Bitcoin - the first cryptocurrency - was created first of all as a secure and safe way of storing value. Everything about blockchain and crypto is created to prevent any attempts to fudge with transactions. But nowadays it's almost impossible to say that crypto is perfectly safe! Banks' shenanigans are avoided, of course, but cryptocurrency theft is quite a habitual thing today. It's estimated that bitcoin theft volumes alone amount to more than a billion dollars per year. So the problem is quite real and quite serious. Fortunately, a possible solution is on the way - Bitcoin Vault.
Back to the roots
Bitcoin Vault was inspired directly by the original Bitcoin Whitepaper. Satoshi Nakamoto created his masterpiece as a form of "digital gold", not "digital cash". Its main purpose was not to conduct payments, but to store value.
However, almost all further crypto development (including Bitcoin itself) was focused on payments. Everyone tried to speed up transactions, lower fees and so on. Only a few people bothered with improving value-storing functionality. As a result, today you can easily pay for a latte with Bitcoin, but a thief from the other end of the world can steal your savings almost just as easily.
The solution, offered by Bitcoin Vault, is quite simple: "Let's make a coin with a similar function to Bitcoin transactions, perhaps with a slower speed of transactions (for safety reasons) and more expensive (in case of reversing a transaction, for which users would need to pay another transaction fee), but with an additional possibility to reverse the transaction within 24 hours" - Eyal Avramovich, CEO of MineBest.
Gold is heavy
This approach contradicts all crypto development paradigms. However, the advantages are obvious. Even if a thief stole your private key, you still can get your crypto back. Confirmation time is increased to 24 hours (144 blocks). During this period, it is possible to conduct a special recovery transaction, that will reverse the first, so-called alert transaction. Similar procedures are in place in "traditional" banks and may be enabled in some cryptocurrency wallets [1][2] but Bitcoin Vault solution excludes a trusted third party.
In addition, to prevent such a situation of miners potentially committing theft of Bitcoin Vault (Example: moving 1 Bitcoin Vault with a transaction fee of 1,000 Bitcoin Vault), the maximum transaction fee will be limited, which is especially important for recovery transactions.
The decision to deliberately sacrifice usability to gain security may seem controversial at best for a lot of people. But the 24-hour alert period is not the only way Bitcoin Vault operates. There will also be a possibility to send coins "as usual" - with a confirmation time around 10 minutes and a normal fee, with use of a third key which will "bypass" normal safety procedures.
Security is still your responsibility
Bitcoin Vault is not a completely foolproof solution to the cryptocurrency theft problem. If the user stores his "fast transaction key" and "normal" private key in the same place (as, no doubt, many people will do) both keys may be stolen at the same time - Bitcoin Vault security features stop working.
Your recovery transaction key can be used multiple times. However, following the first time, the system will inform users that the key has been used before. It is also important to note that the Bitcoin Vault team has stated that integration of such keys is still under development and expected to be implemented in Q2 2020.
