Bitfinex Upgrades Customer Account Security with Clef

Bitfinex, the world’s largest Bitcoin exchange, integrates Clef, a passwordless two-factor authentication, and introduces a new paradigm for online account security. 

Today, Bitfinex, the largest US Dollar Bitcoin exchange, announced an integration with Clef, a login system that eliminates the need for usernames and passwords while improving user security. Bitfinex is making Clef their primary method and preferred choice for user login. Clef integrations have been multiplying within the Bitcoin industry recently because Bitcoin services deal with irreversible payments thus requiring high-level security. Clef is a highly visible way to demonstrate security and earn invaluable user trust. 

Bitfinex is one of the key exchanges central to the Bitcoin ecosystem. Bitcoin exchanges facilitate the buying and selling of Bitcoin with local currencies, just like foreign currency exchanges, Bitfinex being the largest BTCUSD exchange in the world. They have built a reputation for being at the front of emerging security practices, most recently announcing a partnership with BitGo providing customers with real-time proof of reserves. Now, with the addition of Clef, Bitfinex users can enjoy using the most secure, user-friendly method to login.

Clef is also announcing today a new way to integrate Clef into any site called “Distributed Authentication.”  Normally, when you log in with Clef, all of the cryptography happens on the Clef server, and then your information is passed to whatever site you’re logging in to. With Distributed Authentication, the site gets a copy of your public key from the Clef server to verify the login. The site then sends a challenge to the Clef app on your phone, where you confirm and sign it. This lets the partner site verify the login independently of the Clef server, so that even in extreme cases of compromise, your account is still protected. 

Security is a huge priority for Bitfinex. They’ve got a team that has built great security features into the product. Most sites that have integrated Clef have needed to rely on Clef to handle the cryptography completely and correctly. For most companies, that makes sense — they’re not focused on security, they’re focused on their product. But some companies, like Bitfinex, are already doing their own cryptography, so we have the opportunity to build something even stronger, and much better for end users by combining their security capabilities with ours.

About Bitfinex

Bitfinex is the world’s leading Bitcoin exchange, and provides the most advanced trading platform in the digital currency space. A leading source of price discovery, Bitfinex also underpins a large part of the bitcoin economy by enabling merchants, payment processors, individuals and traders access to the deepest pool of liquidity. Founded in 2012, Bitfinex is an established thought leader in the digital currency exchange space, and one of the most secure platforms to have been released.

For more information, follow us on twitter at @bitfinex or visit us at: http://www.bitfinex.com/

About Clef

Clef is building a replacement for usernames and passwords to make it easier for everyone to manage web accounts more securely. Clef powers logins for more than 100,000 sites and The New York Times described the Clef experience as “magical.” The company has received accolades from The New York Times, Techcrunch, and The Economist. Clef is based in Oakland, California and is funded by Morado Ventures and angels from a broad variety of product and security backgrounds.

For more information on Clef, visit: https://getclef.com/