Foundation Devices Wants to Make Bitcoin Self-Custody Accessible to Everyone

This is why the co-founder and CEO of Foundation Devices, a company that makes Bitcoin hardware and software wallets, has spent the last four years

Company Overview

Company Name: Foundation Devices

Founders: Ken Carpenter, Jacob Johnston and Zach Herbert

Date Founded: March 2020

Location of Headquarters: Boston, MA and remote (worldwide)

Amount of Bitcoin Held in Treasury: Foundation holds bitcoin but the amount is undisclosed

Number of Employees: 24 full-time employees

Website: https://foundation.xyz/

Public or Private? Private

Products

Foundation is best known for its hardware wallet, the Passport. The device looks like an upscale version of a feature phone, but with a higher-resolution screen. One of the Passport’s selling points is that it’s airgapped, which means it never has to be plugged into an internet-connected device, providing extra protection for the user’s private keys.

Regarding the private keys, Foundation has created a simplified way to back them up compared to the traditional method of writing them down. With the Passport, users can save their seed phrase to the industrial grade microSD card that comes with the device.

“We think that not having to go write down those 12 or 24 words helps you get onboarded faster,” said Herbert.

Signing transactions with the Passport is also notably less complicated than it is with most competitor devices. You can do so by simply scanning a QR code, using your Passport and mobile phone.

The Passport works most conveniently when used in conjunction with Foundation’s Envoy mobile app, which also serves as a stand-alone hot wallet. Again, to make it easier to onboard users, Herbert and the Foundation team created a system that lets users securely start using the app almost instantaneously.

“We created something we call Magic Backups where we actually store the seed to your iCloud keychain or Android equivalent, which is only for the hot wallet on your phone,” explained Herbert.

“What's amazing about Magic Backups is that you're onboarded within 60 seconds of downloading the app for the first time, and so you can always go and import your own seed if you want to, or create and save your own seed instead,” he added.

“We try to obfuscate things that might be complicated, but we do things based on the industry standards.”

He acknowledged that this surely isn’t as secure as recording your seed phrase to a microSD card or writing it down because saving your seed phrase offline is safer than storing it online, and he shared that the hot wallet is only for minimal amounts of funds — the same dollar amounts you’d hold in your physical wallet in cash.

Another feature of Envoy is that you can purchase bitcoin via KYC-free P2P marketplaces like Hodl Hodl and Bisq within the app and then send those purchases directly to hot or cold storage.

Part of Foundation’s intention in building the Passport and Envoy the way it did was to keep all levels of bitcoin holders satisfied.

“We're trying to make the products that the hardcore user will use and love but then will also feel comfortable recommending to their friends and family,” explained Herbert.