Smartphones just took over the world everywhere, all at once. Those began small and then started getting much bigger as time went on.
And all of that blabbering is to say that I'm wondering if new HW wallets are being designed to look like modern day smartphones and breaking away from the "tiny device" form factor.
Well, it did make sense to increase phone size when people started browsing the web and watching movies on them. Hardware wallets will not need a bigger screen for anything, because their function will not substantially change. Therefore, I see no reason for huge hardware wallets.
I do enjoy devices that have a proper keypad or keyboard, since that allows me to quickly enter longer passphrases and passwords. So a certain minimum size would be needed, but not for a huge screen.
Also: You said you don't endorse the Keystone 3, dkbit98, and this time around I don't even need to heed your disclaimer. After Ledger's little lie, I consider all hardware wallets to be collectibles only. Fool me once, shame on me (in this case, because I was warned). Fool me twice....ain't gonna happen.
Personally, I believe we should keep in mind that Ledger was always a full-stack closed-source product. It's easy to 'fool' people when you keep them in the dark.
If a device is fully open and verifiable, e.g. following some of what
https://betrusted.io/ are doing, it puts these little things miles ahead in terms of trust and 'reduced fooling potential' compared to something like a Ledger.
The Keystone 3 is currently the ONLY hardware wallet that incorporates the use of three distinct secure elements: the Microchip ATECC608B, Maxim DS28S60, and Maxim MAX32520, offering a level of security that is unmatched.
Microchip ATECC608B and Maxim DS28S60 are specifically engineered to safeguard seed phrases. They collaboratively produce a secure environment for seed phrase storage, with the ATECC608B providing hardware-level security and authorization, and the DS28S60 ensuring a trusted platform module is always in place.
The Maxim MAX32520, on the other hand, is a secure microcontroller unit that plays a vital role in securing fingerprint data. It utilizes encrypted flash storage for safeguarding a user’s fingerprint data, with the verification process being executed securely within the MCU (only available in the Keystone 3 Pro).
Additionally, Keystone 3 incorporates a PCI-grade anti-tampering feature, with an intricate ‘security house’ of circuitry encompassing the core IC and SE chips. Any physical tampering results in an immediate data wipeout, further strengthening the device’s resilience. We’ll be publishing a separate article delving deeper into this topic in the coming weeks.
Wow, that's actually pretty nice. They're not the first ones to try a multi-secure element design, but others combined it e.g. with the secure element of their NFC IC (with the obvious drawbacks that come with this design decision..).
I'm excited to see the source files of this device and maybe also buy one for review.
The main difference I see here is much smaller battery that can't be removed/replaced without destroying the device, there is pros and cons with this, but I am personally not a fan of integrated batteries.
Unfortunately, this makes it quite unsuited as a long-term / semi-cold-storage option. On a Passport, you can pop out the Li-Ion battery if you know the device won't be used for 6 months, which greatly reduces risk of pillowing.
[1]Keystone will be adding USB and Bluetooth connection with PC in this model, and I think they are second hardware wallet after Cypherock X1 to add support for multiple seed phrases.
That's unfortunate, as well. Also looks quite a bit less fancy (thicker, cheaper) than the renders.
[1]
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/04/18/lithium-ion-battery-swelling-why/