Grappling with one of the biggest challenges in the industry – enabling real-world commerce for assets and value that exist entirely in digital formats, Ilmatic announced on Wednesday the first sneak peek at its secure, wearable, hardware hot wallet, designed to put crypto on your wrist. Where other organizations have sought to address this issue through the use of mobile apps or by issuing credit cards, ilmatic employs a hardware wallet, similar to the popular Ledger product that sold over 1 million units in 2017. The ilmatic wallet uses an NFC chip for making fast and easy payments and a microcontroller to protect users private keys, with planned support for cryptocurrencies boasting fast transaction times and low user fees, like Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, Ripple, and Bitcoin using the Lightning Network.
“Ilmatic wallet’s hardware is the secret sauce to unlocking true cryptocurrency payments in physical spaces,” said Ilmetic Founder and CEO Danny Tamez, in a statement. “Secure hardware is the key to putting cryptocurrencies into the hands of everyday people. Software alone is just not secure enough. We are making cryptocurrency tangible. If people can hold an object that represents their money, then they are more likely to understand and trust it. We want to change the way that people experience money.”
Members of the ilmatic design team bring experience from Silicon Valley, the US Department of Defense, the EURECAT technology research center, and the LoRaWAN project for long range, low power and bandwidth IoT devices, according to the company’s statement. Ilmatic has begun taking reservations for ‘Founding Memberships’ at a cost of USD 20 each, which it states guarantee priority purchase of a USD 275 USD First Edition ilmatic wallet and a vote for which currencies it should support.
Ilmatic also states that it is planning a future initial coin offering (ICO) intended to adhere to US SEC regulations.
