Our wallet review process
We examine wallets starting at the code level and continue all the way up to the finished app that lives on your device. Provided below is an outline of each of these steps along with security tips for you and general test results.
Custody
Custodial!
But This product was removed from the platform.
As part of our Methodology, we ask: Is the product self-custodial?
The answer is "no". Therefore we marked it as "Custodial: The provider holds the keys".
Read more
Source code
Released
15th May 2018
Application build
As the provider of this product holds the keys, verifiability of the product is not relevant to the security of the funds!
See test resultPassed 5 of 10 tests
We answered the following questions in this order:
We stopped asking questions after we encountered a failed answer.
The answer is "yes".
If the answer was "no", we would mark it as "Few users" and the following would apply:
The answer is "no". We marked it as "Few users".
We did not ask this question because we failed at a previous question.
If the answer was "no", we would mark it as "Few users" and the following would apply:
We focus on products that have the biggest impact if things go wrong and this one probably doesn’t have many users according to data publicly available.
The answer is "yes".
If the answer was "no", we would mark it as "Fake" and the following would apply:
The answer is "no". We marked it as "Fake".
We did not ask this question because we failed at a previous question.
If the answer was "no", we would mark it as "Fake" and the following would apply:
The bigger wallets often get imitated by scammers that abuse the reputation of the product by imitating its name, logo or both.
Imitating a competitor is a huge red flag and we urge you to not put any money into this product!
The answer is "yes".
If the answer was "no", we would mark it as "Not a wallet" and the following would apply:
The answer is "no". We marked it as "Not a wallet".
We did not ask this question because we failed at a previous question.
If the answer was "no", we would mark it as "Not a wallet" and the following would apply:
If it’s called “wallet” but is actually only a portfolio tracker, we don’t look any deeper, assuming it is not meant to control funds. What has no funds, can’t lose your coins. It might still leak your financial history!
If you can buy Bitcoins with this app but only into another wallet, it’s not a wallet itself.
The answer is "yes".
If the answer was "no", we would mark it as "A wallet but not for Bitcoin" and the following would apply:
The answer is "no". We marked it as "A wallet but not for Bitcoin".
We did not ask this question because we failed at a previous question.
If the answer was "no", we would mark it as "A wallet but not for Bitcoin" and the following would apply:
At this point we only look into wallets that at least also support BTC.
The answer is "yes".
If the answer was "no", we would mark it as "Can't send or receive bitcoins" and the following would apply:
The answer is "no". We marked it as "Can't send or receive bitcoins".
We did not ask this question because we failed at a previous question.
If the answer was "no", we would mark it as "Can't send or receive bitcoins" and the following would apply:
If it is for holding BTC but you can’t actually send or receive them with this product then it doesn’t function like a wallet for BTC but you might still be using it to hold your bitcoins with the intention to convert back to fiat when you “cash out”.
All products in this category are custodial and thus funds are at the mercy of the provider.
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 answer is "yes".
If the answer was "no", we would mark it as "Custodial: The provider holds the keys" and the following would apply:
The answer is "no". We marked it as "Custodial: The provider holds the keys".
We did not ask this question because we failed at a previous question.
If the answer was "no", we would mark it as "Custodial: The provider holds the keys" and the following would apply:
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 answer is "yes".
If the answer was "no", we would mark it as "No source for current release found" and the following would apply:
The answer is "no". We marked it as "No source for current release found".
We did not ask this question because we failed at a previous question.
If the answer was "no", we would mark it as "No source for current release found" and the following would apply:
A wallet that claims to not give the provider the means to steal the users’ funds might actually be lying. In the spirit of “Don’t trust - verify!” you don’t want to take the provider at his word, but trust that people hunting for fame and bug bounties could actually find flaws and back-doors in the wallet so the provider doesn’t dare to put these in.
Back-doors and flaws are frequently found in closed source products but some remain hidden for years. And even in open source security software there might be catastrophic flaws undiscovered for years.
An evil wallet provider would certainly prefer not to publish the code, as hiding it makes audits orders of magnitude harder.
For your security, you thus want the code to be available for review.
If the wallet provider doesn’t share up to date code, our analysis stops there as the wallet could steal your funds at any time, and there is no protection except the provider’s word.
“Up to date” strictly means that any instance of the product being updated without the source code being updated counts as closed source. This puts the burden on the provider to always first release the source code before releasing the product’s update. This paragraph is a clarification to our rules following a little poll.
We are not concerned about the license as long as it allows us to perform our analysis. For a security audit, it is not necessary that the provider allows others to use their code for a competing wallet. You should still prefer actual open source licenses as a competing wallet won’t use the code without giving it careful scrutiny.
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 answer is "yes".
If the answer was "no", we would mark it as "Failed to build from source provided!" and the following would apply:
The answer is "no". We marked it as "Failed to build from source provided!".
We did not ask this question because we failed at a previous question.
If the answer was "no", we would mark it as "Failed to build from source provided!" and the following would apply:
Published code doesn’t help much if the app fails to compile.
We try to compile the published source code using the published build instructions into a binary. If that fails, we might try to work around issues but if we consistently fail to build the app, we give it this verdict and open an issue in the issue tracker of the provider to hopefully verify their app later.
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 answer is "yes".
If the answer was "no", we would mark it as "Not reproducible from source provided" and the following would apply:
The answer is "no". We marked it as "Not reproducible from source provided".
We did not ask this question because we failed at a previous question.
If the answer was "no", we would mark it as "Not reproducible from source provided" and the following would apply:
Published code doesn’t help much if it is not what the published binary was built from. That is why we try to reproduce the binary. We
- obtain the binary from the provider
- compile the published source code using the published build instructions into a binary
- compare the two binaries
- we might spend some time working around issues that are easy to work around
If this fails, we might search if other revisions match or if we can deduct the source of the mismatch but generally consider it on the provider to provide the correct source code and build instructions to reproduce the build, so we usually open a ticket in their code repository.
In any case, the result is a discrepancy between the binary we can create and the binary we can find for download and any discrepancy might leak your backup to the server on purpose or by accident.
As we cannot verify that the source provided is the source the binary was compiled from, this category is only slightly better than closed source but for now we have hope projects come around and fix verifiability issues.
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.
Application build test result
Caution
We strongly advise users to exercise caution when using this app. See below.
It is apparent that English is not the primary language of the writer of their Google Play description, so we will try our best to paraphrase it.
Kelta claims to be a wallet that supports multiple cryptocurrencies including BTC, ETH, DOGE, BCH, LTC and others. It also claims to allow users:
create your new source of long-term passive income thanks to blockchain technology
It has an ERC20 standard utility token called KELTA(KLT). Each of which it claims to:
represent access to 1 watt of the data center’s capacity. Ownership of one token gives you unlimited access to one watt of the computing power your use for cryptographic operation.
It also claims to give payouts every Monday
PAYOUT EVERY MONDAY
Payout is a revenue from the use of computing power and represents your passive income. Its amount depends on the number of KLT tokens you own and use, your activity, the use of cost reduction tools or the use of Blueprint service, which enables you to copy signals of successful users and increase your income.
The Kelta whitepaper indicates that it held an ICO in 2018:
KLT tokens will be available for purchase for a limited time by means of an initial coin offering (ICO). Tokens will be available for sale for 70 days, starting January 15, 2018 and ending March 25, 2018. During the pre-sale, tokens will be available for as low as $ 4.00 each, while a minimum purchase amount of 10,000 tokens will be enforced. During the token sale no minimum purchase is to be enforced, but the price of tokens will increase exponentially week by week.
Its Terms and Conditions does raise a few questions about this specific phrase in Section IV - Deposits, Withdrawals and Transactions:
- All transactions, deposits and withdrawals related to KELTA ́s services are carried out primary in the USDT currency, unless KELTA determines otherwise.
- It is also possible to make deposits in the Ethereum and Bitcoin currency. In this case, it is necessary for the User to convert these cryptocurrencies into USDT via the KELTA App. Transactions of purchase and sale of KLT tokens can be realized only in relation to USDT.
Furthermore,
Deposit and withdrawal transfers can be made only by using a Digital wallet of the User or via a Cryptocurrency ATM.
As strange as all of these may seem, we were able to access the service via the web app, register and create a bitcoin wallet. Once the BTC wallet has been generated, we were able to generate a QR code for deposits. Withdrawal is also possible from the interface, but we did not test it with real funds.
Google Play Reviews
Ronricas Stevenson
★☆☆☆☆ August 2, 2021
I have an issue with this application. Now I am a crypto investor that once used this platform to make a passive income. Now that I no longer desire to use the platform. Any and all of my crypto earnings that was acquired while. Using the platform I am being hindered from WITHDRAWING what is rightfully mine. And I have sent numerous emailsfor the last 9 months without any responses. So I strongly advise anyone interested in using the KELTA PLATFORM NOT TO USE IT THIS IS A COMPANY THAT SCAMS.
Matthew Spiteri
★☆☆☆☆ April 2, 2021
Unfortunately I had an account for quite a long time. Everytime I try to log in now it says incorrect password even though I just reset my password. Tried contacting support a million times on different emails for months and no reply…this is really unfair as there are funds there and is rather unfair.
Kelta is a complex service that warrants caution on the part of people who want to put funds in their platform. Even though there appears to be a mechanism to receive, store and send bitcoin on the site, we have qualms about its general nature, specifically the terms and conditions and the whitepaper itself. But with the facts that we’ve gathered, we can only label this as custodial and not verifiable.
Tests performed by Daniel Andrei R. Garcia
Do your own research
In addition to reading our analysis, it is important to do your own checks. Before transferring any bitcoin to your wallet, look up reviews for the wallet you want to use. They should be easy to find. If they aren't, that itself is a reason to be extra careful.
<img src="https://walletscrutiny.com/images/social/android/com.kelta.app.png">
