For this month's project review, we are featuring 

, one of our portfolio companies with a mission to empower crypto investors and blockchain advocates to safeguard their wealth through next-generation hardware wallets and key backups. 

This review will share more background information on the project, an analysis of the role of security and hardware wallets in light of the current crypto era, and finally, our thesis behind why we like this project and where we see room for improvement.

 offers the first complete solution for self-custody, consisting of three essential parts: 

Combined, all three solutions allow crypto investors to experience an end-to-end, easy-to-use self-custody solution from key generation to backup recovery. Furthermore, set to empower people to master their wealth most securely and efficiently, the NGRAVE team complements its wallet products - ZERO, GRAPHENE, and LIQUID - with educational content teaching people about cybersecurity risks, hacker malpractices, and the web3 ecosystem. 

Find out more about cybersecurity and protection in NGRAVEs academy ➡️ 

With security at the project’s core, ZERO is the first crypto hardware wallet to achieve the world's highest security Operating System (OS) (EAL7). This high level of security is recognized across strong markets such as; the U.S.A, France, Canada, Germany, and more. In comparison, Apple Pay achieved an EAL5 security level, and ID and credit cards an EAL5 chip. Ledger Nano, another hardware wallet maker, also achieved an EAL5 chip security level, making NGRAVE the “coldest” wallet on the market.

Back in 2018, co-founders Ruben Merre (CEO), Xavier Hendrickx (CTO), and Edouard Vanham (COO) brought NGRAVE to fruition after a series of personal and professional encounters with crypto hackers. Notably, Hendrickx, an early investor and believer in blockchain technology, became a victim of several high-profile hacks, including the Mt.Gox hack in 2014. He also worked for Swarm City (previously Arkade City), a company impacted by the Multi-Sig Parity Hack. 

In light of all these events, coupled with the fact that over 

, the co-founders of NGRAVE made it their passion and mission to empower crypto users to safeguard their wealth. 

Since the start of the project, the team has raised $6M in seed capital from investors such as DFG Group, Spark Digital Capital, Morningstar Ventures, and more. Recently, Binance announced a strategic investment in the hardware wallet maker and that they will be leading the project’s upcoming Series A round. The wallet was also awarded the 

Role of security and hardware wallets in light of the current crypto-era

Since the beginning of November 2022, the crypto industry has experienced turmoil due to the bankruptcy of FTX. Investors, builders, and even non-crypto natives have put crypto security under a lens leading to many rethinking how they engage with the ecosystem. Furthermore, since 2012, at least 

 have been hacked, and this year alone, around 

 have been lost due to hackers, making it a record year for hacking. As a result of all this, hardware wallets have seen an uproar in interest from many. 

The topic of custody has come hand-in-hand with security as investors rethink where and how they want to store their assets. For a brief background, hardware and digital wallets allow you to own your coins through your private keys and recovery seed phrases, both classifying as non-custodial. Exchanges are different as they often use a proxy, such as a password or SMS code, to let you log into their platform, classifying them as custodial.     

In the case of NGRAVE, the team developed ZERO, the genesis hardware wallet communicating fully offline through one-way QR codes. No wifi, USB, NFC, or Bluetooth is needed to use the device. Alongside ZERO, the team developed GRAPHENE - two stainless steel backup plates for users to punch their 

- into physically. And LIQUID - a mobile app storing all public information synced to ZERO via QR code. 

Let's say one were to purchase an NGRAVE hardware wallet; here are the steps as to how you would set it up:

NGRAVE calls the secret key the “NGRAVE Perfect Key” it’s a 64-character hexadecimal equivalent of the 256-bit master seed and the 24-word seed phrase, allowing for a more secure backup and a recovery method in case of losing both the hardware device and the backup. The user can choose to convert between the two formats; hence the user can import 12 or 24 words and create a 24-word seed phrase. 

The team has also created an onboarding video and manual for ZERO

Watch the video and learn more about how to get started with GRAPHENE ➡️ 

Watch the video and learn more about how to receive transactions ➡️ 

NGRAVE supports over 1,500 ERC20 tokens, USDT, HEX, MANA, WBTC, SAND, and 13 blockchains, including BTC, ETH, EGLD, XRP, SOL, and more. In the upcoming months, the team will add support for AVAX, ESDT tokens (MultiversX chain), BSC tokens (Binance chain), and MATIC.  

 due to investors losing private keys, forgetting their passwords, or misplacing their hardware wallets. NGRAVE is well aware that human error and other outside factors can cause issues with either damage, loss, or theft of hardware wallets. Therefore, the team thinks in “what if” scenarios and has back-ups for back-ups to ensure that even if a “human error” occurs with one's wallet, people can still access their digital assets. 

For example, when the team was creating GRAPHENE, they thought of all possible issues they could face and solved the following “what if’s”: 

To further dive deep into the team's “what if” mindset, read their article on What if NGRAVE goes out of business➡️ 

With almost four years of growth, NGRAVE has brought to market a product for the greater good of the crypto community. ZERO, GRAPHENE, and LIQUID all cater to ensuring that crypto asset investors can manage their wealth securely. Diving deeper into the project, here are our thoughts on what we think makes NGRAVE a substantial project:

Despite the growing market, there are a couple of factors where we see potential room for growth for NGRAVE. 

As security, ownership, and convenience become ever so important in the web3 space, NGRAVE is set for a market ready to be educated on more topics around cybersecurity and digital asset management. Whether or not more people head for hardware wallet adoption is yet to be defined; nevertheless, the team has exciting initiatives ahead. Starting with the announcement from Binance on leading NGRAVE’s Series A round to their currently in-progress MetaMask integration. 

Learn more about NGRAVEs upcoming roadmap ➡️ 

Deep dive into NGRAVE's hardware wallet, the founding team, and recent investments for this month's project review. 

Ngrave - Project Review 

Hardware Wallet To Safely Manage Your Crypto

Project Review: Ngrave

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