DIY : Rivetz CEO Steven Sprague talks to the Bob’s Repair community
Rivetz CEO Steven Sprague is an advisor to Bob’s Repair. They recently asked him to join their Telegram channel for an AMA with their community. This is a lightly edited transcript of that chat.
Todd Conley, Bob’s Repair CIO: Hi Steven. I was hoping you could give us some history about Wave Systems, talk us through the dot-com bubble, and why you chose to put your efforts into Rivetz
Steven: Wave was started by my dad in 1988. Peter Sprague had been chairman of National Semiconductor for 30 years. The company went public in 1994, and I became president in 1996 after the company ran out of money. No product no sales and 3 million in debt.
Todd: Nice… What did you do to turn things around? How did you survive the dot-com bust?
Steven: In ’96 I hired Joe Trippi to help me build a social following for the equity and to invest in building our social media groups. We built from zero to to over 12,000 active daily contributors.
In 1997, the company got delisted to the pink sheet at 50 cents per share, was then relisted in 1999 and then raised $122 million at $34.00 per share and bounced off $50 per share and a $2.5 billion market cap.
Then we shipped 160 Million copies of OEM paid-for software for trusted computing and built global enterprise partnerships with GM, BASF, BP and others. I left in 2103 to shift focus to mobile security and started Rivetz.
Todd: I know that the Trusted Computing Group was one of the first efforts to put real security right into the chips that run all of our PCs. How do you think blockchain-based ideas will be integrated into the infrastructure of the future PC and internet industry?
Steven: Great question on TCG and Blockchain. I think these technologies will fit very well together. Trusted computing operates tokens, tokens operate chains.
The goal is to add quality to the data that is stored on chain so the data recorded can be proven to come from a known source.
Frideric Prandecki, Bob’s Repair Community Manager: This is more of a personal question. Your dad owned Aston Martin, the car company. As a young man did you get a chance to drive a bunch of amazing cars?
Steven: Yes — a Lagonda, DB4, V8 Vantage, 1977 V8 convertible, DB7, DB6 Prince Charles edition — and I own a DB5 convertible
Frideric: Send us a picture if you are near it. Awesome.
Steven:
The only way to travel. None of this Lambo stuff. It’s been in the family since 1979. By the way — I’ve done a 1: 15 sec lap in that car and a 1:05 in the V8 Vantage.
Frideric: My Honda Civic isn’t that fast.
Steven: But a Civic can be just needs a few parts and some bob’s talent.
Amy, Rivetz: A question I know many of our Rivetz community folks are interested in: What about Bob’s Repair drew you to it to join the advisory board?
Steven: I Love the Bob’s Repair project. I have spent my whole life doing construction as a hobby and have built three houses, so the whole concept is great.
Frideric: Can you tell us what can we do for security with our cold storage wallets? I heard now the Nano S can be hacked. Where do you recommend we store our crypto and how?
Steven: For corporate cold storage we use paper and a large bank vault. We strongly suggest the best model for all wallets is multisig where practical.
In general, Ledger is one of the best choices for external hardware wallets today.
Rivetz is working on a next-generation solution with the TEE and support of other embedded security, like SIM, to support dual private keys with dual supply chains.
Crypto Dingus: In a perfect world where the Rivetz product is functional and ready to go, how would that look like working with Bob’s Repair?
Steven: Everyone need to have a few Bob tokens to help with all those undone projects.
Crypto Dingus: My understanding is that Rivetz has multiple partnerships. How will you manage all of the time requirements for these partnerships in getting steps completed?
Steven: We have a team that is working to support partners with a standard developer’s tool set and reference examples.
Frideric: Steven, can you tell us more about 2fa and what is Rivetz doing with that?
Steven: Rivetz is providing a 2FA that is fully supporting the trusted execution so your secret seed is protected by the trust models of TEE.
For more information about Bob’s Repair, visit their website or join their Telegram channel.
