Wallet Logo

Arzif

Latest release: 1.0.7 ( 29th April 2022 ) 🔍 Last analysed 30th September 2021 . Custodial: The provider holds the keys
3.9 ★★★★★
687 ratings
50 thousand
9th October 2020

Jump to verdict 

Help spread awareness for build reproducibility

Please help us spread the word discussing the risks of centralized custodians with Arzif  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 

Google Play

The description says the app can send and receive cryptocurrencies from the Arzif wallet. Supported currencies are BTC, ETH, XRP, TRX, ADA, DASH, BNB, Doge, DigiByte, Polkadot, etc.

The app is Iranian in origin and despite being able to download it, it says:

Arzif app is available to Persian users.

The App

We downloaded the app and it is in Persian. We were not able to register because it needed an Iranian phone number.

The Site

Most Iranian bitcoin sites have buy, send, and receive functions. These are often centralized, regulated as indicated by their terms and conditions and complies with the civil code of Iran regarding contractual agreements between service providers and users.

This contract is based on Article 10 of the Civil Code of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and in compliance with all laws and regulations of the Islamic Republic of Iran in general and the Electronic Commerce Law approved in 2003 and the relevant regulations and the Computer Crimes Law in particular,

Part of its terms about breach and account suspension reads:

If the account is suspended, the initial investigation of the account will be completed and you will be required to cooperate fully with Arzif.

If the account is suspended, you can not deposit Rials or request a deposit and you can not use your wallet.

Can it send or receive bitcoins?

Yes.

How do I withdraw my coins from Arzif?
All you have to do is press the harvest key in front of each coin. Here you must enter the destination account number and, of course, the code that was sent to your mobile phone or email to confirm your request, in the relevant box. Our partners will send the coins to the new account as soon as possible and after your request is approved.

Verdict

Our verdict is custodial and not verifiable

(dg)

Verdict Explained

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.