With crypto-based technologies becoming increasingly mainstream, more small- and medium-sized businesses have begun working toward adopting these technologies to remain relevant and competitive, especially in finance and software sectors. Strong decentralized finance (DeFi) infrastructure, in particular, has become highly sought after as a way of facilitating enterprise crypto payments, but many existing gateways either lack flexibility or require heavy development resources.
Digital asset security is another concern that businesses have to consider when deciding which crypto infrastructure to use. While there are a number of solutions available to address this concern, most of them require that businesses give up custody of their digital assets to the external parties providing their security measures, causing businesses to lose some degree of control over their assets.
Crypto infrastructure company inabit offers users a means of maintaining control over their assets via their institutional-level self-custodial crypto infrastructure. By utilizing their patented Trusted Computing Mechanism (TCM), the company provides users with crypto custody alternatives that are both trustworthy and secure.
What is TCM?
TCM technology is a blockchain key management solution that safeguards the private keys businesses need to access their digital assets, doing so in such a way that no entities, including inabit itself, can reach them.
This layer of protection was designed to be comparable to the hardware-based solutions that leading banks, governments, and defense organizations routinely utilize, making it possible for the company’s customers to securely conduct large-scale cryptocurrency transactions without fear of losing access to their assets by way of hacking or other fraudulent schemes.
If they so desire, customers can opt into a version of TCM that provides self-custody, enabling them to retain complete control of their digital assets by holding access to them locally.
Notably, maintaining self-custody in this way does not diminish the quality of their security since inabit employs a solution that allows customers to securely sign transactions with their private keys without exposing them at rest, in transit, or even in processing. In other words, customers using TCM are able to avoid theft or misuse of their keys because those keys always remain encrypted.
Inabit’s expansion into gateway and checkout tech
Inabit’s success with their TCM technology has pushed them to expand their services in the form of gateway and checkout tech. In the context of crypto, these tools give merchants the ability to interact with blockchain networks, allowing them to handle payments for goods, services, or deposits.
Such platforms simplify otherwise complex blockchain interactions, making them particularly useful in high-growth sectors that require quality transaction monitoring, regulatory compliance, fiat conversion, and risk management. Gateways designed specifically for use with crypto have become more valuable in recent years as crypto sees more use in everyday transactions, but some legacy systems fall short of enterprise crypto users’ needs.
Two of the most common traditional options for crypto gateways are custodial off-the-shelf products and infrastructure SDKs. Both have their strengths; while the former option is known for its quick integration and fiat settlement, the latter provides full wallet control and enhanced key management.
Both options have notable weaknesses as well, however, as custodial products rarely provide users with control over their wallet or funds. Meanwhile, infrastructure SDKs are time-intensive and require heavy development resources. Inabit’s gateway works as a hybrid of these options, providing users with flexible and accessible software that doesn’t require users to give up custody of their digital wallets.
A key advantage of inabit’s approach to crypto gateways is that payments are made directly into the merchant’s own custody rather than first being routed through a gateway controlled custodial wallet. In many traditional gateway models, customer funds are initially received by the gateway provider and only later transferred to the merchant, introducing an additional operational step along with unnecessary regulatory and counterparty complexity. By enabling customers to pay straight into the merchant’s self custodial wallet, inabit removes this intermediate layer, simplifying settlement flows, reducing risk exposure, and avoiding regulatory frameworks that are not required when funds never leave the merchant’s direct control.
Broader implications for fintech and DeFi innovation
In its early years, much of the crypto industry was built on hype and speculation, making it unstable ground for businesses seeking long-term utility with crypto. The industry has since begun to stabilize, though it still faces issues concerning digital asset security and accessible software that makes it easier for merchants to make use of what crypto has to offer.
Inabit’s TCM and gateway solutions address these issues, giving small- and medium-sized businesses the security and control they need to operate in their respective industries with confidence. Such confidence encourages innovation, especially in historically risky fields like fintech and DeFi. As companies like inabit continue to make crypto infrastructure more practical, businesses have more room to experiment with crypto, improving trust in the currency as a whole.
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