Swapzone takes a closer look at Guarda, a non-custodial & multifunctional cryptocurrency storage that supports a plethora of coins and tokens & ensures maximum security.
Our guest for today was Paul Sokolov, Guarda’s Chief Executive Officer with over 6 years of experience in the field of blockchain technologies and cryptocurrency.
Our corporate culture is fuelling continuous change. Nothing is set in stone, everything can change except for the fact that the happiness of our users is our key value.
Use Guarda Wallet when swapping on Swapzone.
1 Let’s talk about Guarda’s journey. What challenges did you face and how did you manage to overcome them? What opportunities were you lucky enough to seize or setbacks to avoid?
Creating a custody-free wallet became a surprisingly challenging project. However, I’m happy to have embarked on this ship [smiling]. The most challenging issue is to explain their responsibility to manage private keys to all the clients. This is crucial for everyone to understand how private keys work. We have even launched our crypto academy [to educate the community].
What I would also like to highlight is the scaling problem. Even though we are not in charge of the network's speed, customers interact with our wallet. And they have a right to say “ Why so long?”. That’s why we’re part of the ETH 2.0 effort with our ETH staking feature.
I hope this little wisdom will help others who build blockchain projects.
2 Now that the crypto market is flooded with products and tools, what are your ways to make Guarda stand out? Is diversification important? And if so, then what makes Guarda Wallet so special?
Guarda is “ Not yet another wallet”. We are a blockchain interface and financial supermarket — Two in One. No one provides so many services and features in one wallet.
Let me list them:
- Send, receive, import, export — all wallets have that [smiling].
- Buy, exchange — some of them have it.
- Stake, deposit, earn — very few of them have it.
And no one has that:
- All possible token standards support.
- Import Monero $XMR keys for free.
- Create tokens.
- Use any Human readable addresses you like.
- Decentralised invoicing with FIO Protocol (which is amazing).
- Available on any platforms. I mean any. (There’s even a Chrome extension.)
- Save watch-only wallets.
- Connect hardware wallets.
When I think how feature-packed Guarda is I simply lose my breath. I can hold on telling you other perks but better try them on yourselves.
3 Security & privacy have always been your top priorities. What are your plans on enhancing the measures you already have or implementing some new cutting-edge ones to shield your users against lurking threats?
It’s an important issue for any wallet developer. We are on the front lines of the fight against hackers, scammers, etc. We constantly develop our security systems. And in the year 2021, we are planning to finish a couple of serious security audits, which are already in progress
Secondly, we are about to announce our legal hacking program, so stay tuned for updates on Telegram or Twitter.
4 Guarda’s now a multicurrency wallet but initially it only supported Ethereum. Why was Ether your go-to currency & will ETH2, in your opinion, become a gamechanger for Ethereum once it’s all up and running?
Ethereum is the most complicated and developed technology on the market. It was when we started and now it still is. However, we believe that there should be more coins that are complicated, properly developed and supported by a huge ecosystem.
Ethereum 2.0 can help with scaling — the last frontier before crypto goes truly mass adopted.
5 Guarda was the 1st multicurrency wallet to support multisignature functionality for Bitcoin. Why was it an essential addition to have & are there any steps towards providing multisig support for other blockchains as well?
I think we were not the first ones to do it. However, we were the first among wallets with a customer-friendly interface. There were some wallets that actually could do that as well.
Multisignature is one of the core blockchain features which highlights its beauty in the easiest to understand way. Our mission is to promote decentralisation and that’s why we did it. It’s simple: if it’s good for the overall market — it’s good for Guarda.
6 We talk a lot about the crypto community’s pivotal role in propelling most of the projects’ success. Take Ravencoin or DigiByte & their dedicated fams. Now, what makes the Guarda Wallet community unique?
The Guarda community is also a family of people who love the product and its mission. Some of the early community participants are now working for the company which I find lovely.
It’s important to mention that Guarda is a community-driven platform. We use to ask our users about their expectations regarding our platform: what they like and dislike. I don’t know any other community or wallet as closely connected as we are.
7 The key to addressing the community’s needs is being responsive to market changes & tech breakthroughs. What is your approach to stay ahead of the crypto game & foresee upcoming trends?
First things first: stay open-minded. Never deny something you don’t understand. When we contemplate new trends, it is prohibited to say something like “ That won’t work” or “ I don’t believe in that”.
Secondly, it’s more important to react swiftly rather than predict. And our corporate culture is fuelling continuous change. Nothing is set in stone, everything can change except for the fact that the happiness of our users is our key value.
8 The NFT market’s now in full bloom, with more artists & influencers stepping in & projects trying to outplay Ethereum. Is it something Guarda plans to penetrate by adding features that would open up new opportunities on this market? Maybe a marketplace of your own?
We were experimenting with the ERC 721 token standard a long time ago. We even had issued and distributed Guarda NFT tokens among early clients. Which will have great value someday [smiling]. Ever since then we kept an eye on the development of NFT. We even supported the most popular ones in our wallet. You can see the transactions and images right in your wallet interface.
My personal dream is to become the first platform on which domain name or address (like FIO Protocol) will be tokenized and put into collateral, allowing the borrower to raise funds for the project in a decentralized manner.
Shortly: yes, I do believe in NFTs [smiling].
9 Now a question from the audience! Could you elaborate a bit more on Guarda’s ERC20 Token Generator?
On Guarda’s website you can issue yourself an Ethereum based token — ERC20 ( ERC721 soon). Afterwards, it’s by default supported by Guarda Wallet. We also help with listing on DeFi exchanges and if it runs properly, we add it to our internal exchange list as well. You can check it right here.
10 Zooming out a little bit. Do you see digital assets as potential default currencies like the U.S. dollar now & what do we as communities & businesses need to revamp so that crypto becomes truly mainstream?
Let’s rephrase that: I don’t see fiat assets as potential default currencies in the near future. Central banks have failed to curb unthoughtful money printing which makes Euro and Dollar as weak as they never were before.
11 In one of the interviews, you named the stock market drop as one of the reasons why the crypto market’s witnessed a boom. Will the traditional stock market pick up its pace or slowly become a fad with STOs stepping in?
The stock market should represent the actual value. There’s no way the stock market fades away. In spite of this, now crypto and old stock markets are antagonists. This situation won’t linger.
We are about to witness how companies will transfer their stock market activities to crypto platforms. It will make no sense to issue shares to NASDAQ or go to the bank to get a mortgage. You will simply use a DeFi platform with global liquidity and no intermediaries.
12 What are your ways at Guarda to break the barriers and convert people from non-crypto communities into joining the game?
It happens automagically. More and more people enter the space. We simply help them with onboarding. We have lots of community resources like the Academy, knowledge base, etc. At the end of the day, the best way to convert someone to crypto is to send a transaction and show them how it works. The fact that transaction can be checked in any block explorer blows anybody’s mind.
13 Is there something in crypto now that you couldn’t envision before & how do you think the whole ecosystem will evolve over time? What’s in store for one-stop solutions like Guarda and Swapzone?
This is a tough question. And the only true answer is “I don’t know”. But let’s try to be a prophet:
1. Even more decentralisation.
Centralised products will be used less and less. Especially exchanges. We see the trend of how customers flow to our service and other custody-free services from custodians. NOT YOUR KEYS — NOT YOUR MONEY.
2. More borrow/loan products.
Soon we will forget about VCs in their today’s form. You will be able to collateralize anything. Starting with your projects domain name, intellectual property and finishing with your know-how.
3. Governments and banksters trying to hop on the leaving train.
We are waiting for Central banks currencies, more regulation for companies and attempts to set banks in charge of the blockchain.
14 Are there any plans to issue your own token or add dApp features like WalletConnect?
First of all, yes, we will have Guarda token hit the market this month. I won’t lie if I say it’s gonna be huge! [smiling] We’ve dreamed about the token to lubricate our ecosystem and finally understood we are ready.
As for the dApp features, I’m not sure I’m getting this right as WalletConnect is already supported. Our Chrome extension also works as web3j. I would love to build even more features like that. Kindly propose some of them. We will take them into account.
