John Mcafee & Bitfi launch the first 'unhackable' hardware wallet

[dunfida]

https://globenewswire.com/news-release/2018/06/19/1526755/0/en/Bitfi-and-McAfee-Announce-First-Truly-Unhackable-and-Open-Source-Crypto-Wallet.html

I particularly enjoy this feature - 'The private key only exists for a fraction of a second, just long enough to approve the transaction and is never stored anywhere' - because a full second is no good.

Have they taken a seemingly impossible leap in security or will this be a bit of a nothing? Truly unhackable is a bold and impossible claim I would've thought.

McAfee is a complete sellout. Just take a look at his Twitter profile and you'll know.
He uses his public image as an asset to help promote ICOs. (https://mcafeecryptoteam.com/effect.html)

I would take this guy's claim with a grain of salt. Overall, its just a marketing tactics to keep themselves ahead of the competition. (Trezor, Keepkey, Ledger - all of them I use and recommend BTW)

Does this mean that we need to type the password/seed/whatever everytime we want to sign a transaction?

Oh boy! If that's the case, then a simple keylogger will be able to read all the phrases everytime a user types them in.

Who would be the one to take his recommendations seriously? Yet we do already know on the bullshit things that he had done into this cryptomarket and now he do propose another hardware wallet.Its better to set aside and dont pay attention on this and i bet no one would be interested, unless if you are a die hard fan of him. 

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[posi]

I like the part of the wallet enabling users to view all their coins balances at once and quickly switch from one currency to another, whether for personal or business use. But, can a wallet which users can access their wallet using a secret phrase that calculates private keys be unbackable? Could this be oneif McAfee game?

[suzanne5223]

Let's just keep our fingers cross cause there are a lot smart people on this forum which will find out if the wallet is real unbackable. However, I believe the wallet producer and John McAfee have their name to protect.

[RGBKey]

... However, I believe the wallet producer and John McAfee have their name to protect.

John McAfee has no name to protect anymore. He's dragged his own name through the mud so many times now that it's worth nothing. He offers paid promotion on his twitter account, among other things. He's no longer a name people trust.

[dTAPPO]

Sound's Good but in my opinion to launch the 'unhackable' is tense to impossible.

Yes, I also say that in this super first growing technology world, anything can happen...

If it happen everybody will be benefited.

[suzanne5223]

... However, I believe the wallet producer and John McAfee have their name to protect.

John McAfee has no name to protect anymore. He's dragged his own name through the mud so many times now that it's worth nothing. He offers paid promotion on his twitter account, among other things. He's no longer a name people trust.

You're right about that cause he has messing several time due to his false prediction and price manipulation. But, I was talking about security.

[tumis]

And someone will tell me where the concept of safe wallet begins and where it ends?
How can we be sure that the creator of the solution has not left any "emergency gate"?

[gentlemand]

And someone will tell me where the concept of safe wallet begins and where it ends?
How can we be sure that the creator of the solution has not left any "emergency gate"?

The theme of this thread is that there is no 100% safe wallet. I'd say the safest possible option is a correctly created paper wallet, but they're also not practical if you want to spend from them.

As for back doors, look for something open source and hope that enough people have checked the code if you yourself don't have enough knowledge.

The opinion of someone who knows a thing or two - https://twitter.com/matt_odell/status/1015954872691290113

[gentlemand]

https://twitter.com/officialmcafee/status/1018898446659477504

Confirmation here that this basically a brain wallet.

https://twitter.com/icryptomarty/status/1018900159244259329

And no mention or advice on how to come up with a secure phrase. Maybe there's something in the box. Probably not.

[o_e_l_e_o]

"It has to be your own phrase. Just choose a phrase you can't forget."

So... just like a password then?

Seriously, what a shit show. He is one step away from advising people to save their password as plain text in their email or Dropbox so they don't forget it.

[bob123]

Everywhere i keep reading the wallet is using an open source bitfi algorithm to calculate the private keys.
Did actually anyone find the source code yet? Their github (https://github.com/Bitfi) is empty. 

I am quite interested in whether only the concept of the wallet is pure shit, or whether the algorithm also is just a pseudo-algorithm, just to call it an algorithm.

And someone will tell me where the concept of safe wallet begins and where it ends?
How can we be sure that the creator of the solution has not left any "emergency gate"?

Please, keep away from this wallet.

You shouldn't care about a backdoor, but about the mechanism itself. It is insecure by design.
Your brain will be able to create an entropy of like 10-20 bits. Thats far away from 256 created by an proper algorithm.

[gentlemand]

https://twitter.com/officialmcafee/status/1020350194506924034

"We created a simple, foolproof way to use the brain as the wallet. The http://Bitfi.com  wallet is the transcriber between the inner brain and the outer world of digital currencies. Until someone discovers a means of hacking the brain, your money is safe."

And there it is finally in plain English straight from the source. I cannae believe no one who associates with him hasn't taken him aside and whispered something but it would probably turn into a firefight.

[o_e_l_e_o]

Until someone discovers a means of hacking the brain, your money is safe.

I'm not going to post that XKCD comic yet again, because at this point it goes without saying. If you are still naive enough to want to use a brainwallet, you can easily make one for free without buying in to this scam.

[gentlemand]

I'm not going to post that XKCD comic yet again, because at this point it goes without saying. If you are still naive enough to want to use a brainwallet, you can easily make one for free without buying in to this scam.

Why roll out the wrench thing when 999,999 times out of a million it'll be some brat who cracks your shitty entropy from thousands of miles away who you'll never know a single thing about?

That's the prime problem with this. Since lots of people claim to have bought it I'd like to hear from an owner about whether there's some provision or advice for this from the manufacturer. The whole thing seems... weird. I can't believe it hasn't been brought up by someone in the design and build process.

[o_e_l_e_o]

some brat who cracks your shitty entropy from thousands of miles away who you'll never know a single thing about?

Well yeah, that too. Also how many people do you think will be lazy enough to reuse a password or phrase that they also use elsewhere online? The whole thing is just ridiculous.

[gentlemand]

Well yeah, that too. Also how many people do you think will be lazy enough to reuse a password or phrase that they also use elsewhere online? The whole thing is just ridiculous.

Most.

Because John Mcafee himself told them it was unhackable. He just forgot to add the wee caveat about that other gaping security hole.

I just noticed Bitfi have addressed this here - https://bitfi.com/guide.html but it still makes far more sense to force a seed on people instead. They can't be trusted to come up with anything themselves.

[HCP]

What you should NOT do

If you will not use the Diceware method, you need to take some time and invest some effort into creating your secret phrase. This single phrase will control all your money and assets and will give you access into all blockchains that are supported by the Bitfi hardware wallet and ones that will be added to the wallet in the future. It is very important that you consider the information provided in this section.

• Do not use any common or popular phrases (for example, you should not use a phrase like “Oh the best part of waking up is Folgers in your cup” )
• Do not use any lyrics from songs
• Do not use any quotes from movie scripts or literature
• Do not use any common expressions or idioms

And when did people ever listen to good advice??!?

A brainwallet by any other name... is still a brainwallet!

[Hueristic]

Take any claims by McAfee with a pinch spoonful cupful bucketful of salt. He is a proven liar, scammer, con-artist and criminal, who charges $105,000 to pump-and-dump shitcoins.

This phrase in particular stood out to me: "The user-created phrase is impossible for others to guess but easy for the wallet holder to memorize." This doesn't mean your wallet isn't hackable.
Relevant XKCD:

QFT

My passphrase is was "John Mcafee is a has been fucking retarded moron that burned out every brain cell he ever had 2 decades ago and is living in a fantasy world" but it's already been taken.

[o_e_l_e_o]

-snip-

I checked that address - no funds! You liar!

The address that corresponds to "correct horse battery staple" (also from XKCD) has had almost 16 BTC in it over the years. All the most common passwords (123456, password, qwerty, monkey) have held varying amount of Bitcoin over the years, as have a bunch of obvious Bitcoin-related ones (satoshi, bitcoin, blockchain).

People are awful at security.

[Hueristic]

-snip-

I checked that address - no funds! You liar!

The address that corresponds to "correct horse battery staple" (also from XKCD) has had almost 16 BTC in it over the years. All the most common passwords (123456, password, qwerty, monkey) have held varying amount of Bitcoin over the years, as have a bunch of obvious Bitcoin-related ones (satoshi, bitcoin, blockchain).

People are awful at security.

someone guessed and stole that years ago!

My passphase is just God now.