Congratulations on making it this far. This is the tenth article in a series about KIRA Improvement Proposals (KIPs) 71-87. The first four sets covered staking incentives, network governance, staking economics, and INTERX. This is the first article of the fifth set, focusing on KIRA’s essential infrastructure.

Despite significant innovations in the blockchain space, user experience has often been a lower priority. As KIRA approaches mainnet, it’s clear that improving user experience is crucial for blockchain products and businesses to reach a wider audience. This article highlights the enhancements we’ve made to self-custodial UX within KIRA, aiming to offer an easier and safer blockchain experience without compromising core values.

Self-custody of funds can be daunting, like accidentally sending funds to the wrong address. Yet, protective measures must not compromise user sovereignty. Remember the mantra: not your keys, not your coins. With this in mind, we designed collaborative custody, an opt-in mode that adds safeguards to user-initiated transactions.

To enable custody mode, an account holder first specifies a list of trusted custodians—accounts whose approval will be needed for the network to accept transactions signed by the account holder. Once custody mode is on, third parties cannot move an account’s assets without the original owner initiating the transaction and one or more specified custodians approving it. To change the custodian list or disable custody mode, the account owner must provide a secret hash, equivalent to a password or private key.

The second layer of protection is password-protected token transfers. These require the recipient to provide a secret hash (separate from the custody mode secret) to receive the tokens. Unclaimed transfers remain valid until they expire, as set by the sender. The sender can also reverse the transaction before it’s claimed if the relevant setting is activated.

These mechanisms ensure both the sender and recipient are verified in more than one way, reducing the risk of unintended transactions.

We’ve also implemented a third layer of account protection: withdraw whitelists and transfer limits. With this setting active, tokens can only be transferred to addresses on the account’s whitelist, and only for amounts up to a customizable maximum limit within a specified time. These settings, protected by secrets, help prevent transfers to malicious accounts if the private key is compromised, and limit the amount stolen even if both the private key and secrets are compromised.

KIRA is committed to providing a safe, intuitive, and accessible user experience. KIP 76 proposes safeguards for fund custody within KIRA, offering users tools to protect against loss from attacks or human error.

Stay tuned for the next article, which will discuss RollApps—KIRA’s execution layer.

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