Hardware Cryptowallet with Fingerprint Authorization

[n0ne]

Gate.io one of the cryptocurrency exchange have unveiled the new hardware wallet with fingerprint authorization. Key features of the hardware wallet include a built-in display for the fingerprint recognition. The product is termed to be S1, and is designed to store more than 10000 crypto assets.

Wallet S1 is the first of its kind with fingerprint authorization, has got the option to synchronise with the laptop/desktop/android smartphone for making transaction authorization. However it is available in the China market at present. Expected to be available to the market outside of china soon. The price of the product is expected to be $50.



Source : coindesk

[GreatArkansas]

Wow. Another great innovation within cryptocurrency. The price is also not expensive, compare to other hardware wallet.
But for me here, it's not the fingerprint authorization is the important here, it's still the security.

Just like this Hackers Claim ‘Any’ Smartphone Fingerprint Lock Can Be Broken In 20 Minutes, although this is only on smartphone but maybe there is any possibility they can also do it on this kind of hardware wallet.
Overall, I really admire this new kind of hardware wallet, it's my first time to see a hardware wallet with fingerprint authorization.

[crwth]

This kind of technology is being used in external hard drives/SSD’s and to make it into the hardware wallets means everyone is taking it up to the next level. It's nice to see different kinds of innovations being applied to the cryptocurrency space. It just shows that every time we see more and more adaptation of crypto.

I would like to have one, but it's another expense, though. I'm worried about the reputation as well. I will probably wait for reviews too.

[meanwords]

It's pretty cheap for a new innovation like this so there must be a catch to this, or they are just trying to advertise this new system to the masses as much as possible by making it cheaper than most hardware wallet.

I'm kinda wondering about the security though. What can the users do if the handprint is compromised.

[Gotumoot]

Another cool crypto wallet I only have nano ledger and there isn't a chance for me to access it on mobile phone.
I think this one is really great and much more secure since it is fingerprint authorization and I like that it could also be used with just a mobile phone I know that there are some ledger that is already being used with just mobile phone,
But this is one is much better I think I would save some to be ready to purchase one of this hardware wallet and I hope that there wouldn't be any problem with it.

[TGD]

It's pretty cheap for a new innovation like this so there must be a catch to this, or they are just trying to advertise this new system to the masses as much as possible by making it cheaper than most hardware wallet.

I'm kinda wondering about the security though. What can the users do if the handprint is compromised.

I agree this is very cheap but take in consideration that the product was made in China so obviously they used low cost materials and cheap labor compare on other hardware provider like ledger and trezor that production take place where materials and labos is very expensive.

This new hardware wallet is very promising and definitely will be a hit because of price and special feature. I hate those traditional security like pin to access my hardware wallet. I will buy one of this once available in the public market.

[mk4]

I completely get that these sort of "cool features" are nice, I think it's really a bit too much and a bit too unnecessary. For a smartphone that I pretty much use everyday and I have on my hand a lot of times? Makes complete sense. For a hardware wallet that has my funds that I mostly just hold and just transact from time to time? A bit unnecessary. A cheap small Ledger Nano S or Trezor One is enough for me.

[dunfida]

I completely get that these sort of "cool features" are nice, I think it's really a bit too much and a bit too unnecessary. For a smartphone that I pretty much use everyday and I have on my hand a lot of times? Makes complete sense. For a hardware wallet that has my funds that I mostly just hold and just transact from time to time? A bit unnecessary. A cheap small Ledger Nano S or Trezor One is enough for me.

Also, im not really that too confident on the word "China" yet its currently just for China market as of today.Im aint saying that security is problem.Lets see if this would really be just
similar into those known hardware wallets in the market. Fingerprint authorization is really a cool feature but i do agree on what you had said that it isnt really that necessary
if you do just simply hold and dont make use of these HW for long time but still a good add up too but i doubt that this would get much attention. 50 bucks isnt really that
expensive though but i might consider on buying this up if this really get some good or positive feedbacks.

[dothebeats]

Aren't fingerprints easy to replicate on such fingerprint readers? There's even a story of a hacker replicating fingerprints of a German politician using only a photo. As efficient and as handy (no pun intended) this biometric security is to have, it also comes with some concerns. It's fancy, easily accessible and also cool to have, but on the security side which these tools are much needed for, it isn't really as great and fantastic as any other alternatives out there. I'll stick with my paper backups and create a ton of them scattered on some parts of the house , I guess.

[witcher_sense]

I completely get that these sort of "cool features" are nice, I think it's really a bit too much and a bit too unnecessary. For a smartphone that I pretty much use everyday and I have on my hand a lot of times? Makes complete sense. For a hardware wallet that has my funds that I mostly just hold and just transact from time to time? A bit unnecessary. A cheap small Ledger Nano S or Trezor One is enough for me.

I think the point here is that this hardware wallet is not designed for hodling, it is designed for convinient shitcoin trading, stacking, yield farming, you name it. Gate.io, an exchange that launched this wallet, is not interested in their users holding something. Gate.io is interested in their users trading ten thousands of shitcoins (luckely the cool hardware wallet supports all of them) and paying commissions to exchange. That is why they embedded the fingerprint recognition technology into their wallet, such hardware wallet is to be used on everyday basis, like a smartphone.

[romero121]

I completely get that these sort of "cool features" are nice, I think it's really a bit too much and a bit too unnecessary. For a smartphone that I pretty much use everyday and I have on my hand a lot of times? Makes complete sense. For a hardware wallet that has my funds that I mostly just hold and just transact from time to time? A bit unnecessary. A cheap small Ledger Nano S or Trezor One is enough for me.

I think the point here is that this hardware wallet is not designed for hodling, it is designed for convinient shitcoin trading, stacking, yield farming, you name it. Gate.io, an exchange that launched this wallet, is not interested in their users holding something. Gate.io is interested in their users trading ten thousands of shitcoins (luckely the cool hardware wallet supports all of them) and paying commissions to exchange. That is why they embedded the fingerprint recognition technology into their wallet, such hardware wallet is to be used on everyday basis, like a smartphone.

We don't know to what extent this hardware wallet is secure. Gate.io might have got different plans of developing such a hardware wallet, but the fingerprint access will surely help with the heir if something happens in between. As the synchronisation also requires the fingerprint recognition it isn't easy for someone to take control of the funds.

[sunsilk]

A cheap small Ledger Nano S or Trezor One is enough for me.

I haven't bought the X version of Ledger and I'm still happy and content with the old S that I've got. This fairly says that even the older version of Ledger is still working fine as cold storage.

I might buy another one if I want to, just to try new things for hardware wallets and see for myself the experience that it can bring me. As for the Gate.io's hardware wallet, I'll wait until some hardware experts get to see its pros and cons or the codes that have made behind it.

[taufik123]

The emergence of wallet gate.o S1 is only an invasion of a new hardware wallet which can be an option for some people who want to get a hardware wallet that is cheap and capable. Security using fingerprints is a standard security at this time, but it requires additional security. because if you only use fingerprint security, it will certainly be very frustrating when your fingers cannot be detected by this hardwallet frame.

You have the same problem with me dude

I hope it has a pin code back up. Sometimes my finger doesn't work on the phones I've owned. What if something happened to your finger?

The hardware wallet launched by gate.io will probably continue to be developed and this is a start with the Wallet S1 series and then there will be some updates about security that are further improved.

[Leviathan.007]

Comparing to the other hardware wallets, this one is very cheap and this cheap price made me worry about the security of this hardware wallet. However, china has a very long and old experience of creating and selling cheap stuff. But, when you are talking about a wallet to hold your funds on it, security is much more important. However, the technology of fingerprint authorization is kinda new on hardware wallets, but not that much strong because I saw in the news that hackers can easily bypass it.

[kryptqnick]

I completely get that these sort of "cool features" are nice, I think it's really a bit too much and a bit too unnecessary. For a smartphone that I pretty much use everyday and I have on my hand a lot of times? Makes complete sense. For a hardware wallet that has my funds that I mostly just hold and just transact from time to time? A bit unnecessary. A cheap small Ledger Nano S or Trezor One is enough for me.

Well, maybe it depends on how much money is in the wallet and how valuable it is to the holder. I don't have significant sums in BTC that I would not afford to lose, so while I try to be responsible about security, I'm not going for an overkill. But if I had lots of bitcoins there, I'd probably want the highest security measures I could find.
I probably would not trust a new wallet with such a task, though. Like others, the first thing I thought about when I read about fingerprints was how secure it actually is. Others already mentioned potential issues with hacking such an authorization, and in that case it's a false sense of security that the feature gives, which is actually worse than if there were no such feature.

[lovesmayfamilis]

Comparing to the other hardware wallets, this one is very cheap and this cheap price made me worry about the security of this hardware wallet. However, china has a very long and old experience of creating and selling cheap stuff. But, when you are talking about a wallet to hold your funds on it, security is much more important. However, the technology of fingerprint authorization is kinda new on hardware wallets, but not that much strong because I saw in the news that hackers can easily bypass it.

In my opinion, hardware crypto wallet innovation is the competition in the sales market. One and the same product will constantly improve, different gadgets will be added to it, and, naturally, the price will be more attractive to consumers. Reducing prices and increasing quality, this is marketing
 Only if we say that "A miser pays twice.", you should still think about old and tested devices. The same can be said for the mobile phone market.

[Wexnident]

I completely get that these sort of "cool features" are nice, I think it's really a bit too much and a bit too unnecessary. For a smartphone that I pretty much use everyday and I have on my hand a lot of times? Makes complete sense. For a hardware wallet that has my funds that I mostly just hold and just transact from time to time? A bit unnecessary. A cheap small Ledger Nano S or Trezor One is enough for me.

Isn't the fingerprint more for security purposes rather than ease of access? At the very least, it prevents the common robber from opening it immediately. And even if a specialized robber were to be presented with a fingerprint scanner for him to fool, it'd still take time. In addition to that, I suppose they should've also added an offline gps which probably turns on once a fake fingerprint is scanned so that when stolen, can easily be located. I'm just throwing out ideas here though I don't really know how that works.

I hope it has a pin code back up. Sometimes my finger doesn't work on the phones I've owned. What if something happened to your finger?

Yea this is also a wanted feature. I tried looking up info about it, couldn't really find any. Their announcement itself on their exchange also doesn't really contain if it has a pin code back up or anything, though it did state something about auto-initializing when detecting a brute forced attack.

In my opinion, hardware crypto wallet innovation is the competition in the sales market. One and the same product will constantly improve, different gadgets will be added to it, and, naturally, the price will be more attractive to consumers. Reducing prices and increasing quality, this is marketing
 Only if we say that "A miser pays twice.", you should still think about old and tested devices. The same can be said for the mobile phone market.

I highly doubt adding more gadgets to a wallet used for crypto is a good thing. Especially since you're mostly using the wallet to hold coins. Sure, if you were to use it daily in spending stuff then probably, a different wallet to hold crypto to spend and crypto to hold, but with our hodling attitude right now? I doubt they'd include more gadgets in a wallet.

[CryptopreneurBrainboss]

I completely get that these sort of "cool features" are nice, I think it's really a bit too much and a bit too unnecessary.

For those criticizing the figureprint authorization feature, I believe they're trying to make the new hardware wallet sellable like introducing something new they feel their customers or target audience (which obviously are the youths) will feel it's cool to use. I won't mind owning one if it becomes accessable from my region ones the devices has undergo some audit and proven to be as secure as the Ledger Nano S or other top current hardware wallets.

The use of new technology are very common when new device are trying to enter their respective markets, you don't expect them to come with already existing technology and expect them to have an impact on the market. Since most already existing hardware uses password or pin to access their account, wallet S1 becomes more marketable since it fits the current market demand of convenience that the fingerprint option offers.

[bakasabo]

Is there any information how secure this gadget really is? Anything about encryption or how safe gate.io is by itself?
Having a fingerprint scanner for authorization is great, but dont forget general security of this hardware. So far I see this fingerprint just an innovative thing to get attention, while there is few information about gadgets security. This looks more stylish than serious gadget to me.

This scanner does not look impressive. I have same fingerprint scanner in my gym. It scans your finger, checks if you have a valid subscription and lets you in. 3/10 times if fails to recognize my finger so I must turn to reception girl to do all the checking manually. If same will be with this cryptowallet, who I should turn to to authorize my transaction?

For example, even on iPhones 5-8 fingerprint does not work with 100% accuracy and you still need to enter pin. If Apple has issues with fingerprint scanner with their mass production, quality check and etc, what should be expected from someone that just entered hardware cryptowallet market?

[Eureka_07]

<snip>

In my opinion, hardware crypto wallet innovation is the competition in the sales market. <snip>

The most important thing for hardware wallets to have, to be able to compete with other wallets is it's security feature.
Security of the funds is the priority here, that's the sole purpose of hardware wallets.
Ofcourse, efficiency should also be there, reliability and some other important functionalities of the bitcoin hardware wallet.
Gain the trust of the customer and do not disappoint them, that will be a win-win situation for the both of the wallet and the customer.