HASHWallet project update: new product features, and yes, new timing
Dear supporter,
It’s been a while since our latest project update. In eSignus, we are very grateful for all the support received from our community; your help is moving the HASHWallet project forward and will make it happen very soon. Your support is especially meaningful to us in these challenging times that all of us had to face.
What are we dealing with
2020 is turning out to be a strange year, to say the least. The pandemic has affected us all globally and has triggered a ripple effect on our supply chain. Although we have tried to keep the momentum going from the beginning, the coronavirus has hit hard, especially in Europe, where the eSignus team and its main partners operate. Luckily, our team has not been personally affected by the virus, but inevitably so had the development timeframe.
We sincerely apologise on behalf of everyone at eSignus for announcing a change in the HASHWallet roadmap due to an operational delay in our development chain. As transparency is a pillar of our business culture, we have to inform our supporters about the events that have caused this change.
- On March 15, Spain and other European countries declared an absolute lockdown that lasted 99 days, setting further restrictions that still affect us at this time.
- Major component suppliers all over the world are experiencing significant problems in their operations and are unable to deliver critical components on scheduled dates.
- Several legal and administrative procedures suffered continuous delays, also affected by the obstacles that the COVID-19 is causing.
In short, we are fighting against the same obstacles that everyone have experienced since the beginning of this year. But our mission is to face them all and respond efficiently. We are resilient and have taken actions to overcome these problems in the best possible way and continue to move forward with determination.
How do we counter these challenges?
As Roy T. Bennett recently wrote:
Turn obstacles into opportunities and problems into possibilities.
That’s right. The best way to fight a problem is to face it and turn it upside down. And that’s what we are doing in eSignus.
- We’ve closed a financing round of 500k to strengthen our financial capabilities.
- The team has grown to mitigate as much as we can the delays from the hardware side.
- We took these delays to improve the product and implement some of your valuable design feedback we have been receiving throughout the process.
- We have worked with new alliances and partnerships that will continually increase supported tokens.
However, all the efforts of eSignus and our partners could not avoid a change in the roadmap as initially planned. We have analysed every variable and scenario to set a new, realistic, and precise schedule in these uncertain times.
HASHWALLET UPDATED TIMELINE
And now, the good news
We know that we are in debt to our founders and the entire HASHWallet community. Although the pandemic paralysed much of the world, we have doubled both human and financial efforts to improve the product in many ways and maintain confidence:
- HASHWallet will have a 3.1″ display. A wider display is more convenient when reading the transactions and offers a better overall user experience.
- We have changed the display component supplier to Plastic Logic. With this partnership, we will be able to deliver a bigger screen, better refresh rate, quality, and reliability.
- The recovery system will be compatible with the BIP39 standard. Words, Recovery Cards, eSignus Vault? You will have more options to configure the recovery system to your own needs.
- More security in the Recovery Cards. We have redesigned the recovery card to include a secure element, the SLE78 from Infineon with an EAL6+ certification, to enhance the security of the recovery elements stored.
- The smartcard will also include the SLE78 and the ST25 transceiver, to improve the security in NFC communications, and provide new capabilities to the HASHWallet for future payment use cases.
- HASHWallet will use new macros to generate the instructions full-stack, so a new coin only needs a macro definition to be used. This upgrade is a straightforward way to support new currencies with very little memory so that you can use an unlimited amount of coins with your new HASHWallet.
Most of these improvements are a direct response to the feedback and suggestions received from our continuous connection with our community. We want to strongly emphasise that these enhancements have no additional cost to our HASHWallet founders.
Besides, we would like to thank our founders for their patience with a unique compensation. Those users who have acquired their HASHWallet during the crowdfunding campaign will receive a complementary recovery card at no extra charge.
And that’s not all. In the coming weeks, we will announce the launch of a new service that will enhance and expand the HASHWallet ecosystem for its users. Also, we will reveal soon the improvements and redesign of this new version of the smartcard. Stay tuned for upcoming news!
The world has considerably changed since we first scheduled our roadmap. The whole eSignus team and every hardware production partner visualised these goal achievements as expected. Sadly, none of us could imagine the scale of this adversity. It is still hard to believe how COVID has affected so many mechanisms in our daily lives. But one thing is for sure: we believe that the pandemic has joined us together, making us stronger by taking care of each of us as members of this ever-evolving society. We feel truly privileged to rely on so many encouraging, understanding and loyal supporters. We wish nothing more than your safety and to distribute a product that makes us feel proud of what we are all achieving together.
Sincerely,
Daniel Hernández Rodríguez
CEO
