
As part of our Methodology, we ask:
A custodial service is a service where the funds are held by a third party like the provider. The custodial service can at any point steal all the funds of all the users at their discretion. Our investigations stop there.
Some services might claim their setup is super secure, that they don’t actually have access to the funds, or that the access is shared between multiple parties. For our evaluation of it being a wallet, these details are irrelevant. They might be a trustworthy Bitcoin bank and they might be a better fit for certain users than being your own bank but our investigation still stops there as we are only interested in wallets.
Products that claim to be non-custodial but feature custodial accounts without very clearly marking those as custodial are also considered “custodial” as a whole to avoid misguiding users that follow our assessment.
This verdict means that the provider might or might not publish source code and maybe it is even possible to reproduce the build from the source code but as it is custodial, the provider already has control over the funds, so it is not a wallet where you would be in exclusive control of your funds.
We have to acknowledge that a huge majority of Bitcoiners are currently using custodial Bitcoin banks. If you do, please:
- Do your own research if the provider is trust-worthy!
- Check if you know at least enough about them so you can sue them when you have to!
- Check if the provider is under a jurisdiction that will allow them to release your funds when you need them?
- Check if the provider is taking security measures proportional to the amount of funds secured? If they have a million users and don’t use cold storage, that hot wallet is a million times more valuable for hackers to attack. A million times more effort will be taken by hackers to infiltrate their security systems.
The Analysis ¶
This does not represent a full code review.
The app webpage lists its address as Maragheh City, East Azerbaijan, Iran. Iran is currently under economic sanctions from a lot of Western allied nations. It is best to proceed with caution when using this app.
We downloaded the app, but had difficulty registering because the interface is in Persian.
There is no iOS app link and registration could only be done on the website. However, once we clicked on Register, the page returned a 404 error.
We strongly advise caution when clicking the succeeding links from Telegram.
We were able to gather information from their Telegram Support
When we asked about the 404 web access, support told us to download the Android app instead:
از اپلیکیشن استفاده کنید
Google translate:
Use the application
We then asked whether the app provides the private key:
آیا این کیف پول بیت کوین “کلید خصوصی” را ارائه می دهد؟
The answer was “No.”
خیر
Finally, we asked if it was possible to withdraw or deposit from the app:
اما آیا می توان رمزنگاری رمزنگاری شده را با کیف پول داخلی در برنامه واریز / برداشت کرد؟
The answer was a link to telegram conversations which contained video tutorials that do not seem to be available on other video platforms:
فیلم آموزش نحوه ثبت نام و احراز هویت و ارتقا سطح
https://t.me/arz8x_info/17
فیلم آموزش نحوه خرید رمز ارز و نگه داری در کیف پول داخلی برنامه و فروش
https://t.me/arz8x_info/18
آموزش انتقال ارز از کیف پول Arz8x به کیف پول خارجی (تراست ولت و …)
https://t.me/arz8x_info/19
آموزش انتقال از کیف پول خارجی (تراست ولت و …) به کیف پول داخلی Arz8x
https://t.me/arz8x_info/20
The last video showed the interface of the app with different cryptocurrency logos including Bitcoin and what appeared to be capabilities in sending and receiving.
Since not much other information is readily available and translateable from the site, we are inclined to mark this app as custodial and therefore, not verifiable.
(dg)
Do your own research!
Try out searching for "lost bitcoins", "stole my money" or "scammers" together with the wallet's name, even if you think the wallet is generally trustworthy. For all the bigger wallets you will find accusations. Make sure you understand why they were made and if you are comfortable with the provider's reaction.
If you find something we should include, you can create an issue or edit this analysis yourself and create a merge request for your changes.