How is this affected by the recent development showing where trezors can be easily hacked if they have physical custody? Would that put any of these seeds/keys at risk? Or is the passphrase sufficient? I simply dont trust hardware wallets.
Very good question....First of all, the hacker needs to have custody of your Trezor...THEN...the attacker must possess a specialized hardware tool, strong technical knowledge, and physical access to bypass the protection! How many have that knowledge and tools!
So there is a way around it....that is guaranteed that even if your trezor falls in a person with all this knowledge and tools....
Simply, reset your Trezor!
This will wipe away your seed and passphrase you have generated for your physical collectable device! Its like it never existed at all! And you can then generate a new seed and use the wallet in whichever way you please!
BUT, for arguments sake...LETS SAY....you did not do that and the right people and equipment stole your trezor.
Even though they get your seed, they will not get your passphrase for your hidden wallet. They cannot tell if you ever had a hidden wallet as the seed only gets them to the first wallets that are used with passphrases. And the passphrases I am talking about is for the hidden wallets not the passcode to open the Trezor!
SO as per Trezor below...
How does it work?
As part of the initialization process, your Trezor device generates a random number which is converted into a recovery seed and stored in the memory. Your Trezor uses this string of standard English words to generate your private keys, serving as a kind of 'master access key' for unlocking access to your Bitcoin funds.
By default, the Trezor Model One creates a wallet with a 24-word seed phrase, whereas the Trezor Model T generates a wallet using a 12-word seed. This is referred to as your 'Standard wallet' in Trezor Suite.
By using a passphrase, you're effectively adding an extra word to the seed phrase, creating a brand new 'Hidden wallet'.
In fact, you can generate as many passphrase-protected hidden wallets as you like, but you must be extremely careful not to lose any of your passphrases. Remember, if you lose a passphrase, you lose access to any funds stored in the hidden wallet!
Essentially, whenever a Trezor device is used, it derives a cryptocurrency wallet using the following (extremely simplified) formula:
recovery seed + passphrase = hidden wallet
which can be summarized using the following schematic: