Phantom Acquires Blowfish to Enhance Security for Solana Users
The non-custodial crypto wallet Phantom, known for its support of decentralized finance and non-fungible tokens on the Solana blockchain, has made a significant move to bolster security for its users. The acquisition of web3 security platform Blowfish was announced on Nov. 19, with the intention of leveraging Blowfish’s expertise in protecting users and assets against scams and fraud.
As Phantom has recently experienced downtime and issues with a buggy update, the addition of Blowfish’s team is seen as crucial in addressing harmful decentralized applications and bugs. This acquisition comes as part of Phantom’s commitment to providing a secure and user-friendly platform for accessing and interacting with various apps, tokens, and collectibles.
Enhancing User Security
Brandon Millman, CEO of Phantom, expressed the importance of Blowfish’s role in enhancing user security within the platform. He stated, “With their help, we’re going to offer the most secure and user-friendly platform to access, and interact with, apps, tokens, and collectibles across all devices.”
Blowfish has a strong track record of preventing scams and securing assets, having protected over $18 billion worth of assets through scanning more than 1.3 billion transactions and stopping over 2.8 million scams. These capabilities will now be integrated into Phantom, with Blowfish’s current service being phased out.
Recent Challenges and Solutions
Phantom’s acquisition of Blowfish comes in the wake of recent challenges faced by the wallet, including a fake Phantom wallet on the Apple App Store that led to asset losses for unsuspecting users. Additionally, a buggy update in November caused some iOS users to be locked out of their accounts, resulting in reported fund losses, including a significant $600,000 loss.
It is important to note that Phantom operates as a non-custodial wallet, meaning it does not have access to user funds or store recovery phrases. This places the responsibility of fund security squarely on the users themselves.
As the importance of security in the crypto space continues to grow, other industry players like Fireblocks have also introduced non-custodial wallet solutions aimed at advancing security for user assets. These developments signal a broader trend towards enhancing security measures within the cryptocurrency ecosystem.