Clef: Enhancing Security In The Bitcoin World

Proper security online is a hard thing to manage. A complicated password and email verification won’t do much to combat hackers in the current online atmosphere. Human error can catch anyone off guard and completely eliminate all security redundancies that may be in place. Not everyone has the time or patience to become a cryptography expert either, leaving a large gap between the truly secured and unsecured. Thankfully there is a smart approach to solving this problem.

“We’re building something that encapsulates the best practices and does all the work for people so you don’t have to have a PhD in order to protect yourself online.”
— – Clef CEO Brennen Byrne

Byrne was working on user identification at Adobe in 2012 when the LinkedIn hack occurred, which was a bad omen of things to come for security. He recalls, “The LinkedIn breach was definitely the inspiration for me thinking, ‘Oh, wow. This system is really broken.’ So I started looking into it and no one was solving the problem.” The next step was to assemble a team capable of producing the solution.

The result is an app with equal parts usability and security. Upon entering participating websites on a computer, Clef users will find a screen in place of the traditional login window. It features a set of bars moving up and down in the center. The app is then opened on a smartphone featuring a similar set of bars moving about. When the camera of the smartphone is pointed at the website the bars synchronize, exchanging a public RSA key. That key then checks itself against a private key that never leaves the phone; this verifies the user identity. The private key is secured using either a pin number or Apple fingerprint ID software. All logins can be remotely controlled from the app too using either time-based or manual logoff methods.

Website owners are catching on to the potential benefits of Clef rather quickly. About 100 websites were using Clef at the beginning of 2014. That number has since grown to almost 44,000 websites in one year. Those who adapt the two-factor app find significantly reduced requests for forgotten passwords and greater user retention. Setup is incredibly simple for website owners as well; implementation takes 5 minutes.

It is simple to see how a system like this could be widely adopted for use with cryptocurrency exchanges and online wallets. Clef handles security much like Bitcoin, and the two are very complimentary when used together. “I think that our approach to decentralization and focus on great security but also usability resonates really well here,” Byrne said. “We’re completely focused right now on Bitcoin and making sure we do a good job of serving the cryptocurrency community.”

He went on to describe his concerns with current security methods (such as [multi-sig](bitcoin-basics/glossary#Multi%20signature transaction "http://bravenewcoin.com/bitcoin-basics/glossary#Multi signature transaction") and private keys) expressing that though they were theoretically sound, they required the user to have quite a bit of technical knowledge to successfully operate.

“The real truth is we need to be building security that is approachable and that people actually have access to, because that’s the only way we’re ever going to succeed as an ecosystem.”
— – Byrne

Director of Business Darrell Jones paints a great picture of things to come for Clef, “Our long term goal is to completely and radically change the way [people] think about identification, security, [and] identity in a world that will be [rapidly] changing the way we interact with the internet.” The world described is one that a person’s virtual identity is intertwined with their physical identity, and Clef is the perfect candidate to make an easy and secure foundation for interacting with technology. Jones emphasized this, saying, “The product drives itself, I’m just steering it in the right direction.”

Security isn’t always the first concern for people when interacting on the internet, and it is sad to see it so often overlooked. This is why Clef and the innovative men and women behind the scenes are critical to future successes in technology. Making advanced cryptography accessible is no easy feat, but Byrne and his team do an excellent job of translating it to common sense.