what are, in your opinion, the best hardware wallets/devices for bitcoin?
21 sats \ 4 comments \ @based58 5 Feb 2023 bitcoin
what are, in your opinion, the best hardware wallets/devices for bitcoin?
I ask because I'm newbie on this topic; I've heard only of trezor, ledger and jade, which are quite famous. Please, forgive my ignorance.
Here are some things I think it is worth knowing about HD:
  • is the firmware open source?
  • is the hardware open source?
  • is it air-gapped ?
  • is it bitcoin-only?
  • can the funds be accessed via common bitcoin wallets (electrum, samurai, etc) or does it require specific software made by the same company selling the device ?
  • does the vendor sell it to other countries or is it specific to some regions?
write
preview
related posts
20 sats \ 0 replies \ @siggy47 5 Feb 2023
Coldcard ticks all the boxes
reply
10 sats \ 0 replies \ @NothingNewUnderTheSun 5 Feb 2023
There are no ideal solutions but Coldcard is the best imo. One flaw is they are source viewable but not fully foss. Also I don't think it's possible to get a foss secure element. But I believe Coinkite are good actors and really know what they're doing. Check out some NVK podcasts (Bitcoin Review etc) and if you like NVK you'll probably like Coldcard (he owns the company)
reply
0 sats \ 0 replies \ @DarthCoin 5 Feb 2023
IMHO hardware wallets are for computer illiterate users. For those that still didn't learn enough about how to use Bitcoin and a computer. For those that can't memorize 12 words or a strong password. If you are one of these, yes, I strongly recommend you to use a hardware wallet. A HW is stupid proof.
Otherwise, don't waste your money on them, just buy more Bitcoin. There are many other methods to save a damn seed of 12 words.
reply
0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Lumor 5 Feb 2023
You need a metal back-up eventually anyway, so I'm thinking Seedsigner built from general purpose hardware with a metal QR backup is very close to ideal. Haven't personally tried it yet though.
My Coldcard is nice but I don't care much for having to rely on a secure element across boots.
reply