SAFE, the popular multi -party crypto portfolio previously called Gnosis Safe, launched a new development unit, Safe Labs, in a movement aimed at consolidating its operations and refining its product roadmap after its target in Bybit’s piracy of 1.4 billion dollars in February – the largest crypto shipto to date.
The new entity will be the main development branch of SAFE, which so far has externalized technical work from a separate development company, a structure commonly used in the cryptographic industry, said the director general of Safe Labs, Rahul Rumalla on Wednesday. Safe Labs will operate directly under the aegis of the SAFE Foundation, a non -profit organization.
In an interview with Coindesk, Rumalla said that the transition reflects a broader change in strategy towards the construction of products that can meet both the ideological standards of Cyphenpunk culture and the practical requirements of corporate customers.
“This framework in which we are obliged to operate – it actually forces you to compromise one in relation to the other: if you want more security, you must make compromises on convenience, and if you want more convenience, you make security compromises,” said Rumalla.
“We, at Safe Labs, take a step back and reject this framework. We do not want to operate in this model where we must compromise one in relation to the other. ”
Post-hack pivot
According to Rumalla, bybit’s hacking was a “catalyst” for the creation of SAFE laboratories.
While SAFE’s intelligent contracts have remained uncompromising, its user -oriented web application has been infiltrated by a malicious code by the Lazare group in North Korea. This attack allowed the pirates to encourage the CEO of Bybit to sign a transaction which reduced the funds in their control.
“What we saw with an attack like this is that our fundamental values were used against us,” said Rumalla. “Anonymity, privacy, self-care, transparency, open source-these were used against us.”
Despite the violation, Rumalla said that user confidence in the safe platform had remained solid. The application has seen “practically no unsubscribe” following and continues to treat 10% of all transactions volumes on compatible networks between Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM).
“We do not defend against cyber attacks,” said Rumalla. “We defend cyber war, and this requires a change in mentality – not only at the project level, not at the business level, but also Ethereum or even Crypto as a whole.”
Ideals to infrastructure
The decision to formalize internal development echoes similar changes by other major protocols, including Morpho and Polygon, which have both recently taken movements to rationalize decision -making and improve responsibility with more traditional organizational structures.
In parallel, Safe Labs will also refocus on product design. The team is currently working on a “V2” version of its portfolio, which Rumalla has described as more “opinion” – which means a more daring product management, in particular for institutional users.
“What we are going to launch and test in the future is a subscription plan, essentially, which is called Safe Pro – or safe for businesses, without danger for institutions – many around this field,” he said. “We will essentially pack this opinion product which is more for user segments which have higher safety needs and more appetite for personalization.”
“We have to operate at start -up speed,” added Rumalla. “It is in itself the premise of the reasons why we must function as a separate independent entity. We must align where we must align ourselves, which is on a mission, but we must be a little more independent in terms of our execution.”
With more than $ 60 billion of total locked value and more than $ 1 billion of historical transactions, according to Rumalla, Safe remains one of the most proven crypto self-assistance platforms. The team, now around 40 strong and based in Berlin, bets that its next chapter – the one who embraces the design of opinion products without sacrificing their open source philosophy – will help define the appearance of portfolios in a world that goes to an economy on the billions of dollars.
“Our mission is simple: to make self -care easy and secure,” said Rumalla. “It’s a victory for everyone.”
