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Blackсatсard: my prepaid card

Latest release: 1.2.28 ( 17th May 2022 ) 🔍 Last analysed 3rd September 2021 . Custodial: The provider holds the keys
4.2 ★★★★★
67 ratings
7th March 2019

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)

Update 2021-10-28

It is unclear whether users may manage digital assets in this app. We couldn’t find a link to their twitter account.

Contact

We contacted them via email.

Hi!

My name is Daniel and I am a researcher for a Bitcoin related website called walletscrutiny.com.

Black Cat Card is one of the apps we’re reviewing. However I could not install it from where I am.

From the screenshots and third-party information, I understand that it’s possible to send, receive and store bitcoins using the app - is this accurate?

I haven’t been able to find any tutorials or official documentation about this.

You can find our initial assessment over at https://walletscrutiny.com/android/com.papaya.blackcatcard/

Would appreciate the information, thank you!

Verdict

Although DigiNord is an external service, it is integrated in the app, meaning BlackCatCard can hold your bitcoin.

Our verdict for this app is custodial.

Old Review 2021-09-03

Blackcatcard is a mobile application that offers an instantly ready European Mastercard thoroughly designed for online and offline purchases and accepted worldwide.

Sounds like it’s meant to be a payment app, although it also supports crypto. It also mentions offering a European Mastercard.

The integrated hot wallet, provided by our partner, allows you to store, receive and send a variety of cryptocurrencies directly in the app.

That means it’s possible to send and receive BTC. “Provided by their partner” implies that this utilizes external wallets.

How to prove my identity? As a financial institution, we must follow the “Know Your Customer” procedures. Therefore, during registration in mobile application, you scan an identity document (passport), as well as make a “selfie”.

Identity verification is also in use here.

BlackCatCard was rather vague about the crypto wallet provided, although there was this article online.

In addition to traditional fiat currency services, Blackcatcard also offers cryptocurrency services. This service is provided by our partner DigiNord OÜ and is integrated with Blackcatcard.

And on Diginord OU’s site:

In collaboration with BlackCatCard

We assume that DigiNord provides the cryptocurrency services and BlackCatCard integrates it into their app. Therefore this app is not a wallet.

(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.