We have keys, but do we really have THE keys to our crypto in Incognito?

[walkonwayvs]

Hello everyone,

I’ve been using Incognito faithfully for over a year now and still think it’s one of the best and most underrated projects in the entire crypto space. But there’s always been this little sliver of “unknown” when it comes to my ability to tell people about Incognito and everything it entails.

In short, biding by the cliche of “not your keys, not your crypto” - do Incognito users actually fully own the keys to their funds?

I have some BTC in the Provide section of the Incognito app, and I know that I have keys to my Incognito wallet, but do I really own my own keys to that bitcoin in the most basic and ‘physical’ level of crypto ownership?

Just typing this now I fear the worst - because I don’t think there would be any way for me to get access to the BTC in my Incognito Wallet (even just being in the wallet outside of the Provide section) without actually directly interacting with the Incognito interface in some way. Is that correct? Please help me to understand this very basic of ideas of “not your keys not your crypto” and how exactly it translates to having my crypto on the Incognito Wallet.

Thank you, and I look forward to gaining some clarification in this matter that has plagued me for some time now.

[marko]

No, you don’t own the keys – you regularly see maintenance which disables the app and there are increasing delays in withdrawing from provide.

There are alternate front end interfaces that can interact with the incognito chain…and soon a core-team built chrome extension.

Good question–it doesn’t mean do or don’t use incognito as I have been a regular user ever since I discovered the project, but you’re wise to understand the product we’re using

[Jared]

@marko

No, you don’t own the keys

How is it we don’t own our keys? We have the ability to directly interact with the network via our own fullnode, no?

When the app goes down for maintenance (which is understandable from time to time) yes the app goes down but it’s my understanding that interaction with the chain outside of the app still operates flawlessly.

[marko]

Custody is fully centralized at this time but below is what is planned. It’s unknown who the multisig holders will be. Multsig by itself doesn’t mean a lot just FYI—one person could control all the keys and the private keys may be stored together.

Incognito’s trustless non-custodians bridge V4

Problem: As you know, we finished the design and implementation of Incognito’s trustless bridge for public tokens (BTC and BNB) that allow users to shield public tokens decentralized, aka Portal v2 (with Incognito vault) and Portal v3 (with Ethereum smart contract vault). See detail: Incognito's trustless bridge V3 with Ethereum bond contract However, there are some problems with our current design. First, the logic of the shielding and unshielding processes is quite complicated. So, it’s to…

Ethereum assets are in a smart contract but I don’t know how to look at it to see if it’s upgradable or if there are admin keys…there probably is.

I don’t mean this to be positive or negative but great job asking this question. We all should and adjust what we do according to the benefits and risks.

[aaron]

Good questions! It can be broken down like this:

You own your private keys, and no one but you has access to them. So, the crypto in your wallet is yours.

Provide is a temporary solution for liquidity incentive, and to keep funds safe, it’s centralized/custodial. There will be decentralized options in the future.

The crypto you own while on Incognito are pCoins, and no matter what happens to the app, you can access them by interfacing directly with the Incognito blockchain, like @Jared says.

The original coins are held by custodians, which are centralized for now, for security. (Ethereum and ERC20 are held trustlessly by smart contract, and that’s currently decentralized). It’s a matter of bridges. Every trustless bridge means you can access the regular versions of your coins without any trusted custodian. As soon as the network is released, it will be safe to remove trusted custodians and that won’t be an issue. That’s a top priority for devs, and we’re getting there as quickly as we can. In the meantime, we’re working on decentralizing custodianship to users and building new trustless bridges.

[walkonwayvs]

Hey Aaron thanks you the thorough response here and I apologize for my delay in responding. I appreciate your information and wish you all the best of luck with getting the system more decentralized!