Topic: Why Screenless Cold Wallet = Hot wallet？ (Read 154 times)

First of all, before buying a hardware cold wallet, we should know that:

Why do we need a hardware wallet?


Because we need a cold and offline network wallet anytime and anywhere including the private key creation to the transaction signing. It needs to be completely isolated from the network. So even if the hacker hacked our computer or mobile phone, the coins will not be endangered.


If we use a hardware wallet without a screen, when the hacker hacked our computer or mobile phone, they can steal the coins from the hot wallet. Likewise, when we are going to use the computer or mobile phone to control a screenless hardware wallet, originally we planned to “send 1 bitcoin to 1ABC”, if the computer or mobile is hacked, the hacker can change this request display as – “send 100 bitcoins to 1XYZ”. Because the hardware wallet does not have a screen, we know nothing about the key information, and then it will be stolen.

So, the conclusion is: a screenless hardware wallet = hot wallet.

Since it is a hot wallet, the advantage of "cold, offline and isolated from network" will be gone. Buying a screenless cold wallet is meaningless, why don’t you just use mobile wallets or computer wallets, because they are all hot wallets!

At present, you can barely find a wallet without screen amongst the mainstream hardware wallets. However, there is one exception-- the well-known OpenDime, has no screen. It can only be deemed as a piggy bank. When we want to transfer the funds in OpenDime, we smash our piggy banks. This piggy bank can no longer be used, which mean the operation is irreversible. This is another type of product, and it is not the same thing as the hardware wallet we discuss here.

Why did not the cold wallet teams produce screenless version? Because it was fully discussed in the blockchain industry a few years ago, the hardware wallet without a screen is logically unreasonable.