Portal x Pistachio: Building a modern onchain financial app with Portal SDK

Pistachio offers people in North and Latin America a high security but easy to use way to access the modern onchain financial system. Designed to serve all types of users, from the degen to those completely new to crypto, it offers the elite security required to gain trust paired with the user experience necessary for universal usability. The onboarding process and user interface feels more akin to a traditional banking app than a complex DeFi wallet while remaining fully self-custodial. 

Pistachio uses Portal’s MPC wallet infrastructure, with the personal backup key share stored in Cloud storage, to provide every user with a secure, mobile wallet. A multi auth system with SMS and email sign in, one-time passwords, and biometrics offers users peace of mind based on familiar patterns. From there, users can access onramps to add funds and start trading. Simple off ramps are also available to ensure the whole lifecycle is as frictionless as possible. 

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The importance of MPC for simple self custody

Every account on Pistachio uses Portal’s SDK to create a Threshold Signature Scheme (TSS) MPC wallet for a user. TSS MPC is increasingly recognized in the industry for key management functionality that lets users retain full control over their assets with a relatively friction-free, secure, and cost-effective setup. With this type of MPC wallet, shares of a user’s private key are generated and distributed to multiple parties. A minimum number of shareholders must reconstruct the key to sign transactions.

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There are four key reasons why TSS MPC is the best solution for Pistachio and other apps like it that aim to serve individuals who want full control of their assets but are potentially intimidated by self-custodial wallets that require memorizing seed phrases.

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TSS MPC wallets offer:

• Enhanced security because the private key is never reconstructed
• Customizable security and recovery policies
• Multi-chain out of the box
• No additional gas fees are required for generating, backup, recovery wallets

In many ways, by using Portal to create wallets for users, Pistachio allows anyone to turn their mobile device into a hardware wallet. Users have the best of both worlds—enterprise-grade security with the ability to manage their own assets.

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Designed for everyone

While the MPC wallet is the critical foundation of the high quality user experience on Pistachio, it is certainly only the beginning. Easy on- and off-ramps, human-readable names, low gas fees due to direct L2 liquidity, and the best possible rates from the built-in bridge and DEX aggregator all contribute to serving up an onchain financial experience that rivals the ease of centralized services.

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In addition, users have access to peer-to-peer transfers directly inside the app, offering settlement in seconds rather than the days offered by many offchain apps. For those just entering the self-custody world, Pistachio allows for limited KYC for amounts under $500 USD, helping new users get up and running as quickly as possible.

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Only the beginning

Pistachio currently offers people the opportunity to join their waitlist in preparation for a beta launch in Q1. At that time, users will have access to an EVM account for trading crypto, smart contract credit cards for spending it, and the previously mentioned P2P transfers for sending it. Soon after, users will be able to access Bitcoin MPC wallets, with Solana wallets coming behind that. 

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The team at Pistachio will continue adding features and building out their interface to be the easiest and cheapest way to participate in the onchain banking system. If you are interested in learning more, join their waitlist to get alerted when they launch.