NewTech Friday: GK8 – Securing blockchain transactions

GK8’s founders and most of the R&D team are veterans of Israel’s elite cyber-security units, protecting the nation’s strategic assets from state level hackers. Lior Lamesh, CEO and co-founder of GK8, tells us more about his company and its digital assets platform for financial institutions.


What led to the creation of GK8?

I served in an elite team that protected Israel’s strategic state-owned assets, answering directly to the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office. There I met my co-founder and partner, Shahar Shamai. We both share a passion for blockchain. After resigning from the Prime Minister’s Office, our knowledge, experience, and gumption, enabled us to hack one of the most popular crypto wallets on the market within four days and without the use of special equipment. 

Blockchain and cryptocurrencies have the potential to create new revenue streams for financial institutions. However, alongside these new opportunities, financial institutions are also exposed to new threat vectors. Hackers have become increasingly sophisticated and brazen in their attacks over the last few years. Both traditional finance and crypto-native institutions find themselves victims of malicious intent. 

While these firms often invest billions of dollars to keep their ‘fiat’ assets safe and secure, protecting digital assets requires a totally new mindset. Only an enterprise-grade solution can provide these institutions with the much needed security, alongside the robust functionality required to manage millions of dollars in assets.

This is why we developed the world’s first truly air-gapped cold vault that is able to create, sign, and send secure blockchain transactions with no internet connectivity, hence eliminating all potential cyber-attack vectors.