Wallet Logo

Swap Tobe - Crypto Exchange

Latest release: 5.6 ( 24th October 2022 ) 🔍 Last analysed 29th June 2022 . Custodial: The provider holds the keys
4.3 ★★★★★
100 thousand
14th October 2021

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

As part of our Methodology, we ask:

Custodial!

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.

Help spread awareness for build reproducibility

Please help us spread the word discussing the risks of centralized custodians with Swap Tobe - Crypto Exchange  via their Twitter!

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.

The Analysis 

App Description

Swap Tobe is a part of TOBECHAIN ​​ecosystem from EG TECH GROUP LLC. Swap Tobe is a flexible cryptocurrency trading system that aids in development and application of cryptocurrency for individuals, digital transformation entrepreneurs and operate as a Compass - a transparent guide for the Crypto trading market and an alternative to traditional exchanges in developing and applying cryptocurrency.

Swap Tobe supports a variety of tokens including BTC.

Swap Tobe is a smart coin wallet as well as a cryptocurrency exchange. Support a variety of transaction types, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Altcoins, while also supporting a variety of tokens across different platforms, including Ethereum (ERC20), TRON (TRC20), and the Binance Smart Chain (BSC, BEP20).

Swap Tobe App is an application to exchange transactions between the online environment and the real-world environment, where users can execute orders: withdraw - deposit - trade - invest - mortgage, and other forms of cryptocurrency trading.

The Site

The Trading Policy states that the company is capable of suspending user accounts or freezing their remaining balances:

  1. In SwapToBe, we highly evaluate integrity, fairness, and respect. Any shreds of evidence of scams, spamming, inappropriate language use or blunder exploitation will result in a permanent account suspension and freeze your total amount of remaining balances if no explicit reason is given. You are required to ultimately settle old transactions before you can use the service again. Please consider your language when communicating with other members or the SwapToBe support team.

Here is Swaptobe’s tutorial on how to send and receive BTC.

Verdict

There is no indication that the user can backup or restore any wallets used on this app. As the providers are in control of the private keys, Swap Tobe is custodial.

(dg)