Topic: [ANN] Cobo Vault Second-Generation Launch - QR Code Air-Gapped Hardware Wallets (Read 237 times)

Yeah I asked him personally several times while he was working in Cobo and after he started with Keystone, and anyone can do the same thing.
He just don't want to reveal this information, similar like Safepal guys, and I don't know if this is some secret Chinese conspiracy thing, but it looks bad and they are probably using MAX36010-BNS-T according to guys who opened and cracked their self-destruction.

It's not fake advertisement and we don't need fake fact checkers for this, because someone just found a way how to crack it easy, so they need to change and improve this..

Indeed, I don't think anyone is going to be able to buy the Cobo Vault. What I think may happen is that they are going to finish all the orders that they got up until a certain point in time (perhaps up until the departure of the Cobo Vault team)? I assume that the supply chain of the Cobo Vault is the same for the new company so it's just a matter of letting customers know and they may even choose to have the rebranded wallet instead of the "old" Cobo one.

There are still some suppliers who are selling these wallets on the UK at least - https://myhardwarewallet.co.uk/shop/cobo-vault-pro/ . I wonder what will happen to clients who hold a considerable / some stock of the Cobo Vault devices - will they still work in a 10 years time, or whoever holds these device have to actually start looking for other options (the Keystone 50% upgrade seems like a solid choice atm).

---

That is indeed interesting - have you ever had an opportunity to see someone asking this same exact question to Keystone CEO? For a product to be so open sourced, "omitting" such a crucial component kinda is not compatible with the message that they aim to spread...

---

Isn't that considered "fake" advertising then? I mean, it's one of their most selling points and to have it "debunked" in such way should at least made them rethink the model or the approach that they want to have regarding their marketing (at least for the time being)

Their ALL developer team just left them, and I would not really use any wallet that is stopping support and development.
Look what happened to junk hardware wallets like ledger blue and hw1, they are not supported by any third party wallets and even official app is not supporting them anymore.
Keystone is currently offering 50% discount to all Cobo hardware wallet owners and it may be a good idea to upgrade now and use your old Cobo as a backup device.

Lixin Lu and his team purchased all the rights from Cobo, code was already open source and it will use almost the same components like before.
Problem I have with Keystone and with Cobo is the fact that they are hiding what exactly secure element they are using.
Not good to call something open source and hide important thing like secure element that can be very insecure.

$479 is way overpriced for hardware wallet but I think that metallic backup and military grade protection box is included in this package, to make it waterproof and impact resistant.
btw Self-destructiong thing for their hardware wallet is pure crap and it's not working:
https://medium.com/swlh/defeating-the-cobo-vault-pros-self-destruct-mechanism-abf321e2f5b5

It sounds like the lead developer left the company and negotiated a deal that allowed him to take the code with him (as dkbit98 said).  Obviously the details of that aren't available, but it looks like that dev wasn't able to use the Cobo name, so he had to brand the new devices using a new one (Keystone).  

It's an interesting situation and one that I hope doesn't ever happen with Ledger or Trezor, which are the HW wallets that most crypto owners use, if they use a HW wallet at all.  

The thought that came into my head is that the Cobo wallet might be a good thing to buy as a collectible, since they're no longer going to be manufactured.  I might be interested in buying one for just that purpose.

Edit: I just took a look at their website, and it doesn't appear that they have any version of the Cobo wallet for sale (as RickDeckard mentioned).  I did notice that the Cobo Vault Essential and Cobo Vault Pro models use AAA batteries, and the fully rechargeable model (which costs almost $500....WTF?  What HW wallet in this day and age uses AAA or any store-bought batteries?

Besides not having any more new firmware updates, is there something more as a "downside" for the current Cobo owners?

This new company seems like a "fork" of the original Cobo company - the company can focus on their other priority right now (which seem like to Cobo wallet) - although we can still find mentions of the Cobo Vault devices on the original website (although we are not able to buy them any longer) - https://cobo.com/hardware-wallet/cobo-vault . I do believe that the official means of communication (Twitter for example) should state their "departure" from the Cobo "company" just to increase awareness of the current state of affairs - https://twitter.com/cobo_wallet?lang=en and https://twitter.com/cobovault?lang=en doesn't seem to show any mention of this.

I wonder, did the new company - Keystone - brought the "source code" / firmware from Cobo in order to be able to use it for them? What were the implications in this "departure"? It seems that they basically just took all the source code of the page and replaced it with their new brand - I also would like to know how did they managed to pull this in without any legal repercussions.

Still, it's nice to see know that Lixin Lu (and apparently all of his team members) were able to keep their mind on the right track no matter how good the other services of Cobo proved to be. We'll see how this goes from here.

Very important news for all Cobo hardware wallet owners and everyone else who wants to buy their device is that their manufacturing is going to minimum maintenance, meaning that no new devices will be created in future!

Their lead developer Lixin Liu and his team parted ways with Cobo company and they started their own clone version of same hardware wallet called Keystone.
It looks exactly the same as Cobo hardware wallet but they are announcing some iimportnat nternal changes and improvements of their QR protocol to BCR-UR 2.0, while Cobo is still using old BCR-UR 1.0.

What this means is if you are still using their old Cobo hardware wallet you will not be able to get any new firmware updates and fixes so you would need to buy a new Keystone device with some discount they are offering.
You can read Lixin Liu full medium post explaining in more detail what is the reason for this decision, and he said that he purchased copyright rights from Cobo:
https://blog.keyst.one/leaving-cobo-to-continue-the-cobo-vault-legacy-29bb2f8f026e


Their website is exact same clone of Cobo website:
https://keyst.one
https://archive.ph/ldTVV

Glad to hear you are interested in the features. We are running a launch sale right now (just over five days left) so you can get a Cobo Tablet for free if you order an Essential.


If someone tries to disassemble Cobo Vault Pro or Ultimate, it will trigger self-destruct, bricking the device.
Read the full article on the feature here:
https://medium.com/cobo-vault/self-destruct-mechanisms-unique-defense-against-side-channel-attacks-ffa36a11fae5

Interesting.
Air-gapped is something that stand out compared to all other hardware wallets,
but I think that Cobo first needs to go with test and trials of crypto community.
Good thing is that it is Open source: https://github.com/CoboVault
I don't need fingerprint support, so I would be happy with Cobo Vault Essential.
Maybe prices should be adjusted with some promo codes.
We are here open for testing.

My question:
How does self destruct works?

Cobo Vault is announcing a second generation of hardware wallets just as dedicated to air-gapping your private keys, but priced at much more competitive value. Cobo Vault Essential and Pro inherit the following features from the first-generation Cobo Vault Ultimate:

• Air-gapped through auditable QR code data transmissions
• Secure Element physical entropy private key generation and side-channel attack prevention
• Open source Secure Element firmware (industry first)
• Detachable battery (industry first)
• MicroSD firmware upgrading
• 4-inch touchscreen

Second-generation Cobo Vaults have been updated in the following ways:

• AAA battery support to prevent battery failure
• Bitcon-only firmware version compatibility
• Better camera for smoother QR code transactions
• Competitive pricing

The second-generation Cobo Vaults have left out military-grade aerospace aluminum durability to make all the above features available at just 99 USD for Cobo Vault Essential.

Cobo Vault Pro adds the following features for 149 USD:

• Fingerprint sensor for device unlock and transaction signing
• Upgraded self-destruct mechanism
• Rechargeable battery

While Cobo Vault Essential is designed for long-term hodlers, Cobo Vault Pro is intended for higher frequency users who may want access to their funds in public locations. Its fingerprint sensor can be used in cafes or airports to avoid passwords being spied on, and its self-destruct mechanism will wipe the device if it is lost or stolen and someone attempts to disassemble it.


Launch Giveaway:
For the first week after our launch, we will be giving out free Cobo Tablets with each purchase of Cobo Vault Essential or Pro. Add a Cobo Tablet to your cart and place your order before May 5th, 8:00 AM PST to claim your free metal storage!


Cobo Vault Essential Specifications:

Body Material: Fiberglass
Screen: 800*840
Battery: Detachable AAA support (rechargeable battery available for purchase as accessory)
Dimensions: 112*65*18mm
Weight: 115 g (without AAA batteries)

Cobo Vault Pro Specifications:

Body Material: Fiberglass
Screen: 800*840
Battery: Detachable AAA support and rechargeable battery
Battery Recharging: USB Type-C
Dimensions: 112*65*13.5mm
Weight: 132 g


Cobo Vault supports BTC, ETH, BCH, DASH, LTC, ETC, TRX, EOS, USDT, XRP, XZC, IOST and DCR, as well as ETH, EOS, and TRX tokens. View our full list of supported coins and tokens on our website. We will also be providing BTC-only version firmware you can download to upgrade Cobo Vault Essential and Pro to a Bitcoin-only hardware wallet.

Product Roadmap
New features will be added to our second-generation hardware wallets according to the following plan for the next year of development:

Mid-May (next firmware update V1.0.6)

• Compatibility with Electrum for setting Electrum as a watch-only wallet
• MicroSD card data transmission for bigger transactions with lots UTXOs (supporting Electrum and later PSBT)
• Bitcoin-only firmware version

Short Term (next 3 months)

• PSBT compatibility with third-party wallets like Electrum and Wasabi Wallet
• Using dice to generate keys for additional physical entropy
• Open source animated QR code scanning library for easier integration with other wallets
• Multisig on the Cobo Vault companion app
• Rechargeable battery available for purchase as accessory

Medium Term (3-6 months)

• Bitcoin-only mobile companion app supporting SPV or full node connection
• Anti-phishing words pre-set by the user to protect against evil maid attacks
• Whitelist feature enabling a group of addresses to be set as the only receiving addresses Cobo Vault can sign transactions for
• New coin support
• Cryptocurrency on-ramp support
• Open source device schematic (circuit diagram)

Long Term (6-12 months)

• Taproot/Schnorr support
• Staking
• PSBT multisig support on bitcoin-only companion app
• U2F (2FA) Support
• DeFi support
• Cypherpunk version allowing users to upload their own firmware with open source operating system layer code

If you have other features you would like to see us develop, you can propose or vote for suggestions on our roadmap page.

Links
Website: https://cobo.com/hardware-wallet
Twitter: https://twitter.com/CoboVault
Medium: https://medium.com/cobo-vault
Telegram: https://t.me/cobovault
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4pPHVxoBYQubw19zL9tu-A