xGov-108-Airgap vault & wallet integration via isolated modules

Governance xGov Proposals
1

id: 108

title: Airgap vault & wallet integration via isolated modules

author: AP (@Vidhyanandcs)

discussions-to: xGov-108-Airgap vault & wallet integration via isolated modules

company_name: Securecerts Technologies

category: Tools

focus_area: Deployment

open_source: Yes

amount_requested: 84530

status: Final

Abstract

Airgap vault is an open-source vault that helps algorand community to convert their old mobile phone to a cold storage for generation and management of private keys. Airgap wallet is an open-source wallet with web, android, iOS, mac, windows and linux support. It currently supports BTC, ETH, XTZ, DOT, GLMR, ATOM, ICP, RBTC & more. Unlike other wallet ecosystems, your private key (seed phrase) is never stored in the wallet app but in the vault. We are proposing a plan to integrate airgap vault and wallet via isolated modules to algorand.

Team

AP - CEO. I have 7 years of experience in sales and marketing. I have been an active member in the Algorand community since August 2021 and is involved with the Notiboy project.

Deepak -CTO. Deepak has a Masters in computer science and has worked in product design & development for leading payment companies in the world. He is well versed in the Algorand smart contracts and SDKs and has been leading the design and development of Notiboy project.

Experience with Algorand

We have been building notiboy project which is a notification and web3 chat application on algorand.

Present Proposal

As My Algo Wallet announced sunset, we were looking for an alternative multi-chain wallet that can be used by community to operate hardware wallet. We stumbled upon airgap which was recommended to us by a community member. It has two features. Airgap vault and Airgap wallet.

The AirGap Vault is responsible for secure secret recovery phrase generation and storage, as well as air-gapped transaction signing through QR codes. The Vault is installed on a dedicated device with no network connection, thereby protecting your secret recovery phrase from attackers. Even if you choose to install the Vault on a device with network connectivity, the Vault application still stays offline.

The AirGap Wallet creates transactions, broadcasts transactions and shows a portfolio overview. The Wallet is installed on your everyday smartphone with network access. The wallet stores public information. The secret recovery phrase is only stored and used in the AirGap Vault, which does not have access to the internet at any time, thus making it inherently more secure than your regular software wallet with internet access.

We intend to integrate airgap vault and airgap wallet to algorand via isolated modules.

Future Blueprint

Update the isolated modules wrt updates in the ecosystem.

Benefits for the community

  1. New members joining crypto and algorand ecosystem may not be willing to buy a hardware wallet as their crypto investments may be lower. But using a hot wallet has its own risks. Airgap vault shall be a viable alternative for newer community members with old phones as they can be converted into cold storage to securly store ASAs.

  2. Airgap web wallet has support for ledger.

  3. Airgap has support for desktop wallets (Mac, windows and Linux) which algorand has been missing.

  4. Airgap has multi-chain presence and code is open-source. This means developers from multiple ecosystem is looking into the code which ensures better security.

Additional information

Airgap Introduction video : https://youtu.be/OaYiXsD2sQ8?si=qWxI85RqHHUd6nyI

AirGap Docs: https://support.airgap.it/

Keeping your seed phrase cold is important: Why keeping your seed phrase cold is important | by AirGap | AirGap | Dec, 2023 | Medium

6 Likes
2

I think this would be a great value add for Algorand. We want Algorand to be available in as many wallets as possible. This one is rather novel in its approach to security, and people have popped into Discord asking Algorand to support it.

2 Likes
3

Thank you for the feedback. We also think that airgap has a novel approach. Every household will have an old phone. Converting it to a cold storage vault is a good idea which algorand community can take advantage of.

4

This would get my vote. Would be keen to see the code on Github and contribute to it too.

Have looked at Airgap before. Looks like a great idea which provides security without an expensive device. Lots of us already have a spare phone lying around anyway.

1 Like
5

Yes. We have checked the code. There are example implementation of isolated modules for other chains provided by the team.

We have to implement it for algorand. Then airgap team will do an audit and if everything is good, it will be merged.

Will certainly update you on this once we start.

1 Like
6

Yes. I meant I would be keen to look at the Algorand code you guys come up with and potentially contribute to that. :slight_smile:

1 Like
7

if someone else wants to read through the proposal like myself:

Would you need to regularly update the vault app or is that a one time download and then it works forever?

1 Like
8

thank you. i have updated the description with full proposal. GG

1 Like
9

Iā€™m not familiar with the system, but considering that itā€™s OSS and adopted by other ecosystems with some success I think this is a good proposal and the type of things that we should be funding. Iā€™m just worried about long term support, but if successful and FOSSā€™d I think we could see a com. member pick it up in case @vidhyanand and his team canā€™t.

2 Likes
10

We will make sure that the wallet will be maintained and updated as per protocol changes.
In-case we could not, as the wallet is fully open-source, anybody can raise a PR

2 Likes
11

I really like this proposal. I only have a few questions.

  1. How would this connect to dApps? (e.g. WalletConnect)
  2. Does this proposal include building the repo to allow dApps to integrate it?
1 Like
12

For web wallet we need to create a seperate connector.

But mobile wallets can be connected via wallet connect

1 Like
13

Cool idea, but is there a need? This sounds super hyper specific. I think on Algorand we like to keep things simple and this is making my head hurt.

1 Like
14

More multi chain wallets means more exposure for algorand. Also algorand donā€™t have wallets that support desktop. Converting our old phone to a hardware wallet is cherry on top

15

@vidhyanand great idea! for the more lazy, I recommend ledgerā€™s Nano HW wallets. They are integrated into Algorand Pera wallet.

16

We have thought about it. But as crypto becomes more popular, holders from developing and under developed countries will emerge and they may not have large enough investment to buy a ledger. But they will certainly have a old mobile phone in their house. Algorand has to be more inclusive.

Also best thing i like about airgap vault is that , i uses touch, sound, image from camera and noise from microphone to add entropy while generating our seed phrase.

17

sharing an introduction to airgap wallet.

18

Pera does not work with Ledger Nano S.

19

Airgap.it supports other wallets (which would presumably connect to dApps etc). So I assume we could have Defly and Pera adding support for Airgap.it vault.

https://airgap.it/supported-wallet/

1 Like
20

Yes. Once implemented we will certainly request pera and defly to provide support for airgap vault.

This will make seed phrase handling much more easier for community , especially if the vault is installed in an old phone which is not connected to the internet

1 Like