Company Name: Base devices
Founders: Zach Herbert, Ken Carpenter and Jacob Johnston
Foundation date: March 2020
Headquarters location: Boston, MA and remote areas (worldwide)
Amount of bitcoin held in treasury: The foundation has bitcoins but did not disclose the amount
Number of employees: 24 full-time employees
Website: https://fundacion.xyz/
Public or private? Private
Zach Herbert wants to make bitcoin self-custody accessible to everyone.
This is why the co-founder and CEO of Base devicesa company that makes hardware and software wallets for bitcoin, has spent the last four years developing technology for bitcoin that is not only secure and open source, but also as usable as products made by Apple, a brand Herbet loves (or at least used to love – read on).
What sets Foundation's flagship product apart, a hardware wallet called Passportof the competition is a “combination of design and user experience,” Herbert told bitcoin Magazine.
He went on to share that the Foundation also has “very strong principles that we try to uphold around open source, privacy and freedom.”
The Foundation's strength lies in how it strikes a balance between staying true to its principles and creating products that those new to bitcoin can still use with relative ease.
“I think you just have to have those principles in place from day one and really know why you're doing what you're doing,” Herbert said of how he and his team strike that balance.
“I don't think it conflicts at all with the idea of wanting to build the best designed devices or products possible,” he added.
Products of the Foundation
Foundation is best known for its hardware wallet, the aforementioned Passport.
The device looks like a luxury version of a basic feature phone, but with a higher-resolution display.
One of the strengths of Passport is that it is isolated, meaning it never needs to be connected to an Internet-connected device, providing additional protection for the user's private keys.
As for private keys, Foundation has created a simplified way to back them up compared to the traditional method of writing them down. With Passport, users can save their seed phrase to the industrial-grade microSD card that comes with the device.
“We believe that not having to write those 12 or 24 words helps you integrate faster,” Herbert said.
Signing transactions with Passport is also noticeably less complicated than with most competing devices. You can do it simply by scanning a QR code with your Passport and your mobile phone.
The Passport works most conveniently when used in conjunction with the Foundation program. Sent mobile application, which also functions as a standalone hot wallet.
Again, to make onboarding easier, Herbert and the Foundation team created a system that allows users to start using the app securely almost instantly.
“We created something we call Magic Backups, where we store the seed in your iCloud Keychain or its Android equivalent, which is only for the active wallet on your phone,” Herbert explained.
“The amazing thing about Magic Backups is that you get onboarded within 60 seconds of downloading the app for the first time, so you can always go and import your own seed if you want, or create and save your own seed instead,” he added.
“We try to hide things that might be complicated, but we do things based on industry standards.”
He acknowledged that this is certainly not as secure as burning your seed phrase to a microSD card or writing it down because storing your seed phrase offline is more secure than storing it online, and shared that the hot wallet is only for minimal amounts of funds – the same dollar amounts you would have in your physical cash wallet.
Another feature of Envoy is that you can buy bitcoins through KYC-free P2P marketplaces like Hodl Hodl and Bisq within the app and then send those purchases directly to hot or cold storage.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet”>
Start your bitcoin journey the right way!
Avoid KYC issues and take control with P2P bitcoin platforms.
At Envoy, you'll discover the best P2P platforms to help you achieve a truly sovereign future.
We are building to support you every step of the way image.twitter.com/hbCeAOCWZl
— FOUNDATION (@FOUNDATIONdvcs) twitter.com/FOUNDATIONdvcs/status/1810325220906955031?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>July 8, 2024
Part of the Foundation's intention in building Passport and Envoy the way it did was to keep all levels of bitcoin holders happy.
“We’re trying to create products that the hardcore user will use and love, but that they’ll also feel comfortable recommending to their friends and family,” Herbert explained.
Why wallets?
Herbert entered the bitcoin space in 2013, in the early days of hardware wallets.
“When I first started getting interested in bitcoin, hardware wallets were just starting to exist,” Herbert said.
I used to use a software wallet called Armory, which was difficult to use, to say the least.
“The recommendation was to install Armory on a computer with storage space, which ideally you could remove the Wi-Fi card from and use solely to run Armory,” Herbert said. In essence, the computer became the hardware wallet in this case.
Herbert explained that back then there were no seed phrases and that the private key had to be printed on different pieces of paper, creating a sort of physical version of a Shamir as backup system.
While Herbert is aware that wallets have become much easier to use than they were in 2013, he still finds most hardware wallets to be unnecessarily difficult to use. He said that some hardware wallet manufacturers even seem to take pride in making products that are difficult to use, stating that learning how to use these wallets is akin to a “rite of passage.”
With Foundation, Herbert wanted to create technology that was more “accessible and thoughtful.”
A love-hate relationship with Apple
Herbert's vision for Foundation includes creating more products that sync with each other like Passport and Envoy do.
“We want to be something like the Apple of the industry,” Herbert said. “We want to create hardware, software and services that are tightly interconnected and work together seamlessly.”
Herbert shared that the Foundation is planning to launch “potentially a new product category” by the end of the year.
Could this be the bitcoin-focused phone you've been asking your followers about on x?
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet”>
What features would you like to see in a bitcoin-focused smartphone? https://t.co/8dIon71apI
— Zach Herbert (@zachherbert) twitter.com/zachherbert/status/1791825598844694626?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>May 18, 2024
Don't hold your breath.
There are several obstacles preventing such a device from reaching the market. Ironically, one of them is Apple.
“A phone is definitely in the mix,” Herbert said of projects he'd like to work on, “but I think it's more of a project for a decade down the road, because I think we need to be more advanced as a company, and I also think the industry needs to be more advanced as well.”
The other problem is that Apple has been hindering the adoption of decentralized technology, according to Herbet, who wrote a series of blog posts on this topic called “Fading love for Apple” in 2020.
“Apple’s app restrictions are very bad for the (bitcoin) space,” Herbert said.
“I think a very basic and simple example is NFC “Payments with iPhone are not possible. There is a reason why bitcoin wallets cannot use the Tap to Pay feature with NFC, and it is because Apple does not allow it. NFC is only allowed for Apple Pay,” he added.
Herbert also shared that Apple even hinders the design of mobile bitcoin wallets, which affects not only the quality of mobile bitcoin wallets for Apple users but also for Android users.
“More than half of users will be iOS users, and you generally don’t want to offer a completely standalone Android experience,” Herbert explained. “No matter what Apple does, even if Android allows more, you end up accepting the restrictions that Apple puts in place.”
So for Foundation to continue its quest to become the Apple of the bitcoin industry, it will need to get Apple out of its way.
What's next for the Foundation?
In addition to the idea of manufacturing a mobile phone on the distant horizon, the Foundation is also looking to implement and develop other technologies.
Herbert said the Foundation is considering incorporating Multi-signature root within the next few months.
“When we get to the point where there are real users actively using it, we'll add support,” said Herbert, who also noted that Passport already provides an excellent multi-signature experience.
On another front, Foundation will maintain its Samourai Whirlpool Postmix Extension live on Passport, allowing Passport users to connect to Sparrow Wallet to move their bitcoins directly to cold storage with the click of a button.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet”>
We will not be removing the Whirlpool Postmix extension in Passport
We eagerly await the return of Whirlpool and Samourai once their names are cleared and the charges are dismissed.twitter.com/hashtag/FreeSamourai?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#FreeSamourai image.twitter.com/SltJpDThFv
— FOUNDATION (@FOUNDATIONdvcs) twitter.com/FOUNDATIONdvcs/status/1788574024160702962?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>May 9, 2024
While Sparrow suspended this service following the arrest of the Samourai Wallet developers, Herbert and the Foundation team believe that the wallet will reinstate service once the Samourai developers are found innocent.
“We believe that the Samourai team has not broken any laws,” Herbert said. “We donated half a bitcoin for their legal defense.”
Herbert also noted that Foundation was close to adding the Whirlpool feature to the Envoy mobile app before news of the Samourai developers' arrest broke.
And finally, Foundation is planning to bring Lightning to Envoy to make sending and receiving bitcoins as fast and cheap as possible.
“When we have Lightning on Envoy, we can provide the best possible user experience,” Herbert said.
“We can hide a lot of the complicated stuff that happens behind the scenes and have an easy transfer flow from Lightning to cold storage or from your hot wallet to cold storage. You’ll just be able to tap the transfer button in the app, just like you would do a transfer from your checking account to a savings account in an online banking interface,” he added.
It is clear that Herbert and the team at the Foundation are not short of ideas or vision.
Considering everything they've delivered since the company was founded just four years ago, it's easy to imagine that future iterations of their hardware and software, as well as any new products they create, will only become easier to use and more streamlined from here on out.
“We have only just begun to realize what bitcoin wallets can do,” Herbert concluded. “There will be very rapid progress in the next few years.”
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