Coinbase doubles down on platform security with Unbound acquisition

Coinbase has acquired cryptographic security company Unbound Security in a bid to fulfil the exchange’s commitment of “providing the safest, most secure and most trusted venue for anyone to interact with the crypto economy”.

The Israel-based firm, which focuses on “securing Enterprise Cryptographic infrastructure”, provides Coinbase with access to a selection of the “world’s most sophisticated cryptographic security experts”, including Unbound Security co-founder Guy Peer – a 20-year veteran in cryptographic security.

The acquisition of the security firm enables Coinbase to provide users with the “highest levels of security in a way that’s simultaneously frictionless, yet virtually impenetrable” and ensure that valuable data such as private keys and assets can be protected in a more secure manner.

Unbound has been a pioneer in the field of “Secure multi-party computation (MPC)”  – an application that uses advanced mathematics to enable crypto assets to be “stored, transferred and deployed more securely, easily and flexibly than ever before”.

Coinbase hopes to use this technology to remove “threat vectors and complexities” involving private key management and provide users with a user-friendly approach that leverages the “virtually impenetrable nature of cold, offline storage, with the frictionless convenience of hot, online wallets”.

It also plans to use MPC to enable new features across its consumer, institutional and cloud products.

Israel was also acknowledged by Coinbase as “a hotbed of strong technology and cryptography talent”, and will be the home of the newly-established “tech centre of excellence” to ensure the exchange remains at the “bleeding edge of security and blockchain technology”.