Crypto Payments Enabled on WhatsApp; Is It Raising Serious Security Concerns?

[Leonardo]

The long-awaited integration of WhatsApp and Bitcoin is finally here. However, some security concerns need to be addressed before wide-scale adoption.

Wuabit is a cryptocurrency wallet that is accessible via chat. They recently announced the completion of their Messaging Bot that would successfully integrate with the largest messaging App in the world, WhatsApp.

A Wuabit spokesman told the Express: “We have nearly completed the wallet core service starting with BTC.”

The Bot will be added as a ‘contact’ on the WhatsApp list. Messages to the Waubit Bot will be sent in order to execute the transfer of cryptocurrency.

The Wuabit Assistant bot will recognize the messages sent via the messaging app. For example, ‘Send 0.1 BTC to John’ will be accepted by the bot, and 0.1 BTC will be transferred from the Wuabit Wallet of the sender to the Wuabit BTC wallet of the receiver. Wuabit will also allow accessing current and future blockchain services from any chat app at market prices to smart-contracts.

The details of the Mobile Wallet App has not been released yet. The Public beta version of the App is expected to go live next month in April 2019.

Interoperability Issues

The transaction through the third party would require the same Wallet Application on both the devices. However, Bitcoin payments must involve only the public addresses of the receiver, and the public and private address of the sender. Hence, it essentially creates a singular channel of payment using Bitcoin but fails to facilitate full-scale Bitcoin payments.

Nevertheless, with time public addresses it could be included directly in the message to execute Bitcoin (BTC) or cryptocurrency transactions.

Feasibility and Security Concerns

Even before the Waubit BTC bot, a number of tipping bots and other integrations were introduced on Telegram and Twitter. However, Twitter is primarily used as a public social media platform while WhatsApp is a personal messaging application. Therefore, executing payments on WhatsApp through bots would be cumbersome, as it would require maintaining the Wuabit Wallets as Hot-Wallets.

Moreover, a cryptocurrency Wallet supported by WhatsApp would essentially provide a secure Wallet with a password and biometric protection. However, the value can be spent instantaneously via the Waubit Bot on the messenger without any security check or confirmation. Hence, the Messaging App integration which is a big step towards cryptocurrency adoption might raise doubts on its privacy and security.

Regardless, AI bots through messaging applications allow development of cryptocurrency towards mainstream adoption. It would also add numerous new customers to the cryptocurrency sphere, allowing for efficient global payments.

Source: https://coingape.com/crypto-payments-whatsapp-security-concern/