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George Waller, CEO of Blocksafe Technologies – Interview Series

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George serves as the CEO of BlockSafe Technologies. George is a co-founder of StrikeForce Technologies, Inc., and is an entrepreneur and technologist with over 30 years in the computer industry. George played a pivotal role in introducing two of the leading cyber security technologies i.e., out-of-band authentication and keystroke encryption to the marketplace. Today, these technologies are widely used in Banking, Healthcare, Education, manufacturing and government sectors.

Prior to founding StrikeForce, George served as Executive Vice President and Chief Strategist at: Connexus Corporation, RxRemedy, TeachMeIT, Incubation Systems, and HealthSCOUT.

George studied aerospace engineering at the Academy of Aeronautics.

AT: There is no doubt that hacking and stolen cryptocurrency is a huge problem in the industry. What made you decide to tackle this challenge?

GW: As a blockchain and cryptocurrency enthusiast, it only made sense to apply our years of experience developing cybersecurity software to an obvious problem plaguing the cryptocurrency industry. It’s clear that this is an issue that needs to be resolved before the market and technology can mature to reach the point of mass-adoption.

AT: CryptoDefender™ seems to be your flagship product which is designed to assist users with logging in safely to their crypto-wallets and to prevent keylogging, clickjacking, etc. I wanted to go into details in regards to some of these functionalities. To begin with can you tell us about keystroke encryption and how this works?

GW: Keystroke encryption immediately protects every keystroke, typed on a computer or mobile device keyboard. The technology bypasses the traditional route that a phone’s operating system takes when entering the keys pressed onto the screen. Normally this allows the data entered to be visible to any using malware to monitor what is typed. Keystroke encryption instead encrypts the information typed and inserts it directly into the desired fields, preventing malware from monitoring what was written.

AT: Anti-Clipboard Modification is another feature of CryptoDefender™. What is this exactly?

GW: Anti-Clipboard Modification protects the copy and paste mechanism on desktop computers. Clipboard Hijacking is when a malware program waits for a bitcoin send-to address to be copied onto the clipboard buffer, it then replaces that send-to wallet address with the hacker’s wallet address, as soon as you hit “send transaction” your tokens are automatically sent to a different person, and when that happens there is no way to get back you tokens.

AT: You offer a Secure Browser as one of the features of the CryptoDefender™ product. Is this browser designed for desktop or mobile usage?

GW: This product is for mobile devices only, it is a secure & hardened browser which prevents Man-in-the-Browser attacks.

AT: Anti-Clickjacking and Anti-Screen Capture is a bit easier for the average user to understand. This seems like it is something that other more mainstream anti-virus products offer, why should a user choose BlockSafe Technologies™?

GW: Often this isn’t actually a feature offered in more mainstream virus protection. Many mainstream anti-virus applications act reactively, focusing on monitoring what is downloaded or installed onto a device and then cross-referencing it with a database of known threats. They often do not have the functionality to monitor everything going on internally, if the screen being monitored, if this is an authorized use, etc. BlockSafe Technologies creates software solutions designed for specific purposes where we identify the largest malware threats and then design solutions that catered to the specific needs of the cryptocurrency and blockchain ecosystems.

AT: You plan on offering enterprise software for securing exchanges. What’s the expected release date of this software?

GW: ExchangeDefender ver 1.0 is available now.

AT: How are you planning on staying ahead of bad actors in the space?

GW: One of the most crucial roles we have as cybersecurity professionals is to be constantly aware of the constantly evolving tools and methods used to gain unauthorized access to personal accounts and ultimately steal cryptocurrency and other digital assets. Currently, the tools used by hackers are constantly growing in sophistication. We monitor the cybersecurity landscape 24 hours a day, dissecting attacks and attack vectors so that we can always be one step ahead.

AT: You decided on launching an STO, and from my knowledge you are the first software company to do so. What made you decide to go down this path?

GW: Currently, there are others that have launched STO’s. The reason we launched an STO is because we believe in the blockchain. We didn’t just see an opportunity to take advantage of a new fundraising method, we are enthusiasts and believers in how blockchain can change the world. We do love the idea of being one of the first software companies to acquire funding in this way, just as we are pioneering the field of blockchain cybersecurity, we want to also pioneer the way that we structure the company as well.

We believe that as a company blazing the path today, we set a precedent for tomorrow. By holding ourselves to the highest possible standards of regulatory compliance, we can help set the bar for the STOs and blockchain startups of the future.

AT: What company that is assisting with the STO process?

GW: PCG Advisory Group is assisting us.

AT:   What’s your hard cap?

GW: We already reached our soft cap, our hard cap is $27 million.

AT: Anything else that you would like to tell us about BlockSafe Technologies™?

GW: Cybersecurity, or the lack thereof, and the threat of hacking is the single largest obstacle that threatens the growth of crypto and blockchains. Hacking, theft, and crime have become synonymous with the industry. Investors globally will hesitate to invest in the crypto & blockchain space if there is no confidence. It will be the cybersecurity infrastructure and software developers that instill the confidence needed for institutions, enterprises, and investors alike to fully adopt this emerging technology.

AT: Thank you for agreeing to this interview, we wish you the best of luck with your STO. 

For more details on this STO, please view the Blocksafe token details page.

Antoine is a futurist and the founding partner of Securities.io & a member of the Forbes Technology Council.

He is also the Founder of Unite.ai a news website on AI & robotics, the generative AI platform images.ai, & is he is currently working on launching genius.ai a platform that will offer users the ability to configure and deploy autonomous agents by breaking prompts into sub-tasks.