Digital payments platform Abra has unveiled a Bitcoin-backed multi-signature wallet designed to facilitate storage, transfers, and asset swaps featuring ether and 52 traditional fiat currencies as ini
Digital payments platform Abra has unveiled a Bitcoin-backed multi-signature wallet designed to facilitate storage, transfers, and asset swaps featuring ether and 52 traditional fiat currencies as initial asset options. The wallet is presently available to select users, with universal rollout scheduled to commence within seven days.
Established in 2014, Abra employs Bitcoin and blockchain technology to enable customers to make deposits, withdrawals, and value transfers via a digital cash repository resident on mobile devices. The firm's stated objective centers on constructing "a fully decentralized infrastructure for asset custody, administration, and conversion across digital holdings for investment, commerce, and remittance purposes."
Distinguishing itself from competing wallet providers, Abra maintains no control over customer assets or cryptographic keys. The architecture employs a "2 of 2" multi-signature configuration mandating signatures from both Abra and the user whenever holdings comprise anything other than bitcoin. By anchoring the bitcoin amount to the equivalent value of the customer's desired fiat or ether holdings, the bitcoin-denominated wallet structure ensures stable value representation.
"We refer to this as a synthetic currency [that functions as] fundamentally a digital analogue to protected bullion," describes Abra founder and CEO Bill Barhydt. "Should I owe you $100, theoretically I might transfer $100 in bullion value according to current market valuations. Yet given the difficulty in converting bullion instantaneously, you bear exposure to bullion price fluctuations. I might instead provide some variety of derivatives contract or protective instrument on the bullion that substantially mitigates your downside exposure. Such structures would nullify exposure across both directions… We can essentially establish that I'm transferring $100 in value, despite no physical currency exchange occurring."
Currently Abra functions as the counterparty to all user transactions and performs behind-the-scenes hedging to address counterparty exposure. Down the line, Abra intends to facilitate a permissionless system permitting additional entities to serve as counterparties to these instruments following implementation of full smart contract functionality.
"Our team has been stress-testing this framework via a centralized infrastructure approach over recent months to validate the operational mechanics preceding expansion toward a decentralized multi-signature framework, guaranteeing our engineering and financial modeling were sound," the organization states. "Following months of production operation maintaining tens of millions across our holdings, we're positioned for production-grade deployment of our multi-signature infrastructure. We're launching ether and fiat options as the first asset categories for this framework."
Within the coming months, Abra intends to transition toward a comprehensive 2 of 3 multi-sig smart contract framework incorporating a Contract Oracle as a third validation layer. This architecture strengthens safeguards for both customer and enterprise should either participant become unavailable.
Operating alongside its primary wallet solution, Abra administers a merchant marketplace of tellers permitting customer deposits and withdrawals of digital currency. The teller ecosystem encompasses both independent operators and commercial enterprises, with individual tellers retaining authority over transaction charges they impose.
The wallet expansion arrives on the heels of Abra's $16 million Series B capital raise. Foxconn, the China-based industrial giant, led the round, alongside co-investors Silver8 Capital, Ignia, Arbor Ventures, American Express, Jungle Ventures, Lerer Hippeau Ventures, and RRE Ventures. The capital infusion brings cumulative funding received by Abra to $30 million.
