Why hww manufacturers insist on making their devices look the way they basically scream "crypto here, take me and beat the hell out of my owner to get the PIN - easy money"?
I know that exposed branding and unique design are usually good from the marketing standpoint but should we really advertise that we have a hardware wallet on us? Imagine some thief digging through your stuff and seeing a bunch of unbranded USB sticks - it's just USB sticks, there is a chance they are looking for quick money and they will not take them. But hold on, this stick has a name on it... Ledger... hmmm, I know that one, it's this computer money thingy - aaaaand it's gone. Or they go through your wallet and see just a plain white card, maybe with just some numbers on it - probably a proximity access card, nothing interesting. But hold on, the other side has some Bitcoin meme imprint, or a big Tapsigner logo - same scenario as above.
Thief scenario does not convince you? How about a similar situation but it's not a thief, per se but a border guard at the international airport. I don't know about you but I would rather avoid risking missing my flight because TSA guy recognized hww manufacturer logo and I had to argue with the customs that no, this Bitcoin hww does not hold millions of dollars and no, I am not breaking any rules regarding carrying more money on me than x amount. Or perhaps you live in a place where cops are corrupt and dirty. They stop you, search you, copy your personal data and let you go. But later that evening you get a home visit of masked guys with baseball bats because those dirty cops saw your funny usb stick with Ledger logo on it by your keys when they were searching you.
Cryptocurrency related branding = big target on your back.
My point is that not in all but in many cases it's actually easy to make those devices look inconspicuous. It does not require any development effort - just give an option to order a device without branding. I can understand that some manufacturers might not be happy to do that when all they sell is just one design (e.g. Jade). Adding a second one, even if it is as simple as the first one just without a logo/name, introduces some complexity to manufacturing and shipping logistics (not a lot but still). But there are manufacturers who already give you a lot of options, just not the one to skip the branding (looking at you Ledger and Tapsigner). Come on!
The first crypto security rule is not to tell people around you that you HODL Bitcoin (or whatever other crypto). So by definition you will probably try to keep your hww out of sight. Why the flashy branding then? It is not going to do any marketing job anyway, it's not a t-shirt. And on those rare occasions when the device might be visible it is actually better if it does not advertise what it is.
I can only speak for our company, but we purposefully designed the BitBox02 to look like a regular USB flashdrive or a microSD card reader. It doesn't have physical buttons on it and instead uses capacitive touch sensors on the side. There's a small logo on the front, but that could be anything really. The screen is an OLED behind tinted plastic so you can't tell that it's a screen really.
I've walked through TSA multiple times with a bunch of them in my backpack and nobody has ever asked me about it.
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love bitbox <3
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Great wallet! Just got a second one for my girlfriends first sats.
One thing I’d like though is a better and bigger cap for the usb C. It’s so easy to loose the little flimsy thing that comes with it.
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Thanks, glad you like it! We actually started selling cases in our shop, so you might want to take a look
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bitbox is easily the best hww
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The most inconspicuous wallet ever. Great device.
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The Coldcard definitely doesn't scream "loads of wealth in Bitcoin here!" Just looks like a funky 90's calculator.
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Yes and no. There is still some branding visible. If the person going through your stuff recognizes the branding it's game over. I have been thinking about the fact that it looks like a calculator or maybe an old 2FA bank token (those were popular in the UK like a decade ago, not sure now) but the problem is that it does not behave like one. Imagine my example with some LEOs checking your pockets. What is that? Oh it's a calculator. Can you turn it on? Game over again because if I recall correctly Coldcard devices require external battery and even if they had a battery installed there is still a matter of the software. You turn on such a device and it either states what it is or in the best case scenario, just asks for a pin. Well, that's not how a calculator behaves. It would be nice if the software of this kind of devices had like two modes: if you just turn it on, it goes to dump calculator mode or even just display an error, pretending it's broken, and the other actual hww mode that you can go into only if you turn it on e.g. holding one of other buttons, etc. I know I am a bit paranoid but if we want to pretend that Coldcard is a calculator then lets make sure it can hold to this story longer than 3 seconds.
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generic chinese calculator stealth wallet sounds like a great idea. With front facing calculator function and a key combo or longpress to unlock the wallet.
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Here's some similar ideas for stealth hardware wallets:
  • An old TV remote (communicates with a computer via IR, the computer acts as a display for the HWW). If someone found an old TV remote in your bag, they'd be confused and you could just say it was your grandma's remote and it's the only possession of her's that survived the war (don't say which war, just pause and gaze off into the distance).
  • A handheld label printer. Ideally, it would still be able to print, and the HWW functionality would be hidden behind a cheatcode that you type or try to print.
  • A dumb phone with a graphical display.
  • An MP3 player/recorder running Rockbox. If you get one with a mic or audio-in jack, then you could transfer transaction data into it that way.
  • One of those portable monitors. Monitors have buttons and a display.
  • A desk VoIP phone. They have displays, buttons, audio in, and audio out. Just tell the TSA agent that your idiotic manager is flying you out to install the phone.
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Get punched in the face and robbed at the same time lol
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We live in an age of consumer tech. And consumer tech needs to look good and be distinguishable.
IMO one HWW manufacturer went too far with diamond studded editions, thus making it a fashion accessory.
Since HWW manufacturers want mass market adoption, some sort of branding is a prerequisite.
The problem comes down to cost. If you want a convert edition of a HWW wallet, someone has to produce that and sell it. What premium are you willing to pay for that?
My advice? Buy whatever hell you want, for me that is Trezor, and scratch the shit out of it with sandpaper. Tada! You have an unique convert HWW.
PS Why do you travel with your HWW?
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For a moment, stop thinking of hwws as consumer electronics. Consider them electronic analogous to, well, cash wallets or bank cards.
Of course, some banks offer graphics customization options to their cards but vast majority of them is identical. Cash wallets have tons of variations and sure, there are some expensive fashionable ones but if you go through all common designs you realize there are just a few major types and they all look the same within the type. No one really keeps their wallets or cards in public view and branding is barely visible. How many cash wallets brands do you know?
And why do I travel with hww? Everyone has their own reasons. Maybe someone's job requires doing crypto transactions often, maybe someone is a crypto daytrader, maybe someone is just a digital nomad and moves around. I moved two countries last year, traveled with literally all my belongings. What should I do in such a case, throw away hww, travel only with seed phrases in my head? That's rather risky and definitely not a solution we should advise if we want mass adoption. Until crypto wallets are as popular and normal personal items as normal cash wallets, we need to hwws that can easy pretend to be something else.
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All legit reasons to travel with a HWW.
I'm not convinced that you can compare a cash wallet with HWW. The later can control an unlimited amount of funds.
And bank cards are branded to the nines. Not to mention platinum cards and what not.
Like in another thread on SN. If my threat model includes getting my HWW searched whilst traveling. I would consider a decoy passphrase wallet.
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And bank cards are branded to the nines. Not to mention platinum cards and what not.
They are branded but when was the last time you saw someone using a card that really caught your eye?
If my threat model includes getting my HWW searched whilst traveling. I would consider a decoy passphrase wallet.
Why not both? I mean, hww can have decoy passphrase or even start up to some dummy error screen until you e.g. quickly press a button 5 times or sth like that, but if it simply looks like a usb memory stick then you are most likely not going to even get in a situation when that other person starts properly investigating the device.
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Bitcoin is not consumer tech. That's precisely the error that people keep making over and over again, and it's an expensive error, in more than one way.
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I am aware that distinctive design and exposed branding are typically advantageous from a marketing perspective, but should we really promote the fact that we are carrying a hardware wallet? Imagine a thief going through your belongings and finding a bunch of generic USB flash drives. Since these are just flash drives, there is a chance that they are just looking to make quick cash and won't take them. But wait, there's a name on this stick. Ledger, yeah, I recognize that one; it is this computer money item, and it has vanished. Alternatively they may open your wallet and find merely a white card with some numbers on it that is straightforward and uninteresting—likely a proximity access card. But wait, there's a Bitcoin meme on the other side.
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And this metal plate nonsense to engrave the seed phrase in case your house burns down. Just store your seed phrase AES-256 encrypted (e.g. with 7z or openssl) with a strong master password, then base64 encode the binary data, print it out or store the base64 text in a keyvault.
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100% agree. First defense is don't make it obvious that you have bitcoin.
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Well, wallets (regular ones, with notes and coins) often look similar to each other. But real wealth is usually stored on assets or accounts. Hw actually should not perform the wallet function, so they should not even be called wallets. But at the same time they should be easy to move. It's complicated IMHO.
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Coldcard and Opendimes?
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I felt so stupid wasting money to buy the ledger once I learned how to DIY my own cold wallet with a simple USB, and it's so much safer 😂
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Looks a little different now:
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good find!
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When you're skipping rocks across the lake with your kids XD
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not sure if rock-skipping accidents are more or less believable than boating accidents 🤔
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Is it still a concept or they made it already?
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they’ve settled on a product name (bitkey), and i think the designs above are roughly in-line with the final product, but not certain.
more updates from their team here: https://bitkey.build/
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Ugh, screams "cheap plastic trash" to me. If you put thought & effort into design then go into industrial or classic design but not "instagrammable fashion"
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I held one last week, they’re metal—have a real nice weight to themselves.
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In this case, this is a good thing I think. "oh, some random trinket" unless you spot the usb C port you might not even register that it's not just some stupid icon or piece of broken jewellery.
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What I'd rather like to see is a device that is marketed as a generic, multi-purpose cryptography device. Whether it's used for SSH authentication, GPG signing, 2FA, Nostr, Bitcoin transactions or other cryptographic operations would be up to the user. At least some HW wallet devices can do most of this already, but they are still marketed as HW wallets and thus almost everyone with such a device can be assumed to be using it for that specific purpose.
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Oh yes, I was thinking the same while writing this post but did not mention that - I assumed that this would be expecting too much ;)
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Agreed. With some devices you can sand the branding off of them, but they still look pretty conspicuous due to their shape. The BitBox02 is probably the most "ordinary" looking out of the HWWs.
I'd love for there to be HWWs which are designed to look exactly like run-of-the-mill calculators you'd find in any home. Maybe they'd even behave like calculators unless switched on in a specific way. The Coldcard basically looks like one anyway, minus a few buttons.
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The corners on an Opendime are rounded so that you can carry one inconspicuously.
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Sounds paranoid. How are we supposed to get adoption if we don’t tell anyone that we hold bitcoin!!?? Bad things happen out there. It’s like winning the shitty lottery. I’m more likely (and this point) to have someone pull a gun on me and take me to an atm to withdraw than have someone to force my bitcoin seed phrase from me.
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When your hardware wallet looks inconspicuous, it is your choice to whom you tell this is actually a hww. When your hww looks obvious you don't get one.
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Completely agree with this sentiment, people like flashy stuff unfortunately and thats where the easier money is, even though things being easy is in direct opposition to the philosophy
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I think if you're opting for an HWW you're already choosing convenience so you have to accept the trade-offs, companies want to brand their products. While I agree it does present a target, I don't think its the be all and end all
You can have a signing device just don't keep too much on it, and even if they nick it as long as you're not keeping your seedphrase close by it's pretty meaningless. Your signing device should have a password/passcode/bricking ability so that should sort that out
As for having one that is less obvious, you can always create your own with the seedsigner project or tailOS, which won't look to obvious and you can customize it as you like, just be sure to store it safely or someone could pick it up thinking it's just a play toy or USB they want to stick some files on.
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Never carry a hw wallet with you. A hw wallet should stay in a single location. If you want to send bitcoin away from that location, either send some to a hot wallet before you leave or buy a new hw wallet and restore in that location (if necessary).
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or buy a new hw wallet and restore in that location (if necessary)
I can have 10 different hwws, for different purposes in different locations and they still look obvious. It may partially solve the problem of occasional travel (not if you travel a lot and need constant access to your funds, though) but then you still need to worry about those hwws in those places. Distinct-looking, crypto-screaming hww does not have any value added over an inconspicuous design, it's actually the other way around, this is as simple as that. No matter what rules for travel with Bitcoin you develop there will always be people who have to do it and do it in a way that break those rules. That does not matter if they have valid reasons or are just careless. It's like people using the same password twice. You can blame them for getting robbed online because they used the same password on your website and in their online banking or you can simply add password salting and peppering on your website so when you suffer a leak those people with reused passwords stay a chance against the bad guys. Same here, manufacturers can keep making flashy wallets and then blame users why they keep them on display, or they simply can do anything in their power to design devices that don't attract unwanted attention. Also, as I said earlier, if a hww is something you should generally keep hidden then manufacturers actually do not have any incentive to design them with distinct look and very visible branding.
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биткоин инструкция. храни закрытые ключи как Сатоши. в чем проблема?
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