Unclaimed Funds Hold Harmless: Fill & Download for Free

I just gave Abra a shot the other day. It’s not awesome.Welcome to Abra. A mobile app that gives you the illusion of holding cryptocurrencies, without any of the protection that comes from actually holding them.Abra recently announced that 18 new cryptocurrencies can be held directly by users. That’s inaccurate. Instead, users can purchase bitcoin-based software contracts, with Abra as the counter-party to receive the value of the currency users wish to invest in, either fiat or digital currency. Abra does a good job of glossing over the mechanics of it all. An excited user might not even realize, initially, that exchanging Bitcoin for XRP only gives the illusion of owning XRP.There is no way of knowing what this person owns. Supposedly, during the Bitcoin to XRP exchange, Bitcoin was sold and other Bitcoin, with a multi-signature structure, was purchased. Who knows? Not me, which is a shame since this is my account. Unfortunately, Abra is the most opaque, closed source, no white paper, hush hush wallet that claims to be “non custodial.”Here’s the definition of “control” (i.e. custodial) from Coincenter:“Control” means possession of sufficient virtual currency credentials or authority on a virtual currency network to execute unilaterally or prevent indefinitely virtual currency business transactions. The term does not include possession, for a reasonably time-limited period, of virtual currency credentials sufficient to prevent virtual currency transactions to provide a service such as an escrow, provided that the user is able to regain unilateral rights to execute transactions following the period in which the escrow was in effect.What kind of authority does Abra have?Abra may discontinue (temporarily or permanently) Android and iOS mobile apps at any time for any reason with or without notice.Abra reserves the right to temporarily or permanently suspend user accounts or otherwise restrict use of Android and iOS mobile apps.Abra may be legally required to detain, to deny a user’s access to, and to report to one or more governmental authorities, a user’s property or property interests that are in Abra’s possession or control.Is it just me, or does it sound like users could suddenly lose access to the app?“If you are blocked by Abra from accessing the Abra Services (including by blocking your IP address), you agree not to implement any measures to circumvent such blocking (e.g., by masking your IP address or using a proxy IP address).”Keeping your crypto safe in a non-custodial wallet (like Edge) means there is no entity that can lock you out of your funds. Having control over your keys means having control over your crypto. If Abra were a true non-custodial wallet, users would have access to their private keys. Despite claims made by Abra, users have no way of obtaining them.So, at it stands now, users can’t get their key, even if they remove the first word and treat the other 12 words as a BIP39 key?— Tiffany Hayden (@haydentiff) March 18, 2018Additionally, it turns out that getting cut off at any time for any reason with or without notice, isn’t the only bad thing that can happen to you with Abra. Your cryptocurrency ̶i̶l̶l̶u̶s̶i̶o̶n̶s̶ contracts could suddenly become discontinued. If that happens, users will be prompted to convert their crypto back into Bitcoin. Any failure or inability to accept the conversion prompt will render your balances unusable until the conversion takes place. During the conversion process, any non-Bitcoin balances will be converted to Bitcoin at whatever rate is available.There was an interesting discussion on Reddit that mentioned Abra wallets getting “locked.” Does this really happen? How often?Responsibility over one’s private keys means never putting yourself at the mercy of others. Your money is yours and nobody can freeze, censor, or dictate what you can or can not do with it. Rather than transact freely, Abra’s bizarre “2 of 2” multi-signature model requires both the consumer and Abrato sign a transaction. Do you know what that sounds like? A bank.(Abra is a United States FinCEN registered MSB.)If Abra’s Privacy Policy isn’t an attempt to depreciate Bitcoin’s base value proposition, I don’t know what is.Some highlights:The public key serves as your bitcoin wallet address and is stored along with your phone number on the Abra Service in order to identify you to the network of Abra users. The private key uniquely matches the wallet address and must be used in connection with the wallet address to authorize the transfer of bitcoin from or to that wallet address.Abra may collect personally identifiable information (“PII”) of users. Examples include name, address, telephone number, user behaviour, transaction history, device information, geolocation, the type of Internet browser used, IP addresses, browser headers, the files requested and the domain name and country from which information was requested.Abra may share your PII, including transactions and activities with other Abra users or third parties, such as law enforcement, government officials, banking partners, marketing partnersAbra may be required to report and/or remit any bitcoin it is holding in custody for you in accordance with unclaimed property laws.Abra services ARE PROVIDED “AS IS” WITH NO WARRANTY OF ANY KIND. Use of our Android and iOS mobile apps is at your sole risk. We make no representations or warranties about the suitability of the information, software, products and services contained in our Android and iOS mobile appsYou agree to indemnify, defend and hold us harmless against any and all claims, costs, losses, damages, liabilities, judgments and expensesIN NO EVENT WILL WE, OUR LICENSORS, SERVICE PROVIDERS OR SUBCONTRACTORS (IF ANY) BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, PUNITIVE OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE)