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Bekonta

Latest release: 1.0.0 ( 16th September 2021 ) 🔍 Last analysed 21st October 2022 . Custodial: The provider holds the keys Not updated in a while
1 ★★★★★
1 ratings
15th September 2021

Jump to verdict 

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 

(Analysis from Android review)

App Description

Buy, Sell or store your Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), BUSD, USDT, Binance Coin (BNB) and Tron (TRX)

The app also allows users to buy cryptocurrencies using Naira.

It also allows the transfer of funds between Bekonta user to any Naira bank account.

Google Play Critical Reviews

Here are a few of the most helpful critical reviews.

francis Elechi
★☆☆☆☆ September 23, 2021
Zero Customer service. I actually enjoy the early days of Bekonta. Initially, withdrawal took just minutes to be processed. Yesterday it took them more than 5 hours to process my withdrawal request. Today, it’s almost getting to 6 hours. Imagine that I needed my money urgently for something? It’s time you guys wake up to meet up with the competition out there.

Ojedapo Abideen
★☆☆☆☆ March 1, 2021
Y’all lose your credibility already i think this app is becoming a scam, I traded with you guys yesterday it took you 2hrs+ before you credit me I thought it was due to weekend now I tried it again to clear my curiosity my money is taking 2hrs and still counting Y’all still haven’t released my money despite the numerous messages I sent I’ve got no reply I had enough of Y’all already I ceased trading with Y’all henceforth and those who I introduced the app to ill discourage em to stop usin it

The Site

The Terms and Conditions of the site indicate a termination clause

Suspension, Termination and Cancellation. We may:
(a) refuse to complete, or block, cancel or reverse a transaction you have authorised (even after funds have been debited from your Bekonta Account),
(b) suspend, restrict, or terminate your access to any or all of the Bekonta Services, and/or
(c) deactivate or cancel your Bekonta Account with immediate effect for any reason, including but not limited to where:

The App

There are options for creating addresses for Bitcoin, Ethereum, Tron, Binance, Tether and Binance USD. However, prior to wallet creation, the user is required to provide KYC information.

Verdict

Provisions that explicitly give the platform the right or the power to “suspend, restrict, or terminate your access to any part of the service…” is a good indicator for a custodial service.

This app cannot be verified.

(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.

But we also ask:

Stale!

Was the product updated during the last year?

If the answer is "no", we mark it as "Not updated in a while".

Bitcoin wallets are complex products and Bitcoin is a new, advancing technolgy. Projects that don’t get updated in a year are probably not well maintained.

This verdict may not get applied if the provider is active and expresses good reasons for not updating the product.

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.