Coinkite, the Canadian bitcoin platform has recently decided to go ahead with the spring cleaning. The company in its recent blog post has announced that it will be decommissioning its web wallet services.
According to the company, they are looking into bigger things and would love to shift their focus from Software as a Service (SaaS) model and start developing hardware products and Software packages. Coinkite’s web wallet is part of the company’s SaaS product and hence, it has to go.
The company, in the same blog also mentions the hardships of running such a business. Apparently, running a bitcoin wallet service is not an easy task. They go on to mention the number of DDoS attacks they have faced soon after they launched their service. The company also mentions about the government’s involvement in the affairs and how the company had to take the legal route, bearing lawyer and court fees in order to protect the interests of their customers.
On the brighter side, Coinkite has got loads of attractive products lined up. Among the products is Opendime, a physical bitcoin. Opendime is a read-only USB wallet that stores bitcoin. Unlike other hardware wallets, users will not be able to add bitcoin to the piece of hardware shipped by the company. The hardware will contain bitcoin worth predetermined value and users can either choose to unseal it and transfer it to someone or just hand over the piece of hardware physically, like a coin. Some of the other products in the pipeline includes standalone Bitcoin terminal/wallet with printer and QR scanner, authentication and security hardware, secure servers for hosting bitcoin hot wallets and other bitcoin solutions.
Those who are already using the Coinkite services don’t have to worry about anything as the wallet service will still be operational. However, the platform will not accept any new sign ups. Even the existing APIs will not receive updates.
Coinkite is going in the right direction by shifting from bitcoin software as a service to products and software packages. There are many alternates for the services the company is winding up, but there aren’t many companies building hardware solutions for the Bitcoin industry.