Bionym Tech Unlocks Bitcoin Wallet in a Heartbeat

Bionym, an identity technology startup and one of BTN's top ten fintech companies to watch, will launch its wearable device with a Bitcoin wallet app.

The company's Nymi wristband verifies people are who they say they are by taking an electrocardiogram (ECG), which is a recording and interpretation of the bioelectricity of the heart. The device comes with an embedded ECG sensor, motion sensor and Bluetooth low-energy radio.

With the new app, Bionym said it can generate outgoing Bitcoin transactions without exposing the private key to the outside world. The private key is what lets account owners send funds to different accounts.

"People don't know where their Bitcoin funds are stored, and who can access them," said Yevgeniy Vahlis, Bionym's chief cryptographer, in a media release. "The Nymi wallet application makes the answer clear: the wallet is physically stored on the Nymi."

The Bitcoin wallet app is just the beginning of the young company's grand ambition to solve the pain point of user names and passwords for many diverse scenarios, including access to mobile banking apps and even cars.

Separately, Mint announced late January that it will let users view digital Bitcoin transactions processed by Coinbase.

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