one of the instances of the wallet, specifically the chrome plugin, quit updating the Zcash wallet after an extension update on May 25th.

I can still access the wallet from the desktop application and by other methods but I figured I would open a support case with Jaxx regarding the chrome issue since uninstalling/deleting the plugin/resetting the cache had no effect on my system. I did some reading online and found other people with similar issues that appeared to have self resolved over time while others indicated they had to contact support.

So contact support I did and here is the canned message I got

Your ticket request has been received. Our team will get back to you as soon as possible. Please bear in mind that due to the unexpected growth that we as well as blockchain technology are experiencing, we have been overloaded with support requests and will take between 24-48 hours to respond instead of our usual 8 hours.

We understand your concerns and are grateful for your patience; please know that we are working on improving our customer success process in order to provide the best attention possible and keep setting the standard for the industry.

Please note that we have a comprehensive Help Centre which can answer most questions. Take a moment to visit the page below to see if your question can be answered:

FAQ page: https://decentral.zendesk.com/hc/en-us

Here are some of the most common issues that users are currently experiencing:
1. ETH transactions showing up in the ETC wallet
2. Ethereum Classic (ETC) send not fully functional
3. Golem (GNT) send not fully functional
4. Bitcoin (BTC) blockchain network extreme congestion (industry-wide issue)
5. ShapeShift transactions not being received right away (ShapeShift congestion)

We are aware of these issues and will have a fix for you soon. If your issue is BTC related, please increase your mining fee to Average or Fast (Settings) for faster confirmations.

**Please also note that we do not recommend that you point your mining payouts to any of our services. Receiving payouts may cause issues on your end and potentially on our end.**

If you find your answer before we reply, we’d greatly appreciate it if you’d let us know by replying to this email.

Thank you for your patience. You’ll hear from us soon!

Decentral Customer Success Team

Notice that part in bold... all I can say is "Wow" when I read that piece. Jaxx is very up front about this in their support case canned e-mail but no where on their website do they say "Hey miners, don't use our wallets"

Thought I would pass this info on as a warning to those out there using this platform for mining payouts.

 . . . that's really alarming, I don't have much in Jaxx - but I do have some money there..

[gwestcot]

I haven't really experienced any of these issues in regards to ethereum classic as I have been able to deposit and send without any issues at all.

[linkybit]

That was really supprising I just start using their app. Thanks for the information.

[LoneRangir]

FWIW...   I use a jaxx address for both ethermine and ethpool payout addresses.  Works fine for months. 

[Tmdz]

Don't worry about it, I have used jaxx wallet for my mining payments for Months without issue.

Exchanges will says things like this as well.

The reason is that they think some miners will receive dust payments and a bunch of tiny payments could mess with their system potentially.  So Don't send dust

A miner payment is nothing special, it is the same as any other payment.

[Eyedol-X]

Been using Jaxx for a while now on ETC side and haven't experienced issues either but a few google searches tonight has shown me some insight into the people that have.

I'm going to look into Zcash4win on the Zcash side and the Standalone ETC wallet for Win64.

One thing I can't seem to find a straight answer to is you can't see your history of addresses in Jaxx even though it seems to change your address periodically.

On a side note, their support form I filled out today had the drop down option to open a case was "Wallet Stuck Syncing"

That being said, while typing this my Chrome extension finally started working after near 5 minutes of sitting at "initializing" -- I have tried for more than 30 minutes at multiple intervals today.

The wallet is now showing correct and recent payouts.

Haven't had a response from Jaxx support yet.

[2bfree]

I just switched from Jaxx to Coinomi there are a few little things that I'm not happy about Jaxx it's nothing huge but like the 4 digit pin not showing up when I send every time bothers me. Also I don't get a total and the navigation is so tiny and it's slow to see what I have where on coinomi i can see in seconds so I switched but Jaxx holds huge promise with a few tweaks and I will probably use as backup wallet for now.

[TimeTeller]

Hey.. thank you very much for this info.
It will certainly save me many headaches!
This is not an isolated issue only with JAxx as i have has others with the same.

Thank you.

[Eyedol-X]

There are a lot of things I like about Jaxx and I want to continue to use their service but for me if they aren't clearly going to support payouts of one type or another, it brings into question their reliability in service for me.

Right now I'm on the fence about this and will likely be moving the few alts I have with them off their service to local storage.

[FFI2013]

I used jaxx for months Eth mining but after awhile my wallet had so many transactions that the Android wallet couldn't load so I contacted support and they said not to mine to my wallet and the best way to fix it was to create a new wallet and send my all my coins from old to new but as of now I've been using freewallet and they are good with a lot of features and are adding many more in the next few months

[Eyedol-X]

Looks like this issue is what was affecting my ZEC wallet syncing yesterday.

...one thing sticks out here, 3rd party service? I'm guessing they don't host the wallets themselves.

https://twitter.com/Jaxx_Support/status/869969356549222400

@Jaxx_Support  20 hours ago
 We are currently experiencing w/ our 3rd party service which is affecting #LTC, #ZEC, #DASH & #Doge. We're working on resolving this ASAP!

Looks like they been experiencing DDos issues as well.

https://twitter.com/Jaxx_Support/status/870114652650430464

@Jaxx_Support  10 hours ago
 Today light DDOS attack affected services. Cloudflare is holding up but small % of TX not going thru. Will update soon. Most services Ok.

[Eyedol-X]

Here's the reply I got from Jaxx Support, secondary confirmation of what was already posted at this point.

I like the fact I can see my address history and create new addresses on demand with the standalone wallets so I'm going to move all my alts off of Jaxx until there is a time where they offer more features and support miners.

Please rest assured that your funds are safe in the blockchain.

We're currently experiencing some issues with Litecoin, Zcash, Dash, Doge due to some 3rd party services. Please keep a close eye on our Twitter page at Jaxx Support Twitter for updates on when it's back fully functional.

For support inquiries please reply to this email instead of posting on Twitter as we use Twitter mainly for status updates and public announcements.

Thank you for your understanding!

Jaxx Support

[Eyedol-X]

First they don't support miners, now this -- just another warning for those out there using this.

https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/users-report-losing-400000-due-to-jaxx-wallet-vulnerability/

According to a report from Vx Labs, a vulnerability that allows hackers to steal cryptocurrencies from users has been discovered in popular cross-platform cryptocurrency wallet Jaxx, and has reportedly already led to $400,000 being stolen.

The report, published on Friday, shows its possible for hackers to extract a 12-word backup phrase, copy it, and then use it to restore the user’s wallet with all the private keys in it, so then all that’s left to do is transfer the funds to a wallet the hacker’s wallet.

The report reads:

Even when your Jaxx has a security PIN configured, anyone with 20 seconds of (network) access to your PC can extract your 12 word backup phrase and copy it down. Jaxx does not have to be running for this to happen.

Monero developer Riccardo “FluffyPony” Spagni tweeted about the report, presumably so something could be done about the vulnerability now that it was public, but nothing was done before users started reporting lost funds, as hackers took advantage of the vulnerability.

An update published on Altcoin Trading shows that users have already reported losing as much as $400,000 in Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ethereum Classic, and Zcash. Users who only use Jaxx on their smartphones are reportedly safe, although those who use desktop versions of the wallet may be at risk.

Jaxx on Security

On Reddit, Jaxx & Decentral CTO Nilang Vyas stated that Jaxx is a hot wallet in which users shouldn’t keep large amounts, and that they believe to have found a balance between easy-of-use, security, and portability.

The CTO asked users not to use Jaxx if they are not comfortable with its security model, stating:

Please please please, if you do not feel comfortable with our security model do not use our products. We’re are creating for the masses a multi-platform, multi-coin interface for the blockchain ecosystem where users are in full control of their digital lives.

According to the post, the team behind Jaxx is “very comfortable” with its security model for hot wallets, and recommends users store large amounts of funds in hardware wallets. At the end of the post, he pointed out that in the future users will be able to secure their wallets using Trezor, Ledger, and Jaxx hardware wallets.

Based on the Nilang’s response, Vx Labs recommends users stay away from Jaxx if it does not fix the vulnerability.

[Tmdz]

Thank you for posting, just moved my assets.

The response from the Jaxx team is flat out disgusting.

Over $400K stolen from poor security on their code where anyone with access to that pc can snatch up the backup phrase and steal the funds, and they think nothing is wrong with it. 

Whats more the backup phrase is not encrypted with a password so if they get the backup..your screwed.

[Eyedol-X]

Thank you for posting, just moved my assets.

The response from the Jaxx team is flat out disgusting.

Over $400K stolen from poor security on their code where anyone with access to that pc can snatch up the backup phrase and steal the funds, and they think nothing is wrong with it.  

Whats more the backup phrase is not encrypted with a password so if they get the backup..your screwed.

My biggest issue with Jaxx right now is if you are a new user looking for a wallet, no where on their website do they indicate these stances, lack of support for miners, etc. It's once people start using the product do they learn they don't seem to give a rats ass about miners or people with legitimate security concerns.

If they put a statement on their main page or in the form a disclaimer before download, people with concerns wouldn't use their product.

Moral of the story: They are taking advantage of people new to crypto that don't know any better.

[nrgBitmagic]

I read the thing about 12-word passphrases being hackable and decided to move my stuff to Exodus.

In the process of that I had and am still having an issue moving GNT.

Exodus was incredibly helpful. Unfortunately, the problem is not there. It must be with the Jaxx wallet. But, it is impossible to get a coherent reply from the Jaxx support. It is hugely frustrating.

I am not a deeply experienced techie. I have just learned what I need to know to cyber-function. I depend on tech support to guide me through fixes and I am really disappointed that some of the developers of these crypto products are so loathe to help their customers.

The other frustrating thing is that something can come very highly recommended by someone who has not used the *thing* very much. So, you can find out some deal-killing weakness after you have moved your cryptos there and it can become impossible to get them back.

With the price rise, the sense of urgency to put these increasingly valuable cryptos in a safe place will cause lame decisions to be made. It is only through the efforts of people on forums like this and good tech support that even allows people like me to dabble.

Jaxx Wallet support is part of the problem, IMO.

[Tmdz]

I read the thing about 12-word passphrases being hackable and decided to move my stuff to Exodus.

In the process of that I had and am still having an issue moving GNT.

Exodus was incredibly helpful. Unfortunately, the problem is not there. It must be with the Jaxx wallet. But, it is impossible to get a coherent reply from the Jaxx support. It is hugely frustrating.

I am not a deeply experienced techie. I have just learned what I need to know to cyber-function. I depend on tech support to guide me through fixes and I am really disappointed that some of the developers of these crypto products are so loathe to help their customers.

The other frustrating thing is that something can come very highly recommended by someone who has not used the *thing* very much. So, you can find out some deal-killing weakness after you have moved your cryptos there and it can become impossible to get them back.

With the price rise, the sense of urgency to put these increasingly valuable cryptos in a safe place will cause lame decisions to be made. It is only through the efforts of people on forums like this and good tech support that even allows people like me to dabble.

Jaxx Wallet support is part of the problem, IMO.

Exodus seems like a good wallet, only negative is the single address.

Anyway moving your GNT is simple

extract your eth private key from jaxx that has the gnt balance, you can do this by going into Menu > tools > display private keys

go here https://www.myetherwallet.com/#send-transaction

use the private key to get in and send your gnt to your new eth/gnt address in Exodus

[fistfullofbtc]

i mine zcash to jaxx and have no issues. i do have an issue trying to send the payment out from the jaxx walllet it, goes through the process, and disappears from the jaxx wallet, but i check the blockchain address and still there. tried about 6 times no joy. any ideas?

[Tidsdilatation]

Dont use lightweight wallets. its just pure stupid, its not your wallet.