[ANN] BitSafe Hardware Wallet Now Shipping

[allten]

BitSafe Hardware Wallet Now Shipping



Huge milestone reached with the Open Source Bitsafe Hardware Wallet.
There are multiple Bitsafes assembled and ready to ship.

https://www.bitmit.net/en/item/20780-bitsafe-1-1-hardware-wallet-firmware-now-upgradeable-via-usb
https://www.bitmit.net/en/q/?q=bitsafe

Bitsafe is a 100% Open Source Hardware Wallet including all manufacturing files; this will guarantee price
competitiveness with the opportunity for anyone to become a distributor or even mass-producer. This is
important as it will allow buyers to purchase from the source they trust most.

The initial goal with Bitsafe was not to produce the "perfect" hardware, but rather prove the concept with several
dozen prototypes that would inspire hopeful software developers to get involved. As client developing commences,
our next goal is to create a more perfect, more versatile, and mass-producible hardware wallet for under $25.00.
It can be done! However, if you would like a hardware wallet now then please consider ordering one of these first
Bitsafes. They actually turned out really nice and your support would be appreciated.


If you are a serious about improving the Bitsafe project, but would like a discount for your
efforts then please purchase the following listing at Bitmit and I'll gladly work with you! Don't forget to purchase
supporting development hardware as well if you think you may need it:
https://www.bitmit.net/en/item/20786-bitsafe-1-1-donors-and-developers-version
Ignore the price, Bitmit works fine with small partial payments. It was just my way of getting others to ignore
a listing that would get them a cheaper Bitsafe.

To our amazement, the hardware wallet start ups and advancements from other sources came fast and hard after a
serious commitment was made to get involved in hardware security. This is great news! The more developers the
merrier! All this activity will surely make many hardware security solutions for Bitcoin a reality. Whatever happens,
there is a serious commitment by those involved with Bitsafe to make a cheap open source hardware security
solution a reality. Please get involved today.

Donations to cover previous and future hardware expenses:
1N13Pmk9c6swzb4QYKzPq317Cp1Z5idRJS
Any extra will go towards bounties. Thanks!
 
Check back every once and a while as I post more information and pictures

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Great explanation from Someone42 where this project is likely to go:

is the firmware / source code posted somewhere like github or is it not developed yet??

I have been developing the firmware. You can get it from: https://github.com/someone42/hardware-bitcoin-wallet. It's in a state of flux, as the surrounding Bitcoin infrastructure changes. At the moment I'm working on implementing an interface based on protocol buffers, so that I can make it "Trezor compatible" (eg. see https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=125383.0).

Can you explain how it works?  How do you use it?

Advantages over a mass market encrypted USB stick?

Here is an entirely fictitious depiction of what is possible:

• You open multibit and plug the BitSafe into your computer. One of your greyed-out wallets becomes highlighted.
• You navigate to bitmit.com, and purchase something for 1.815 BTC. Multibit handles the Bitcoin URI and gives you a payment prompt.
• After approving multibit's payment prompt, a light flashes on the BitSafe and "Send 1.815 BTC to www.bitmit.net?" appears on the OLED display.
• You press the "approve" button on the BitSafe and the relevant Bitcoin transaction propagates to the rest of the Bitcoin network.

During this story, there is no opportunity for malware to intercept your private keys. Private key storage and transaction signing is done entirely on the BitSafe. Malware does not even have the opportunity to redirect funds to another address; using a proposed payment protocol (see https://gist.github.com/gavinandresen/4120476), addresses and amounts are signed by the merchant (in this case www.bitmit.net), authenticated by the BitSafe and displayed on its OLED display.

It gets better than this. You could encrypt your wallet so that if you accidentally lose the BitSafe, any finders will have a harder time accessing your wallet. "Deluxe" versions of the BitSafe might include a USB port which will allow you plug in a USB keyboard. You could then enter passphrases without fear of (software) keyloggers. Maybe you could even use this keyboard to enter a brainwallet passphrase; the Deluxe BitSafe generates, uses, and erases the brainwallet independently of the host computer.

This looks like a great product.  I have only 1 question:

What happens to my keys & bitcoins if I loose the device or it stops working because my dog chewed on it?

Currently, the firmware implements a deterministic wallet based on the proposed BIP 0032 standard. So you would be able to do a wallet backup by writing a series of letters/numbers on a piece of paper. You would presumably place this paper in a physically secure location (eg. safe). If you lose the BitSafe or it breaks, you can entirely restore the wallet from this piece of paper.

Note: Someone42 was the first person to have a proof-of-concept prototype. His original work and
continued developments can be found here:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=78614.0

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Loading and Updating The Firmware:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=152517.msg1639690#msg1639690

Open Source Hardware and Software Files (Bitsafe 1.0)
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=152517.msg1661037#msg1661037

[Littleshop]

Can you explain how it works?  How do you use it?

Advantages over a mass market encrypted USB stick?

[knight22]

This is AWESOME!

[cbeast]

Can you explain how it works?  How do you use it?

Advantages over a mass market encrypted USB stick?

It has buttons! 

[dunand]

Can you backup your private keys?

[allten]

Can you backup your private keys?

There will be firmware & software solutions to do a secure backup.

[hazek]

Could you give us a brief "How it works" description? What exactly it can do and how it does it?

You know, instead of just developing, try to sell it. And I'm also interested why you think you can't make a profit with an open source project, if you want ideas, contact me and maybe I can help you.

[Seth Otterstad]

About time.  I've lost so many freaking bitcoins messing around with software wallets and backups.  Give me secure hardware.

[HorseRider]

Congratulations! The hardware wallet is one of my dream product for the usability of bitcoin.

[allten]

Could you give us a brief "How it works" description? What exactly it can do and how it does it?

You know, instead of just developing, try to sell it. And I'm also interested why you think you can't make a profit with an open source project, if you want ideas, contact me and maybe I can help you.

Ok, I've adjusted the OP regarding "making a profit". it didn't have good taste. Thanks for asking these questions.
For the sell of the initial prototypes, I would need to sell them considerably higher to recoup my expenses.
$75.00 (Price currently in the bitmit listing) is already very high for most people. The plan is to decrease the price
after all interested developers purchase one or request a free one. It's a contribution I'm happy to make because
I would really like to see this happen as a true open source project. Client development support is most critical at
this point.

As for the profits when it is mass produced; you are right, there are profits to be made here, but I'm giving the
design and production files away freely so the one to make the profits will be the person(s) that foot the bill for
a mass-production run. We'll see how that plays out once the mass-producible version is ready.

One of the main reasons why I'm giving it away freely is in hopes to garner more client development support.
If could be a motivational killer if open source developers since their efforts will be utilized to make someone else
money. Hopefully the sacrifice I'm making will inspire others. There is a reason why the topic of a Hardware
wallets has been thrown around for so long with little or no results; few realize the amount of effort that is
needed to make this successful.

Currently, there is no support from any client so it is difficult to describe "How it works", but I will be updating this
thread as much as I can over the next several days with all the information and "how-to's" that I can provide.
It was overwhelming to try and make it available in a single post.

Since you are the moderator, can you move this thread to project development after it sits in this catagory for a while.
I figured it was news worthy and deserved to sit in the main discussion for a few weeks.

[hazek]

Since you are the moderator, can you move this thread to project development after it sits in this catagory for a while.
I figured it was news worthy and deserved to sit in the main discussion for a few weeks.

Sure thing, and thank you for your reply.

[Mjbmonetarymetals]

Something like this would look pretty cool 

[btchip]

Congrats on winning the race to the market release 

I think it'd be interesting to see what can be done on the security side to have a smooth customer experience for the different products out there or about to be released. Kind of a common UI specification for secure hardware wallets in different price ranges (with display + button such as Trezor / with button only / without buttons i.e. typical smartcard)

[allten]

Congrats on winning the race to the market release 

I think it'd be interesting to see what can be done on the security side to have a smooth customer experience for the different products out there or about to be released. Kind of a common UI specification for secure hardware wallets in different price ranges (with display + button such as Trezor / with button only / without buttons i.e. typical smartcard)

Thanks.

That's the advantage of open source: "Release early and release often".
I didn't have the pressure of having a perfect or even working product like others do.

However, there is still a lot of development before it will be functional for anyone.

I completely agree with you about different versions. I wanted to create one with no display, one button, and a few LEDs with no OLED display.
It should be possible, but will be extra work verifying the security before creating a signature: Price vs. Convenience.
We'll see if any developers want to take on the challenge. Should be able to verify the concept with the Bitsafe now - just don't use the screen.

[allten]

Something like this would look pretty cool 

Wow. That looks nice. Where were you during the Logo creation? Maybe you did create a post. Sorry if you had.
This is good material. Thanks.

[whitenight639]

is the firmware / source code posted somewhere like github or is it not developed yet??


This is a great project, opensource hardware is great. I'll try and help out where I can.


Bitmit seems down atm??

[Littleshop]

Can you explain how it works?  How do you use it?

Advantages over a mass market encrypted USB stick?

Allten, could you answer these questions?  

[Mjbmonetarymetals]

  no I just knocked that up when I saw this thread today first time I heard about this, look forward to getting my hands on one 

[allten]

Can you explain how it works?  How do you use it?

Advantages over a mass market encrypted USB stick?

Allten, could you answer these questions?  

Sure. Sorry for the slow response.

Currently, there is no client support so it doesn't work, yet. Someone42 was the first pioneer in open
source Hardware wallet and helped with a lot with the bitsafe.
Here is one of his first posts:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=78614.0

Hopefully, you can get an idea of how it will work and how to use it from that thread.

What's an encrypted USB stick? Is it just a wallet file that is encrypted?

[Littleshop]

Can you explain how it works?  How do you use it?

Advantages over a mass market encrypted USB stick?

Allten, could you answer these questions?  

Sure. Sorry for the slow response.

Currently, there is no client support so it doesn't work, yet. Someone42 was the first pioneer in open
source Hardware wallet and helped with a lot with the bitsafe.
Here is one of his first posts:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=78614.0

Hopefully, you can get an idea of how it will work and how to use it from that thread.

What's an encrypted USB stick? Is it just a wallet file that is encrypted?

Something like this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA0SF0CK3099

It has a keypad and is hardware encrypted and needs no drivers.  It does on the other hand not offer anything bitcoin specific.