Blockstream Jade initial review.
TLDR: Meh+, but will a lot of potential if they choose to really build it out. For people who want a bitcoin only wallet there is little reason now to get this rather than a Coldcard, or Trezor w/ BTC only firmware. Really, currently Price is the only advantage. But in time air-gapped tx signing, and Liquid use may also be a good use. The current BIGGEST omission is no BIP39 passphrease support (!?!??!)
So I am sitting here on a live Arch linux (EndeavorOS) desktop using GParted to move my RaspiBlitz data drive from a 500G SSD to a 1T SSD. I find myself wishing I had sprung for the 2T SSD because sitting here waiting for the damn data to copy over, while still not knowing if this is going to even work, and knowing I will just have to do it again in a few years? Well... let's just say hooray small blocks. And I need something to do in the meantime, so I will write my impressions of the Blockstream Jade hardware wallet.
Size and form factor 8/10 It is pretty close to two Ledgers. It's the same length and width, but 2x as deep basically. So it's a decent size. Small but usable. And does not take up tons of room in your pocket. It is designed to be used in landscape mode holding it longways like the Ledger. The screen is much bigger though... about the same size as the Trezor's screen, but is also full color, which is unimportant to me, but a nice touch. It feels decent. It has (potentially) three controls with 5 switches. A power button, and rocker dial that can also be depressed, and a main button on the face. Not sure why they have all these buttons. They are not using them yet.
Setup 6/10 This was annoying. I chose to use a private key that I produced with coinflips ($4 worth of quarters x 16 shake/flips) and a python script I wrote to convert this to the 24 word mnemonic. When you first turn it on it wants to either produce a seed phrase (probably the better choice) or "restore" one. I chose the latter and took the time to input it. The method is reasonable and works fairly well. You enter the 24 words in using the rocker and main button and the alphabet laid out A-Z on the screen. It eliminates the letters you do not need based on what you have entered so far, and also presents you with a word list once there are as many of those as remaining letters (or less). This process is decent on this device, aside from the fact I found the rocker switch to be a little fiddly. Sometimes I had to rock it a couple times to get it to respond. That made the process annoying slightly.
Then once I had entered in ALL TWENTYFOUR WORDS it asked to be plugged into a device that had GREEN installed. I chose to be troublesome and plugged it into my phone.
It WORKED!
But...
It then decided to update the firmware... and guess what... after updating the firmware it restarted and was blank again! *Sigh* OK AGAIN with the 24 words and the fiddly rocker switch.
On the second try the device froze during the entry of word 17. I waited. I hoped. I said a little prayer. I said "whassa whassa whassssup"? I told it I thought Adam Back is Satoshi. But I don't think that, and I guess it knew because in the end I just had to hold the power button down and START ALL OVER AGAIN. FUCK.
On the third try I finally got the seed in again and connected it to my phone with a USB cable (Not the one that came with it which is a USB A to USB C cable as you would expect... but I have a C->C cable and used that... worked fine). Thank GOD.
Use with phone 6/10: Then I was able to get Green loaded on my phone and it saw the device. But it was very spotty working with Green on the phone. It crashed a few times, and the connection was not always working. But when it DID work it seemed solid. I went into both BTC and L-BTC wallets and did some transactions. I may regret the BTC transaction of ~50k sats since fees might go too high to use that in the future. I might wait for a lull to send them back. Green is decent, but it's a little unituative switching back and forth between liquid and bitcoin wallets.
Use with Computer TBD : When I have some time after I upgrade this SDD I will review this part. Hopefully it's a little stronger.
Bluetooth 6/10: I found this to be very spotty. Most times it would not connect. But once it did it kept the connection and worked well. But is this a security risk? Thining it through I figure it probably is. But would require an sophisticated attacker in fairly close proximity. And it can be turned off.
Cable connection 9/10: This worked almost every time but Green did crash once?
PIN 9/10 The device uses a PIN. It used a 6 character pin like Green does. Other than the slightly fiddly rocker, works fine.
Use with Specter TBD: The only independent wallet that supports it so far that I know of. I will also review later.
LACK OF BIP39 PASSPHRASE 0/10: What the ACTUAL feck? Isn't blockstream founded by an OG Cypherpunk? Why the HELL would they release this thing without implementing one of the most important developments of BIP39, and for that matter ANY BIP? I would almost rather have the passphrase but not HD addresses. At least liquid has confidential transactions. This is a ridiculous omission. And if they do not implement it, I will not use this device much at all. I cannot decide if I would rather a Ledger like implementation ,or a Trezor like one. But it HAS to happen.
Camera 5/10: This is a great feature. But they have not built this out much yet either. It allowed me to use the camera for entering the seed words. And I turned it on. It produces a fuzzy B/W image on the screen. We will see how it workd on QR codes in the future. But Why do THAT first? I mean, who has a QR of their seed? Is there a secure way to even produce this without graph paper? Lol. But eventually being able to use it to scan QR codes should be nice. We will have to wait and see.
Value 8/10. At ~$36 it's priced well, and is a lot of *potential* for the money.
Overall: 7/10 I am boosting this overall score because I think it feels like a good little piece of gear, and I am hopeful they actually develop out the missing features. So I am giving them the benefit of the doubt.
If what you want is a decent BTC only H/W wallet then I would go with a ColdCard currently. But having that plus liquid is a plus. And hopefully the missing things come along, and they keep developing it to add more features that matter. We will see.
Poll
