But fortunately, there are enough competent companies that I'm confident won't lose their focus on sovereignty and commitment to the Bitcoin ideals.
I do think dkbit98 has a point here. Even the two biggest "classic" hardware wallet manufacturers - Ledger and Trezor - have made a bunch of questionable decisions recently, such as Ledger integrating a KYC dedit card in to Ledger Live, and Trezor implementing AOPP before having to 180 and remove it after community backlash. It's quite clear that neither company is solely focused on a "commitment to Bitcoin ideals".
To be fair, I personally believe the AOPP thing was
'easier to miss' - compared to integrating KYC - as it was disguised as 'well it's just simplifying message signing for users' (something that's always been possible and enforced by some exchanges).
So, a bunch of wallets I like and still use till today, just went with it and added AOPP support. Fortunately, they realized their mistake when the community pointed it out and reverted it in days, if not hours.
Which hardware wallet manufacturer would people say is the most focused in this regard? Passport?
I can't really say for sure; there's no perfect device. But most focused, probably Foundation Passport, yes.
First criterion would be Bitcoin-only (at very least the option to get a Bitcoin-only firmware); that already eliminates a lot of hardware wallets.
My list after that criterion would be:
- Foundation Passport
- Trezor Model One & Model T
- Keystone Pro
- BitBox02 Bitcoin-only
- Coinkite ColdCard
Then, Bitcoin for me is synonymous with open-source and verifiability - hardware and software. This removes a few again, leaving us with the following (to the best of my knowledge).
- Foundation Passport
- Trezor Model One & Model T
- BitBox02 Bitcoin-only
It's worth keeping in mind that only the first of these 3 has no option for altcoins whatsoever (you fund altcoin support development by buying a device that
can support alts).
I know I really sound like a Passport shill in threads, but I encourage anyone to read my
honest, unsponsored review in which I point out all of its flaws and issues and I think I'm vocal enough about them. It's just that for me, as of now, it's the only device that ticks all the 'essential' boxes, even though it does have its flaws.