Bitcoin Core v22.0 with Hardware Wallet support

[dkbit98]

Next version of Bitcoin Core v22 will start to support connection with Hardware Wallets with HWI Python library.
Interface will change and new options for hardware wallets added to settings, then you will be able to create new wallet with your connected device.

Merged pulled request for UI external signer support (hardware wallet):
https://github.com/bitcoin-core/gui/pull/4

Bitcoin Core v22.0 Release Notes Draft:

External signers such as hardware wallets can now be used. These require an external tool such as HWI to be installed and configured under Options -> Wallet. When creating a new wallet a new option "External signer" will appear in the dialog. If the device is detected, its name is suggested as the wallet name. The watch-only keys are then automatically imported. Receive addresses can be verified on the device. The send dialog will automatically use the connected device. This feature is experimental and the UI may freeze for a few seconds when performing these actions.

https://github.com/bitcoin-core/bitcoin-devwiki/wiki/22.0-Release-Notes-draft#gui-changes

 

[1714730090]

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[1714730090]

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[HCP]

That is actually pretty good news. I'm certainly looking forward to giving it a go once they get it released... even if it will still be deemed experimental.

Some more detail on the "external signer" functionality: https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/blob/master/doc/external-signer.md

[NotATether]

That is actually pretty good news. I'm certainly looking forward to giving it a go once they get it released... even if it will still be deemed experimental.

Some more detail on the "external signer" functionality: https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/blob/master/doc/external-signer.md

Looks like it's going to be easier to set up HWI than I thought, seeing that there are binary releases on it on Github for Linux/MacOS/Windows: https://github.com/bitcoin-core/HWI/releases/tag/2.0.2

This seems more or less a way to loosely integrate HWI rather than a framework since there aren't any other signers that I know of which can interface with hardware wallets.

For Windows, I'd prefer a signer built with C++ since python tends to be... tacky at installing dependencies when you run it for the first time. Plus making people install Python to run a signer & Bitcoin core makes the setup complicated for new users and C++ compiled with MSVC/Xcode can simply be distributed as one installer or binary.

I don't see any of that happening at HWI but given that it's reviewed as well as Bitcoin Core, it's possible that an alternative signer project be made that does distribute these binaries with a similar amount of review.