At long last, ZIMBOCASH gives an update

It has been many moons since Zimbocash (ZASH) took its services offline to the dismay and ire of its burgeoning community. The reason for doing so was because they wanted to fortify the user verification process. And after months of silence ZIMBOCASH has given its patrons an update via email detailing what has been going on during the hiatus.

“We are still passionately pursuing a sound-money solution for Zimbabwe.  We are closer than ever before to executing on our goals and we wanted to give you an update.

We have taken down our previous login website and put up a maintenance page. We are bringing it all together with new system architecture, blockchain wallets, system security, encryption processes etc. There is a lot that is happening in the background and we want to do it right. It could take a few weeks or a few months so thank you for your patience.

When we do go live, it will be in “beta” mode initially. While you may be able to log in/sign up, we will be carefully testing the system – first with ID verifications for a few weeks and then with payments.”

ZIMBOCASH

So what happens next?

So… when Zimbocash goes back online it’ll be in beta. What does this mean for those who already had a registered wallet? Well, according to the Zimbocash update:

• Everyone will need to confirm their phone again. After that, you will be able to receive and send up to ZASH 30 000 from others before you need to verify your ID.
• To receive any ZASH rewards, you will need to confirm your Zim ID. You can do this by uploading a copy of your ID together with a selfie. The system uses machine learning to verify your biometrics and ID information. It is supplemented with a human review so your ID verification may take a few days.
• If you have previously received ZASH rewards you will need to verify your ID before accessing your wallet.
• We will be using Telegram for additional security. You will need to first confirm your telegram account. Then, when you make a payment or change your password, we will send you a one-time pin. We’ll also notify you when someone logs into your ZIMBOCASH account.
• Allocations – we have reached the end of our halving process. For now, we are fixing the rewards and introducing two new rewards:
• a. Signup Reward – 400 ZASH for each new user who signs up.
• b. Referral Reward – 40 ZASH for every user who signs up using your account number as a referral. You only receive this when both you and they confirm IDs.
• c. Click Reward – 0.4 ZASH for every unique click you receive on your unique link (i.e. from a unique IP address), limited to 100 clicks.
• d. Telegram Reward (NEW) – 100 ZASH when you confirm your telegram account.
• e. First Payment Reward (NEW) – 100 ZASH for every person you pay and it’s their first time to receive payment. You only receive this when both you and they confirm IDs. We want to incentivise people to expand the network of payments in Zimbabwe.
• Your wallet screen will be changing slightly. The balance on your wallet screen will only be what is actually on the ZASH blockchain. We have a “view detailed balance” button where you can see your potential allocations, but you only receive these once you have confirmed your ID and when those you have referred/paid have confirmed their IDs.
• We have fixed the supply of money at 4.5 billion ZASH. We currently have ZASH 2.95 billion left in the custodial wallet for user allocations. When that runs out, any potential allocations that you have will fall away. If you or the people you have referred/paid have not confirmed their IDs, then you will lose the potential allocations.

What has Zimbocash done to protect itself from hackers, spam accounts and bots?

The folks at Zimbocash said that they encountered someone who had managed to access ZASH from 6 test wallets. This was done through an API that had been temporarily opened, however according to Zimbocash, no other accounts were affected. As a precaution the team at Zimbocash has taken the following precautions:

We will be moving all current ZASH in user accounts to new accounts on the blockchain, with substantially increased security related to these accounts. If you have an existing account that received ZASH when we went live the first time, we will be notifying you in a separate mail about the moving process – in summary, you will be able to access your ZASH on your wallet after you have confirmed your ID but your ZASH will be in a new blockchain account. We are doing this so that we can be extra careful about the protection of your private keys.

We are not sure what other information the hacker obtained in the process. All our passwords are hashed with a SALT (industry best practice) but to be sure, we are requiring everyone to change their passwords and if you use that password in any other context, we recommend that you change it.

Our new system includes multiple separation of duties, multi-encryption, multi-databases and multi-signatures so that no-one has direct access to your account keys.

Because of the volume of hack-bots we have had trying to create multiple accounts, we will be restricting people from using passwords that have been exposed in data breaches. We are also requiring that passwords be a minimum of 12 characters long with numbers, letters and caps. 
We are also implementing several other security measures for bot protection. Please do not try to create spam accounts or to hack our system – we will be responding in the strictest way possible to protect the quality of our network. Note, if you have received ZASH payments from others but your account has been blocked, you will be able to move it to another verified account, less a blocked account fee.

In short, we are committed to making sure that only valid and unique Zimbo’s get their ZASH allocations.  If anyone uploads a false ID, their accounts will be blocked and any ZASH allocations they have received will be moved back to the custodial wallet.  

ZIMBOCASH

So… no return date but at the very least they have said something. Unfortunately I don’t think this will do much to win back those who say online that they have washed their hands of Zimbocash.