Heard of any opendime failures?

[lovemycoins52]

Hi, today I saw a tweet that kind of freaked me out:

https://twitter.com/BitsonStonewall/status/1218958113316929539?s=20

Basically this guy says that he lost Bitcoin due to an Opendime failure.  I was just wondering if anyone else has heard of similar problems with opendime hardware.  I'm a pretty enthusiastic user.

Thank you for any reports!

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[Pmalek]

The tweet doesn't explain how he lost the Bitcoins. It just says due to a malfunction, who knows what that means.
Opendime isn't a real hardware wallet if I remember correctly. Was it not advertised as a device meant to be used only one time?
I don't really see any benefit in using such a device over a proper hardware wallet. 

[LeGaulois]

Opendime isn't a real hardware wallet if I remember correctly. Was it not advertised as a device meant to be used only one time?

Yep, but it's a point of its security... like a condom is supposed to be used only 1 time. It's like a mix between HW wallets and a physical bitcoin. Like cold storage cards aren't HW wallet

I don't really see any benefit in using such a device over a proper hardware wallet.  

To gift someone for example ^^. When the person goes back at home he/she can unseal it and move the coins to a wallet and the WIF-format private key import.

@OP

As long as you don't see a dozen people having the same problem, you should take it with a grain of salt. People love to complain one the web but they often forget to tell everything. Who knows how he used it and where he stored it? In a basement full of humidity? With rats? Confused it with the godemichet?

[DaveF]

He tweeted and gave no followup on it (as of now) I have given dozens of them out with no issues.
Would not worry about it.
I would not carry one in my pocket with my keys due to it's design, but one of them not working is not something I would loose any sleep over.

-Dave

[lovemycoins52]

Thanks to both of you for your feedback. 

I'm a fan of opendime, so I wanted to check in on this. 

Cheers!

[DaveF]

Just saw this tweet:

https://twitter.com/piramida/status/1226068815533891584

So at least one person has put it in a real world usage carry around test.
I would not want to do it with one with a significant amount of BTC on it, but everyone has their own comfort level.

-Dave

[Zicadis]

Is it not possible to backup the funds stored on an opendime with a mnenomic or private key?

Surely there must be a way to recover your funds, should one of these wallets get damaged or malfunction?

[HCP]

Is it not possible to backup the funds stored on an opendime with a mnenomic or private key?
Surely there must be a way to recover your funds, should one of these wallets get damaged or malfunction?

Only if you "break the seal" to reveal the private key... that's the whole point of an OpenDime... no one knows what the private key is until you physically pop the tamperproof seal. That way both parties can be sure that the OpenDime contains what the sender says it does (by checking the Public Key/Address)... and the receiver knows the sender can't later take the funds as they can check the seal to make sure it hasn't been broken so the sender can not possibly know what the private key is.

If you're using it for "long term" storage, you're taking the risk that it won't fail before you've popped the seal and extracted (and possibly backed up) the private key.

[Zicadis]

Is it not possible to backup the funds stored on an opendime with a mnenomic or private key?
Surely there must be a way to recover your funds, should one of these wallets get damaged or malfunction?

Only if you "break the seal" to reveal the private key... that's the whole point of an OpenDime... no one knows what the private key is until you physically pop the tamperproof seal. That way both parties can be sure that the OpenDime contains what the sender says it does (by checking the Public Key/Address)... and the receiver knows the sender can't later take the funds as they can check the seal to make sure it hasn't been broken so the sender can not possibly know what the private key is.

If you're using it for "long term" storage, you're taking the risk that it won't fail before you've popped the seal and extracted (and possibly backed up) the private key.

So basically, you'd need to pop the seal and reveal the private key, then log this down first?

Then if the opendime breaks, you're still good to go?

I imagine this system would only be fine in the case of giving BTC to friends or family, since the pvt key has been revealed?

[Pmalek]

I imagine this system would only be fine in the case of giving BTC to friends or family, since the pvt key has been revealed?

Yes, it is not meant to be used as a cold storage option. You give it to someone, that someone breaks the seal and moves the bitcoin to a safer location. It can still be reused afterwards. You connect it to a USB on your device to get a receiving address. 

[squatter]

Just saw this tweet:

https://twitter.com/piramida/status/1226068815533891584

So at least one person has put it in a real world usage carry around test.
I would not want to do it with one with a significant amount of BTC on it, but everyone has their own comfort level.

-Dave

That's nice to hear, but one positive anecdotal experience doesn't adequately speak to their quality control process, or the robustness of the other thousands that have been produced.

I love the idea of Opendimes. I just wish there was a way to securely back up the keys. Even the manufacturer tells people not to use it for long term storage or large amounts, which basically says it all.

At this stage, it's a novelty.

[HCP]

I love the idea of Opendimes. I just wish there was a way to securely back up the keys. Even the manufacturer tells people not to use it for long term storage or large amounts, which basically says it all.

At this stage, it's a novelty.

As Pmalek said, it's more designed as a one-off "fund transfer" device... as opposed to a long term storage solution. Basically you can load it with a preset amount of BTC, and physically hand it to someone and they can:

1. check that the balance is what it should be (check public key/address balance via block explorer)
2. be certain you don't know what the private key is (check tamper seal is intact)

I could see them being useful for in-person trades... especially in high traffic times... you don't have to sit around waiting for 10 minutes for a confirmation etc. and you don't need to lug around a laptop or use a potentially insecure mobile wallet. Buyer can simply hand over the open dime and Seller can check the balance and confirm it's all legit (seal not broken) and then hand over the goods/cash/whatever.

Seller can then shift the BTC at their leisure (perhaps when transaction volume and/or fees are lower etc or when they're back at home with a more secure setup/wallet), knowing that the Buyer has no idea what the private key is.

[BG4]

Hello everyone.

I'm currently having a problem with the litecoin version of the Opendime.

It seems the web page links in the index page are broken.  400: bad request

When you press verify , the next page says , unverified..Do Not Use.

The opendime works fine , funds are secure....!!!!!!

However....  with the bad links , it makes verifying....Not Fun.

I dont know if they stopped supporting them Or the verify server is just down???

My loaded Bitcoin Opendimes work fine.  Just my Litecoin versions not acting right.


https://opendime.com/LTC/balance/LU3LQi85RyaVeh6sH7kQynWQwV552EPAxB

[HCP]

Possibly just a server outage... have you tried contacting them via their support email address? support@opendime.com

[DaveF]

So, doing a bit of a necro-bump here since I just encountered an opendime failure. It's one of mine.
It is a V2 and I actually had it loaded.
Been communicating with their support, who are very friendly, and I am going to ship it back to them to see if they can fix it.
The amount on it is a non trivial (but not even close to life altering) amount so it will be interesting to see what happens.

What is kind of amusing is I loaded it and it's been sitting in an anti-static bag in a safe. Never touched since then.
There one on my keychain for months now, I unloaded it, looped a zip tie though it and just have it there since it's cool looking. That one works fine.

Will update this when I know more / hear back from them. Since it's crossing the US / Canada border I figure it's going to be a while till they get it.

-Dave

[DaveF]

Just wanted to update that they were successful in fixing it or at least getting the data off of it today and that they sent me they funds.
I shipped it on Feb 17th from the US, they received it in Canada on March 2nd. So they got it done in less then 2 weeks so really can't complain.
No charge for the fix so A+ to the coinkite team.

-Dave

[Dabs]

These are all good to know. I think they are also the manufacturer of the cold card wallet so they have at least two products for slightly different coin usage:

1. opendime = simply physical stick transfer, no one else knows private key, no backups
2. coldcard = offline airgapped cold wallet / hardware wallet

Both devices are "amount agnostic", meaning it doesn't matter how much you put in them, but say, for example, you could have 1 BTC (worth $50k-ish these days) and you hand it over to someone, they give you the keys to their lambo / porsche / rocket ship and you drive away.

(eh, it's probably more than that as you need all sorts of ownership paperwork to do too.)

For most other uses, regular on-chain bitcoin payments using a "true wallet" such as the coldcard or a mobile wallet on your phone, can still work, just not your oft quoted "buy a coffee" scenario.

If a person would accept a "check" or "money order" from you, they should accept a bitcoin payment.

I like the opendime concept too, but it has no backups and if the device is crushed, burned, or destroyed, you lose the coins.

[DaveF]

....
I like the opendime concept too, but it has no backups and if the device is crushed, burned, or destroyed, you lose the coins.

Which probably brings up a point that someone should start a discussion on. So I did: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5326757

When I funded it for a raffle back in Nov 2019 BTC was under $9000 when I went to remove the funds last month it was $50000, which was why I wanted to move it to more dedicated cold storage and found it not working.

How many people here have BTC that is not secure because well, why worry about it, it's not worth that much and now it's just been sitting there because.....

-Dave

[The Sceptical Chymist]

How many people here have BTC that is not secure because well, why worry about it, it's not worth that much and now it's just been sitting there because.....

Very good point, and I saw your other thread as well.  I had some bitcoin on an Opendime recently and transferred it to another, more secure, wallet after reading others' opinions on it.  I didn't have any concerns that the Opendime had gone bad or anything, as I'd bought it not too long ago, but I started to feel uncomfortable storing any amount of coin on a device like that--even though I still think they're pretty damn cool.

Fortunately, everything worked just fine and I was able to access the private key from the device.  Whew.