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바나나톡2.0 – 블록체인 SNS 메신저 v 4.4.0

 

As the provider of this product holds the keys, verifiability of the product is not relevant to the security of the funds!

4 ★★★★★
100 thousand
11th August 2019
v 4.4.0
30th August 2022
27th June 2022
30th August 2022

As part of our Methodology, we ask:

Is the product self-custodial?

 
If the answer is "no", we mark it as "Custodial: The provider holds the keys".

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 product cannot be independently verified. If the provider puts your funds at risk on purpose or by accident, you will probably not know about the issue before people start losing money. If the provider is more criminally inclined he might have collected all the backups of all the wallets, ready to be emptied at the press of a button. The product might have a formidable track record but out of distress or change in management turns out to be evil from some point on, with nobody outside ever knowing before it is too late.

The Analysis 

 This does not represent a full code review.

This app (referred to as bananatok in English) is a social network service which also allows users to transfer bitcoin.

We put the app description through Google Translate:

BananaTalk is a blockchain-based social network service (SNS) that enables Bitcoin remittance, created jointly by China’s Biyong, a blockchain specialist, and Hong Kong’s Zoo Holdings Group, famous for Zoocoffee.

  • Simple remittance without wallet address: BananaTalk users can easily transfer money without address and fees in the chat window.
  • Group chat room simple airdrop: 200 kinds of digital assets other than Bitcoin registered in BananaTalk wallet are poured into airdrop events every day.
  • Bitcoin price inquiry, information sharing, and participation in block chain projects are possible on Banana Talk media page.
  • Banana Talk wallet registration Anyone can easily airdrop any cryptocurrency. Affiliate inquiry email: bananatokbna@gmail.com

One of the company’s Medium articles state that the app offers “useful functions. Users can distribute and trade cryptocurrencies on chatting room, meaning that they don’t need to visit Exchange to trade digital assets. And Bananatok offers wallet that supports both fiat and digital currencies.”

There’s no information on private keys or custody.

In Chapter 4 of the Terms of Use article, it states that Bananatok can restrict a user’s access to the services:

If the use and conduct of this site falls under each of the following clauses, the company may restrict the use of the user.

  1. In case of harming public order, public morals, or other social order
  2. In case that it is objectively recognized that it is for the purpose of a criminal act or is related to other criminal activity
  3. In case of damaging the reputation of others or significantly impairing the use of services by others
  4. Others In case of continuously transmitting contents or advertising information against the intention of
  5. In case of stealing another person’s ID and password
  6. In case of violating other related laws or in case the company determines that it is inappropriate as a user

Verdict

Due to a lack of information or tutorials demonstrating this product, it is difficult to give this app a conclusive verdict.

Bananatok also advertises features similar to a crypto trading app, a large number of which are custodial.

A good indicator for this service’s custodial nature can be found in this paragraph located in Bananatok’s Medium post:

Getting started is so simple that it may seem vulnerable in terms of security, but Banana Wallet protects users’ assets with HOT WALLET and COLD WALLET’s dual wallet system and multi-signature transfer system making it impossible to break.

We classify this wallet as custodial.

(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.