Wallet Service Ninki Integrates Bitcoin Payments with Social Networking
| Updatedby Polina Chernykh · 3 min read
Ninki, a Japan-based wallet service, plans to be a social network for bitcoin payments.
Japanese wallet service provider Ninki intends to become a social network for payments, where people create groups like crowdfunding campaigns, charity events, international freelancers and small- to medium-sized businesses.
In an interview to CoinDesk, Benjamin Smith, Ninki’s lead developer, commented that the goal is to streamline bitcoin payments between the groups.
He said: “The idea initially came from seeing how difficult it was for people to exchange and scan QR codes, copy and paste addresses, etc. Even for my tech friends. People get lazy and use the same address all the time.”
Ninki’s contacts list enables users to categorize their contacts on the basis of their transaction needs. The feature makes it different from other bitcoin wallets.
Ninki, which is translated ‘popular’ from Japanese, has undergone extensive testing during the past few months and became available in beta to the public last week.
Opening a new account generates a number of keys and codes. The software includes a 15-word public phrase and a public user name to identify the user within the network and provide its secure validation. The interface is simple and gives all necessary data on balances, contacts, groups and pending payments.
You can search for other users by their avatar and username. To make one-off payment, you can send a standard bitcoin address. In order to build a network, the user has to share its 15-word phrase with another user.
Ninki wallet enables its users to send, receive and pay invoices, which are marked with a date and ID number. Moreover, users may reject invoices and check payments details on the blockchain. A PGP-encrypted messaging feature makes users communications private.
According to Smiths, security is the priority for Ninki given the increased mistrust in the privacy levels of social networks.
Users can set limits on payments per transaction, by day and by number of transactions per day to prevent losses when some error occurs.
In comparison with other social networks, Ninki aims at protecting private data of its users. The developers made it as secure as possible, with hierarchical deterministic (HD) wallets as stated in the Bitcoin Improvement Protocol 32 (BIP32).
Besides, you can create any number of wallets from one ‘master key pair’ (MKP) and use them independently, but retaining control over all of them.
Ninki wallets also include multi-signature technology, which requires two of three possible keys to access the funds. Addresses are not re-used and generated from the master keys for each transaction.
Ninki holds one key, while the other belongs to the user. A third key, also owned by users, is provided to keep it in a safe place or by a third party. If Ninki disappears, the funds may be recovered.
According to Smith, Ninki would also be tested by security experts and hackers. He noted: “Getting cryptography and security right is difficult.”
