Best open source hardware wallets for BTC?

[sokani]

Try using either a desktop or mobile Electrum wallet for the main time and move all your funds from that of ledger to your newly acquired Bitcoin wallet. Before it becomes too late, when the ledge is either hit with a security bridge or any funny news from the SEC,

The mobile and desktop electrum wallets are actually good. But there was a time someone on this forum complained of losing funds on an electrum wallet because of not updating to the latest firmware. I don't know if this has been really proven to be true. I have tried looking up google for help but I have not really gotten anything concrete and I would appreciate if someone can help me out.

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[Z-tight]

The mobile and desktop electrum wallets are actually good. But there was a time someone on this forum complained of losing funds on an electrum wallet because of not updating to the latest firmware. I don't know if this has been really proven to be true. I have tried looking up google for help but I have not really gotten anything concrete and I would appreciate if someone can help me out.

It is good to update your electrum software if there is a new update, but using older versions are very safe, surely with newer versions you enjoy new additions and little bugs are fixed, but it does not mean your funds would be lost if you use older versions.

The person probably lost their Bitcoins because their wallet seed phrase or keys was compromised or because they downloaded a fake electrum software and not because they were using an older version of electrum.

[Pmalek]

Right now, I can't point to a particular hardware wallet I can vouch for as open source, but one which I am personally looking forward to using is Arculus from chainge finance, Arculus is a hardware which I believe have not started shipping out, but from all I've read about it, it may likely be a great choice, though like I said , I've not confirmed if the wallet is open source or not.

I doubt that Arculus is open-source. According to our local Croatian hardware wallet topic, it's a credit card-type of device that works only in the USA. You need to use it together with the Arculus app, and the app doesn't work outside of the United States. I don't think you are American, so you should forget about this particular HW.

With governments getting their hands into the crypto industry lately, we should be prepared for the worst. They may compromise the company making the hardware wallet, but if the device is open source, their efforts will be futile in the long run.

I think the biggest concerns will be hardware compromises. We found out recently that Gigabyte mainboards had backdoors installed. I think that will be a huge problem in the future which could also impact the cryptocurrency industry.

...My choice would be Electrum...

The subject of this discussion is Best open source hardware wallets for BTC. Because of that, recommendations for software wallets aren't the way to go.

Just to make things clear, Ledger wallet's firmware is not yet open source, and somewhat controversial after the announcement of the ledger recover product.

If you just want to store btc, then the Coldcard MK4 is your best option.

Well, Coldcard isn't open-source either. But unlike Ledger, Coldcard has a public and verifiable codebase.

But there was a time someone on this forum complained of losing funds on an electrum wallet because of not updating to the latest firmware. I don't know if this has been really proven to be true. I have tried looking up google for help but I have not really gotten anything concrete and I would appreciate if someone can help me out.

There is no firmware with Electrum. Many users became victims of phishing scams in the past because they downloaded and installed fake Electrum wallets without verifying the signatures. This is phishing and social engineering, and is a user mistake.

[Abiky]

No doubt about that--but I don't suspect that Ledger is ever going to release the numbers since they're not a public company and thus don't have to.  Nor are they likely to further damage their brand by announcing a drop in sales or in users.  But man, I really would like to know how much this debacle is (or is going to) hitting them as far as profits go.

And to Abiky I'd say with respect to HW wallets, closed-source code is a bad thing as Ledger has proven.  Such code might be acceptable in other things, but not when it comes to crypto--at least not as far as I can see.

From everything I've read since this went down with Ledger, the best HW wallet brands for bitcoin are BitBox, Blockstream Jade, and Keystone.  Some folks have mentioned others, but I'm pretty sure that's because they were paid sponsorships on Youtube.  I'm pretty turned off by Ledger and HW wallets in general now, so I don't think I'll be buying any new ones (except perhaps as collectibles).

I like the Jade wallet very much. It has so many features for a very low price. And best of all, it's open source so you don't have to worry about Blockstream "going rogue" sometime in the future. I'd just start over by destroying the seed linked to my Ledger wallet, and make a new seed on the Jade wallet. That's without transfering my BTC funds first.

I've looked into Passport as well, but it's a lot more expensive than other open source wallets. But it's quite interesting to say the least. With plenty of alternatives on the market, who needs Ledger anymore?

[Casdinyard]

Well, in search of the best hardware wallet to use since ledger has broken their users trust, try using either a desktop or mobile Electrum wallet for the main time and move all your funds from that of ledger to your newly acquired Bitcoin wallet. Before it becomes too late, when the ledge is either hit with a security bridge or any funny news from the SEC,

Electrum's tried and tested but sometimes it just fails and when it does it fails horribly, so take using Electrum with a massive hand of salt.

Although I would agree with the fact that Hard Drive wallets are still good when it comes to saving your bitcoins. Been hearing lately that Trezor's the king but Ellipal could be as good as it in terms of security, plus the recent debacle with Trezor just rids them of that hard-earned trust and respect their users had for them, so I don't think you should dabble with this one too at least for now. Jade Wallet's great, when it comes to cost efficiency, and then Passport but that one's expensive with less features but the security I must say is top-notch.

[FatFork]

Try using either a desktop or mobile Electrum wallet for the main time and move all your funds from that of ledger to your newly acquired Bitcoin wallet. Before it becomes too late, when the ledge is either hit with a security bridge or any funny news from the SEC,

The mobile and desktop electrum wallets are actually good. But there was a time someone on this forum complained of losing funds on an electrum wallet because of not updating to the latest firmware. I don't know if this has been really proven to be true. I have tried looking up google for help but I have not really gotten anything concrete and I would appreciate if someone can help me out.

You may be referring to julerz12's case, posted here: I've been hacked (Electrum 4.3.2).

While the user did mention not updating his wallet to the latest version, it's important to consider that there isn't enough clear evidence to pinpoint the exact reason for his coin loss. From what I remember, julerz12 mentioned that he hasn't accessed his wallet for quite some time until he was alerted about coins being moved. This suggests that the leak of the wallet's private keys or seed phrase might have occurred prior to any potential "hack," if we can even label it as such.

[BlackHatCoiner]

Well, Coldcard isn't open-source either. But unlike Ledger, Coldcard has a public and verifiable codebase.

Pardon me, but isn't verifiable codebase synonym to open-source? In the Github repository, you have everything needed to study the source code of the firmware. Why doesn't that count as open-source? Also, in bitcoin.org it marks it as open-source, but I do notice it's the only place that it's called that way.

Electrum's tried and tested but sometimes it just fails and when it does it fails horribly, so take using Electrum with a massive hand of salt.

Bitcoin Core and Electrum are the two most tested and reviewed Bitcoin software. Where does it fail? Open up an issue.

[Abiky]

Electrum's tried and tested but sometimes it just fails and when it does it fails horribly, so take using Electrum with a massive hand of salt.

Although I would agree with the fact that Hard Drive wallets are still good when it comes to saving your bitcoins. Been hearing lately that Trezor's the king but Ellipal could be as good as it in terms of security, plus the recent debacle with Trezor just rids them of that hard-earned trust and respect their users had for them, so I don't think you should dabble with this one too at least for now. Jade Wallet's great, when it comes to cost efficiency, and then Passport but that one's expensive with less features but the security I must say is top-notch.

Nothing compares to a hardware wallet in terms of security and reliability. Software wallets can be easily hacked as they're always online (although it's possible to use them offline for cold storage). The main selling point of hardware wallets is that you can use them as both a hot wallet and a cold wallet without fear of compromising your keys and/or seeds (depends if they're open source or not).

I'd take an open source hardware wallet anytime, even though most of them are expensive. Ledger will become history as competitors take its place on the market. Many people already lost confidence in it, so I doubt the company will survive with newcomers into the crypto/Blockchain space. Who knows what will happen in the future?

[gunhell16]

It seems like when the Trezor wallet had an issue if I'm not mistaken, it was actually someone else who has control of our wallet account such as the word seed phrase and private key apart from the password of course.

There are many hardware wallets that can be used for us to trust, so always do your own research. There are many ways to know if it is safe or not. Of course, you will also balance which one has the most users of an open-source wallet, because I have only been using Electrum on my Desktop PC for a few years now.

[Abiky]

Not all users prioritize the same level of security or have the same technical knowledge when storing cryptocurrencies. I found that while Ledger did face criticism for their handling of the situation, the incident did not directly affect the security of the hardware wallet itself. The compromises related to the disclosure of customer data remain intact. It's worth mentioning that if open-source hardware wallets are your top priority, then you should consider Trezor, Coldcard Wallet, and BitBox. These wallets have been known for their commitment to open source principles, allowing the community to review and verify code for added security.

Ledger provided a whitepaper describing how its "recovery service" works. But I don't think that's enough to gain the trust of veteran crypto users like me. Why didn't Ledger decide to open source the firmware of its "Nano" devices? Is it because they're hiding something?

Anyhow, I'm glad we have plenty of open source hardware wallets to choose from. Things would've been worse if Ledger was the only manufacturer of hardware wallets. Closed source is the antithesis of crypto, in my opinion. Ultimately, time will tell us if Ledger will survive with stiff competition in the crypto/Blockchain space. As long as decentralization/censorship-resistance wins, we should have nothing to worry about.