Bitwala, a Germany-based cryptocurrency banking service, is now offering to trade Ether (ETH), the cryptocurrency of the Ethereum network.
As a result, residents in 31 European countries (EEA) are eligible to trade ETH against the Euro. Customers can trade Ether directly out of the Bitwala bank account. Trading against the Euro costs 1 percent fee.
When customers set up an Ethereum wallet, a cryptographic key is generated and locked away in a specific smartphone security module (hardware-based key manager). It can only be accessed by the Bitwala mobile app, and only when the phone is unlocked, according to the official press release. Every transaction requires a confirmation from the device’s key and the user via PIN, Face ID or Fingerprint, meaning no one else can access the Ether funds – not even the Bitwala team.
If customers lose their device, and as a result lose access to their Ethereum wallet via the Bitwala app, they still have a way of recovering their Ether: the wallet backup. It is important to point out that only the customer, not Bitwala, knows the details needed for the wallet backup. It is therefore of high importance to store the wallet backup safely and offline on a piece of paper.
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