Hello, I am with you with another hardware wallet experience. Previously, I have analyzed Ledger Nano S and Trezor. If you want to reach them:
"Ledger Nano S" review and guide - One of the great hardware wallet
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/ledger-nano-s-review-and-guide-one-of-the-great-hardware-wallet-5038606"Trezor Wallet" review and guide - A good hardware wallet
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/trezor-wallet-review-and-guide-a-good-hardware-wallet-5038829Before I write my experiences, I want to thank Mr. Melih of
https://kriptotek.com for delivering the device.
I specifically want to beriefly write about bitbox first. Bitbox is a BTC and ETH wallet manufactured in Switzerland. Currently, it only supports these two coins. I want you to know that the analysis of the device will be comparison of the pros and cons of the device compared to Trezor and Ledger Nano S because anyone thinking of buying a hardware wallet attempts to compare with others. Ledger currently dominates the market; that is for sure. But, it is good fort he market that there is at least some sense of competition in the market by companies like the Bitbox. Competition always increases quality.
https://digitalbitbox.com/
As I said before, Bitbox only supports BTC and ETH. It goes without saying that Bitbox supports all of the ERC20 tokens. I will refer to that during the analysis. On the other hand, Ledger supports a majority of the tokens; making the device the market leader for now. From this perspective, we can claim that Ledger>Trezor>Bitbox.
Opposing to Ledger and Trezor, Bitbox does not provide seed phrases during the set up. It only asks for a username and password during the first set up. As of my research findings, this password encrypts the seed to the memory card. It is arguable that this approach is more or less secure than others.
I forgot to mention 😊 Bitbox Works with an SD card. Simply, the device encrypts the wallet to the SD card.
As of their claim in their website, the device is designed to work for fifty years under “reasonable Circumstances.”
We’ve already said that the device Works with an SD Card. This means that you can encrypt a wallet to any SD card. So, theoretically, each SD card can turn into a hardware wallet; which is a great thing. Ledger has a similar function. For instance, you can open different accounts for BTC in its interface. Yet, all these wallets have one seed group in Ledger. Bitbox is different on that front. Every SD Card becomes an independent hardware wallet. This function did not make sense at first but I should accept that it makes more sense than others later on.
The device does not have a screen on it. It only has a LED light. In some situations, it turns on to warn you. At the same time, this is a touchscreen LED. The LED asks for your approval via touching during send transactions. Or it asks for long or short or long touches for cancelling or approving the changed settings respectively. So, expectedly,Bitbox has the touch based approval or cancelation mechanism as well as Trezor and Ledger.
You need to plug the device to your computer via a USB cable unlike Trezor and Ledger. This is a con fort he device. While I am writing this analysis in a PC and Bitbox is connected in a USB port down the case. I cannot see the device; I need to bend over to do so
Now, I believe everyone is thinking about the SD Card. Once you disconnect the card from the device and put it on your SD Card reader in your computer, it only has a PDF file in it. When you open this PDF, you can see the name of your wallet and the encrypted Wallet Bacup code. That is it. You cannot reach any other file via plugging in the SD Card directly. The only way to reach the wallet is to plug the SD Card back to the Bitbox.
Let us get to the usage experience.
You need to download the appropriate application to your computer via
https://digitalbitbox.com/start . Once you install the application, a clean interface greets you. It gives you the warning “No Device.” When you plug the Bitbox in with the SD Card, the software notices the device and the screen changes. It asks you to enter a name and password fort he device. Main screen follows this process.
As you can see through the link above, there is no need to explain. It is just perfect.
A simple, clean interface. Send, receive, options and multisig. That is it. When you click receive, it provides the wallet adress. You can change your adress by clicking on “New Adress.” I need to tell you about a con side at this point. The device does not support segwit. The adresses are from old segwit adresses. I said to myself, I wish it would be segwit supporting.
In settings, there is a screen on which you can change all kinds of settings. Back-up, password change, resetting etc.
ETH usage is done via the MEW again. When you enter the MEW site, you should select “Digital Bitbox” option. MEW’s support for Bitbox as ell as Ledger and Trezor is nice. Once you select the device, it asks fort he password of your device, you type it and you reach your wallet. It is actually that simple.
What if I lose my device? What if it is broken?As a precaution, you print the PDF mentioned above and store it. This is your back up. You can reach your wallet through a new Bitbox via this PDF. What I could not find and know is that what if we cannot find a new device? It stopped its production or you do not have a Bitbox dealer in your district… What shall we do? We can reach everything via the seed on Ledger and Trezor but my research was fruitless fort he Bitbox. Anyone know anything; please share.
There is a video that Mr. Melih explains the usage in detail below. (In Turkish)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WhS-2QyuNITo briefly summarize:
Bitbox is one of the devices I wish to see in hardware wallet environment. In order to reduce the market dominance of the Ledger, Bitbox and Trezor has important missions. As I said before, competition always enhances quality. Ledger, Trezor and Bitbox are all pretty reliable devices. Of course they have some weak points but they are fixing these fast enough. From this perspective, all three firms are reliable and customer friendy entities.
Thank you for reading. Please do not hesitate to ask any question you may have. I will try to answer as much as I can and as much as I know.
Good earnings everyone
