[NOW AVAILABLE] BTChip / Ledger HW1 : Bitcoin Hardware Wallet in a USB smartcard

[btchip]

Good  sorry the start page is not ready yet, I'm waiting for catchy videos, but GreenAddress setup should be straightforward - in any case don't hesitate to ask around if you're stuck.

First of all, redirect http://start.hardwarewallet.com to the https one. I got a nice error page because I visited the http one

whoops, done.

Also, I have troubles with keeping the thing inside my USB port... It keeps falling out/losing the connection because it moved. It's not thick enough to stay in..

mmh, that's weird, how did you fold the clip ? do you have some picture ?

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[Mitchell]

Uhm, you need to keep the clip on the HW.1? Because well... I broke it off.

[btchip]

Yes, the clip is basically what makes it thick enough to stay in the port  

you should be able to clip it back

[Mitchell]

Yes, the clip is basically what makes it thick enough to stay in the port 

you should be able to clip it back (picture coming soon)

You can clip it back and breaking it off is quite hard. In my defence, I really thought I had to remove it.


It "works"

[btchip]

nicely done, we should package it with fine french knives for the collector edition

[Mitchell]

nicely done, we should package it with fine french knives for the collector edition

Hahaha. You should! It's a great solution
I am glueing it back together with superglue, so it should be fine after this "operation". Well, the drivers worked and my computer did recognize the HW.1 so I am going to do some more testing and write up a review (including pictures + my stupidity) as soon as I am done.

[btchip]

thanks ! If you're testing on Windows, you'll probably miss the seed the first time it's typed as Windows takes some time to associate the second driver. In this case, just unplug / plug back twice (that's the kind of details that'll be mentioned on the start page)

[Mitchell]

Just a quick question, how do I setup the HW.1 wallet? With the KryptoKit Bitcoin Wallet (Unofficial HW1 BUILD)? I'm assuming it is, but I prefer to be sure.

[HostFat]

You should give a try to greenaddress.it

[btchip]

It's better to do it with GreenAddress or Electrum as this one is going deprecated. GreenAddress (from the Chrome application) should be easier.

[Mitchell]

You should give a try to greenaddress.it

I am using GreenAddress.it right now (Chrome), but it says that my dongle isn't setup yet, which is why I asked. I want to have everything straight for my review, so that it's fair (and informative as well)

[btchip]

Yes, it will set it up. When you create your account you'll have the option to generate the seed on the dongle.

[Mitchell]

Ah, I see. So, generate a new wallet and let the dongle generate the seed itself. Got it.

EDIT: Sorry for all these questions. Never used hardware wallets in my life.

[btchip]

Don't apologize and keep the questions going, it's good to know what can be improved 

[Mitchell]

BitcoinInformation's review of the HW.1

Packaging

The cards arrived in a plain letter, which I like and dislike at the same moment. I love simplicity, but on the other hand, having some kind of casing or box would have been awesome as well. This might be safer, since mail isn't handled that carefully (nor carefull at all at some points).

The cards themself
The cards look amazing if you ask me. It feels like someone spend a lot of time designing them and it paid off in my opinion. These look like something you could buy in a store, bring home and get started with (and I would love to see something like this).

I snapped one of the cards out of its "casing" and it felt nice and sturdy, even though it's tiny. After that I broke off the clip part and put the HW.1 inside my USB port. It wasn't recognized by Windows and it kept falling out. I asked btchip about this and he told me that the clip should be folded. At that moment I realized that I made a mistake, but some superglue, luckily, fixed it.

Using the HW.1
Setting up the HW.1 is quite easy, once you get that you need to create a new wallet and use the HW.1 to generate the seed (which will be stored on the HW.1 as well). I first tried to use the KryptoKit that was made for the HW.1, but I was told that this was outdated and not recommended, so I switched to GreenAddress.it (which is the recommended software at this moment).

I first installed the necarrasy driver from the website, after which I downloaded the GreenAddress.it extension for Chrome and selected that I wanted to create a new wallet. I plugged in the HW.1 wallet and it was quickly recognized by Windows and an extra option appeared on the GreenAddress.it wallet creation menu.

I set up a wallet and was able to login with the HW.1 wallet, so that worked perfectly. The next step is testing it with my Android phone (which happened to have OTG). I installed the GreenAddress.it for Android and plugged in my HW.1. It was instantly recognized by Android (4.2.2) and asked me if I wanted to open the GreenAddress.it app. This time I didn't want to create a new wallet, but simply login. It asked me for the Pin Code I set during the Wallet Creation and was then asked if I wanted to logout my computer, because you can only have one session at a time. I accepted that and was logged in successfully.

Conclusion

It's a fun thing to have with a lot of potential. The setup is a bit hard, but the btchip team is working on a startup page, so it should be more clear in the future. I think it's a very handy device for those Bitcoiners that can spend a little.

NOTE: I'm not a professional reviewer and I never will be. Keep that in mind.

[btchip]

thanks, I'll pin that to the first post

[Mitchell]

thanks, I'll pin that to the first post

No problem! I hope you like it. Oh, by the way, I left you your first positive trust feedback

[btchip]

yes it's great   thanks for the trust feedback, I'm not really trusting this feature of the forum given its great history but I guess it can't be harmful

fun story about the packaging, as you probably guessed we're trying to ship at the lowest possible cost, which is 20 grams. Everything was made to reach that ... and we ended up at 21 grams. Which means more soul for the product, but also more failure  

[Mitchell]

yes it's great  thanks for the trust feedback, I'm not really trusting this feature of the forum given its great history but I guess it can't be harmful

It's always good to have if you ask me.

fun story about the packaging, as you probably guessed we're trying to ship at the lowest possible cost, which is 20 grams. Everything was made to reach that ... and we ended up at 21 grams. Which means more soul for the product, but also more failure 

I did guess that yes and damn, that must have sucked when you found out it was just 1 gram to heavy. Not sure what you could do to decrease the weight even more, I would even recommend to increase the weight by adding some stuffing to it. Mail is not always handled like it should. But well, that is my personal opinion

[btchip]

I think that unless we find an awesome deal with DHL, UPS, Fedex and the like (which is somewhat unlikely) we'll stick with national post, which means that from my previous experience it's best to stick to the smallest possible package to maximize the chances of quick delivery (or delivery at all - although I'm eagerly waiting for the initial US delivery reports regarding our next decisions) - also it's quite hard to damage the cards, if you're stuck by lightning they'll probably outlive you