BitSafe Hardware Wallet Development

[allten]

Bitsafe Hardware Wallet Development:

New Thread with new discussion and direction:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=152517.0

[Xenland]

No licensing terms planned?

[allten]

No licensing terms planned?

Open Source.
Someone42 was working on it. Either way, all design files will be made available.
I would just like to refine a few things first.

BTW, thanks for the reference to the ATMEL HRNG. I put it in the circuit.

[Xenland]

No licensing terms planned?

Open Source.
Someone42 was working on it. Either way, all design files will be made available.
I would just like to refine a few things first.

BTW, thanks for the reference to the ATMEL HRNG. I put it in the circuit.

Cool cool I'll be checking back looks like a fun project!

[Luke-Jr]

This sounds very memory/storage constrained. A Raspberry Pi is cheaper and far more powerful. Surely there should be some way to improve?

[allten]

This sounds very memory/storage constrained. A Raspberry Pi is cheaper and far more powerful. Surely there should be some way to improve?

Good points. It has sufficient to store private keys and generate signatures. That's the important part.
The rest of Wallet management can be done on the PC side.

The main advantage over the rasberry Pi is a final product will be easy to pack with you. Like a thumb drive.

The price is high. I agree with you. Wish I had the resources and help to make a final mass produced product.
Low volume engineering is more costly
If we get through the first stage of development, at least we will not need the PK3 programmers because of a boot loader.
Maybe by then, i will learn of quicker and cheaper ways to purchase PCBs and assembly methods.

Should be able to get this in the $20 dollar price range, but that's not realistic in the short term.
I will be preparing the order for the PCBs and components this weak so I will be able to refine the price.
The first lot of PCBs is for hardware validation so it will be a low volume order (around 5 maybe).

Anyone can point me to a good PCB fab house would be appreciated. I need at least 6 mils trace to trace.

[Luke-Jr]

It has sufficient to store private keys and generate signatures. That's the important part.

Where will you store the private keys? The EEPROM says not there, and I presume the SoC flash is for code...

For something like this, it really makes sense to use a HD wallet.

[2112]

A Raspberry Pi is cheaper and far more powerful.

In Raspbery Pi a closed source GPU boots and controls the CPU. It is going to be a new frontier for hacking the gullible. Score for Broadcom.

[Luke-Jr]

A Raspberry Pi is cheaper and far more powerful.

In Raspbery Pi a closed source GPU boots and controls the CPU. It is going to be a new frontier for hacking the gullible. Score for Broadcom.

It's my understanding that the GPU and bootloader were opened. Besides, this device doesn't need to use a GPU.

[2112]

It's my understanding that the GPU and bootloader were opened. Besides, this device doesn't need to use a GPU.

I'm sorry, but this is disinformation. I repeat: GPU boots first, then it starts the CPU. The "open source" driver is just a lean thunk layer to call back the real supervisor that runs on the GPU's undocumented instruction set. GPU also does things like power management.

Broadcom guys are very smart and very cynical. Turning upside down the central processor vs. peripheral processor architecture was a very smart, forward looking move.

Edit: Before anyone quotes the above: the term GPU is also a disinformation. The main processing unit in the Broadcom VideoCore architecture is a systolic array of relatively slow-clocked DSP processors. It works as a GPU when the DSP chips are executing graphic pipeline code. The secret architecture of the VideoCore processors was a serious drawback... unitil they came with a bright idea of tackling an ARM CPU running as an attached processor. This allows Broadcom to claim some sort of openness to bait the uninformed. It also allows them to markets using Android on ARM.

[allten]

It has sufficient to store private keys and generate signatures. That's the important part.

Where will you store the private keys? The EEPROM says not there, and I presume the SoC flash is for code...

For something like this, it really makes sense to use a HD wallet.

The EEPROM is an external chip. Not ideal for storing keys that are not encrypted. It's good for storing small chunks of data regarding addresses and transactions.
The Chip can self write to the Flash and is as good as EEPROM other than the write time is a little longer.

What's an HD Wallet?

[AfricanHunter]

Any anticipated date this will be ready for public consumption?

[2weiX]

want

[Icoin]

Hi allten, please contact Unthinking concerning your Devcoin listing.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=34586.msg1357529#msg1357529

[Justin00]

bitsafe ay.

I trademarked that name a few months back !!

bitsafe or bit-safe etc

well.. not really

[Luke-Jr]

It has sufficient to store private keys and generate signatures. That's the important part.

Where will you store the private keys? The EEPROM says not there, and I presume the SoC flash is for code...

For something like this, it really makes sense to use a HD wallet.

The EEPROM is an external chip. Not ideal for storing keys that are not encrypted. It's good for storing small chunks of data regarding addresses and transactions.
The Chip can self write to the Flash and is as good as EEPROM other than the write time is a little longer.

What's an HD Wallet?

But there isn't much flash available. I suppose you could easily set aside room for a single private key (which is fine for a HD wallet). Is there a reason for using EEPROM over flash memory?

Who is writing the software for this? 512 kB is probably smaller than the smallest MIPS program I can easily write (eg, standard C). A HD (hierarchial deterministic) wallet is easily the ideal design for a device like this where you only have space for a single private key. You can build multiple chains of basically unlimited addresses from just that one key. BIP 32 is the specification.

[hazek]

So I'm a bit confused, is this going to work similar to the piglet or what is the difference?

[allten]

So I'm a bit confused, is this going to work similar to the piglet or what is the difference?

Overall, there's not Much Difference really. This has been in the works for a few months now.
The Piglet took me by surprise and I wasn't sure what to do.

I've decided to go full steam ahead. In the end, it can only help Bitcoin.

Who Knows, when I'm done publishing all my design files to this thread, it may even help them.

[hazek]

Cool and good luck.

[slush]

Who is writing the software for this? 512 kB is probably smaller than the smallest MIPS program I can easily write (eg, standard C).

Actually 512kB is far enough for this purpose. We're working on solution with 256kB of flash. And yes, BIP32 is a way to go for such small devices.