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GOPAX (Crypto exchange)

Latest release: 1.6.20.82ab ( 28th October 2022 ) 🔍 Last analysed 1st October 2021 . Custodial: The provider holds the keys
4.8 ★★★★★
1387 ratings
100 thousand
5th November 2018

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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

Among the features noted on its Google Play is this:

  • We employ real-time monitoring and inspection protocols to protect your assets.
  • All devices connected to the Internet are inherently vulnerable. Thus, GOPAX stores the majority of the cryptocurrency deposits in an offline wallet for safe protection against various online attacks. The access to this wallet is compartmentalized and encrypted through our multi-layered security system, where only a select few personnel may gain access.

The Site

Is not easily accessible as they have restricted access to certain countries. Like most Korean domains that has something to do with cryptocurrency exchanges, the initial loading screen is a splash with the text (translated):

Gopax is implementing the following withdrawal policy as part of measures to protect users from such telecommunication financial fraud (voice phishing) and similar crimes.

In some cases, it may take up to 48 hours to review all withdrawal requests from customers from the application time until the withdrawal is completed.

During the withdrawal monitoring process, in the event of a reasonable suspicion of being involved in a voice phishing scam or similar crime, Gopax may withhold the withdrawal for up to 30 days.

The App and Verdict

Given that there are enough indications to show that this is a highly regulated, centralized cryptocurrency exchange, we did not download the app anymore.

On a further note, Cointelegraph reported on September 17, 2021 that GoPax may be facing potential closure due to regulatory concerns.

Verdict is custodial and thus, 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.