Hardware & Crypto Software for a Holding

A multi-site international holding company had to run its crypto-asset operations with distributed teams. However, its crypto transaction infrastructure had three fundamental problems: security, scalability and auditability.

On the security side the risk was significant — private keys were kept on different employees' machines, and loss or theft could lead to irreversible losses. On scale, manual transaction entry could not keep up with hundreds of transactions a day, and each country office had developed its own method. On auditability, there was no clear record of which transaction was made by whom, when and with which approvals — unacceptable under international financial reporting requirements.

The solution had to be designed as an integrated whole across both the hardware and software layers, delivering consistent operations at global scale and a strict audit framework.

The solution consisted of three main components: custom-configured hardware (enterprise crypto computers), a security-hardened operating system layer running on that hardware, and management/transaction software.

At the hardware layer, custom machines were prepared with hardware security module (HSM) support and a BIOS-level signed boot chain. The operating system layer was designed as an immutable Linux-based image — any manual system change is written to the audit log and reported to the remote administrator.

At the application layer, multi-signature transaction approval flows were developed: no crypto transaction executes until it has been approved by at least 2 different authorised people. High-value transactions require 3-of-5 multi-sig. All transactions are stored in an immutable audit chain (append-only ledger); retroactive changes are impossible.

Through the remote management interface, the holding's head office can monitor all hardware around the world from a single control panel, and suspicious-activity alerts are triggered automatically. Thanks to the hardware lock feature, any device reported stolen or lost can be locked remotely and its contents wiped.

The project successfully passed both the holding's internal security audit and a penetration test carried out by an independent external security firm — proof that the design was right from the start.