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Chainge Finance

Latest release: 0.5.3 ( 26th July 2022 ) šŸ” Last analysed 21st October 2021 . No source for current release found
4.6 ā˜…ā˜…ā˜…ā˜…ā˜…
8141 ratings
100 thousand
17th May 2021

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Please help us spread the word discussing transparency with Chainge Finance  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

Chainge is a Defi app that aims to empower people from all corners of the world to become their own digital bank. With Chaingeā€™s automated financial services, users will have complete control over their wealth while enjoying 100% freedom & security.

Google Play Critical Reviews

Mykha Estillore
ā˜…ā˜†ā˜†ā˜†ā˜† September 28, 2021
Iā€™ve logged in on my app account using Qr code since my old phone number is gone for good. However, after the day Iā€™ve logged in, my account isnā€™t signed in anymore. Apparently, the Qr code isnā€™t working, so now I canā€™t sign in on my account in the app. I suggest, you guys should add the OTP email. I will change my rating and review if this problem will be solved. Thanks

Sumit Ahluwalia
ā˜…ā˜†ā˜†ā˜†ā˜† September 26, 2021
Pathetic, 1. App ask for 6 digit code to verify through a text message. The text message gives you 4 digit code. 2. Option to call and get a password is also not working. How the hell should I log in.

The Site

Registration is also possible via their website. However, we keep getting a ā€œRegistrations Suspendedā€ Error

Terms and Conditions

D. When do we close your account The safety of your account is important to us. We might prevent you from accessing your account if weā€™re reasonably concerned about its security or that it might be used fraudulently or without your permission.

We might also have to block your account to meet our legal or contractual obligations.

The App

We downloaded the app and it has 2 modes: Beginner and Expert. Beginner mode means that the service keeps the private keys on their end. Switching to expert mode means the user is in charge of the seed phrase for the multi-currency wallet. This seed is not for the Bitcoin wallet.

The seed phrase is for a multi-currency account. The default currency is their own CHNG token. A BTC wallet is also available.

Expert Mode

  • Switching to Expert Account Mode means you will be responsible with managing, securing and backing up your seed phrase.
  • If you want to switch the account mode, you will have to go back and manually transfer all of your existing Chainge wallet balances to other addresses you own.
  • Proceeding without transferring the balances will result in their permanent loss
  • Chainge does not take any responsibility regarding potential asset loss as a result of incorrect or incomplete asset transfers.

Verdict

We contacted them via twitter to verify. This app is a mix of custodial and self-custodial access. The beginner mode is custodial and switching to expert mode then makes it self-custodial. We were not able to locate the source code for the app.

(dg)

Verdict Explained

Without public source of the reviewed release available, this product cannot be verified!

As part of our Methodology, we ask:

No Source!

Is the source code publicly available?

If the answer is "no", we mark it as "No source for current release found".

A wallet that claims to not give the provider the means to steal the usersā€™ funds might actually be lying. In the spirit of ā€œDonā€™t trust - verify!ā€ you donā€™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 doesnā€™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 doesnā€™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 providerā€™s word.

ā€œUp to dateā€ 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 productā€™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 wonā€™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.