Hardbit Bitcoin Wallet Review

[ManeBjorn]

I got to review and Hardbit Bitcoin wallet.  It was a pleasant surprise as it works well and is fairly simple to use.
With so much vaporware out there and companies like BFL not shipping anything at all it was also nice to be able to get one and not have to wait forever for it to ship or worse not at all.
I wanted to share my review with you all. 

Hardbit recently started shipping the Hardbit HB01 Bitcoin Hardware Wallet.  The HB01 is a low cost offline, secure, cold storage solution for your bitcoins that still allows you to use them when you want. The Trezor wallet is just starting to ship pre-orders and Butterfly Labs has still not shipped their hardware wallet (or anything at all for that matter). This has left a huge gap in the market for a stand-alone solution to offline storage that is not a paper wallet or a complicated DIY method.
Hardbit has stepped into that gap with the HB01.

My first impression of the HB01 is that it is rugged and small. It also looks like a mini cell phone with a touch screen and camera on the back.
Size:
2.5″ Touch Screen
48 x 88 x 12.8mm

It comes with an extra 900 mah lithium battery. There is also a USB power cord and dongle to plug it in.

It does not come with a paper manual. There is a manual on the unit itself. The PDF is available in english on the Hardbit site. It is helpful but upon turning on the HB01 it walks you through setup very simply. It requires an Android app which I found easy to use during setup. As it is not transacting Bitcoin it also helps keep your Bitcoin safe.  There is not an app for iPhone as we all know Apple is anti-anything-they-do-not-control.

The interface is clean and easy to use. The screen is easy to see and glare not an issue when scanning the QR code.  In the directions, they stress making a secure password and also to make a backup.  One of the ways that the HB01 works is to allow for a backup. This way if your HB01 is lost or broken you still have your Bitcoin. The ability gives a bit more of a sense of security when using the HB01.

http://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/news/hardbit-bitcoin-wallet-offline-secure-cold-storage/2014/05/20

[BitAddict]

Nice!
How much does it cost?
Their website is not loading for me.

[inBitweTrust]

Ok so I received two of my hardbits today.  I would like to direct people to the users manual which is located here:
http://www.hardbit.cn/index.php/downloads

The problem I have is this:
1. No way to upload your own private key.  You must use the private key that comes with your wallet.  This means we need to rely on a third party hardbit.cn to assure us that the private key they generated was either destroyed or is kept somewhere securely.
2. No way to download the private key on the wallet without using their proprietary backup system.
3. No way to via a usb connection transmit data to / from the device.

Seems like the the private keys are generated automatically by the wallet when setup. They still needs to open up the software and how it works for trust to be established.

[inBitweTrust]

Nice!
How much does it cost?
Their website is not loading for me.

0.299BTC plus 0.1BTC international shipping

http://www.hardbit.cn/index.php/purchase

[franky1]

ok the OP made maybe 3 small points, but can someone do a proper review, you know on that contains details, actual details.

EG
1. is it a re-coded phone that still has all the antenna and phone chips inside
2. has the android software had all phone related code removed, to ensre it cannot communicate wirelessly with a simple 'enable' button.
3. is it so secure that it never requires connecting to a PC, for any updates, syncing or any reason at all. to avoid trojans/exploits

in my eyes i could have wrote the exact same review without even handling, testing the hardbit. so please OP get into better detail about the chips in side, the OS, security risks, exploitability.

for instance just this small sentence alone " There is also a USB power cord and dongle to plug it in." already makes me question the exploitability of it. a proper review does not leave more unanswered questions then before the review is read.

please dont make reviews that are harmonic, pleasant, and PR positive for the company. instead be honest, detailed and explain the benefits AND risks.

[ManeBjorn]

Those are good questions I can partially answer.
1- I could not find any antenna, sim area on the unit.
2- The software is very locked down.  I could not find any way for it to connect to via wireless or otherwise.  I also connected it to my lapot via USB and I was not able to do anything with it.  This does not mean that it cannot be done but I was not able to.  It did not show up as a storage device either.
3- It works without ever having to be connected to anything via any means other than power to charge the battery every now and then.  All the sync'ing was done with QR codes.  At no point does it need to be connected to anything.  In fact you don't even have to create a wallet backup if you do not want to.  I did because I am paranoid and wanted a backup.

I could not tell you about the chips as I did not tear it completely apart.  The software is so mission specific I did not get anywhere with trying to find out what it was.
I agree with the other person who posted that the company needs to at least give some more info on it's internals and OS.  It seems that the OS is single purpose driven to the point it does this one thing only.  I could find no other options or things in it so far.

As for my review being PR positive it was because I am happy with it so far and did not find any real negatives to turn me off to it yet.  That may change if something comes up and I will update you all immediately if it does.
This was not an item from the company to me to review either.
I purchased this because I wanted to try a solution now and not much else was shipping that I could get my hands on.  The Trezor is out but they are only fulfilling pre-orders so far.  BFL rarely ships anything.  The Pitbull did not get funding enough to produce any yet.  That left me with the Hardbit to try.
As soon as I can get a Trezor I am going to do a comparison.  I hope to know more about the Hardbit by then as well as I have sent an email asking about some of the very things you asked about.

Also thanks for your input I will remember these things so I can make my reviews better. 

ok the OP made maybe 3 small points, but can someone do a proper review, you know on that contains details, actual details.

EG
1. is it a re-coded phone that still has all the antenna and phone chips inside
2. has the android software had all phone related code removed, to ensre it cannot communicate wirelessly with a simple 'enable' button.
3. is it so secure that it never requires connecting to a PC, for any updates, syncing or any reason at all. to avoid trojans/exploits

in my eyes i could have wrote the exact same review without even handling, testing the hardbit. so please OP get into better detail about the chips in side, the OS, security risks, exploitability.

for instance just this small sentence alone " There is also a USB power cord and dongle to plug it in." already makes me question the exploitability of it. a proper review does not leave more unanswered questions then before the review is read.

please dont make reviews that are harmonic, pleasant, and PR positive for the company. instead be honest, detailed and explain the benefits AND risks.

[zeetubes]

Thanks for posting OP. Couple of questions... you mentioned that it asks you to make a backup. Is that so that you can recreate the wallet if you lose or break it? Does this mean I could buy two or more and essentially make a duplicate so that I could ship one to my brother etc?

[NWO]

Oh look, here it is! 

[IIOII]

Although it is a recoded phone I still think it's a much needed product. I never felt comfortable having a bitcoin wallet on my cell because of security / privacy reasons. So I think it's great to finally see a separate bitcoin hardware wallet.

However I think the device should be smaller (less thick) and a desktop client is a must have. But this might be improved in future.

[franky1]

Although it is a recoded phone I still think it's a much needed product. I never felt comfortable having a bitcoin wallet on my cell because of security / privacy reasons. So I think it's great to finally see a separate bitcoin hardware wallet.

However I think the device should be smaller (less thick) and a desktop client is a must have. But this might be improved in future.

a recoded phone can be de-coded too, imagine whn group buys start, one guy gets the phones from the suppliers and then de-codes it back to enable the phone features.

i think that the HB01 is to be a template or prototype for a future true hardware wallet. and this is not the end of the line. much like the raspberry PI was based on a recoded phone at first prototype, but the end retail release product was completely different. so im waiting out for the HB-02... or 3 or 4 where its not based on a phone

[ManeBjorn]

I have not found a way to import a key into the unit yet.
There should be a way to do it and I hope that Hardbit lets me know.  I asked about that.
Part of their replacement policy states they can reimport your wallet dat file at the factory.  I am thinking they will have it polished for end users to do as well.  I wonder if it will be when they release the windows software.

Thanks for posting OP. Couple of questions... you mentioned that it asks you to make a backup. Is that so that you can recreate the wallet if you lose or break it? Does this mean I could buy two or more and essentially make a duplicate so that I could ship one to my brother etc?

[xu2gang1]

Thanks alot for the review.
We had many conversation with customers and potential customers after the product release.
Then we suddenly found that we've put ourself into a pitfall:a good person have to prove by himself that he is a good guy.
As you know, to make a safe, easy of use, affordable hardware wallet is already a very hard job, self-proving is an additional work and maybe even harder.
But , to be responsible for our customers, and to develop our business, we WILL do this.
One proof we've already done and we feel very luck is that we chose QR code as the only communicating method:no automatic transfer,all the information exchanging is visible, information can be analysed by 3rd party software.

Answers for some questions:
1 importing a wallet file to Hardbit .
Importing existing wallets is unsafe from hardware wallet's point of view. Our idea is to provide an once-send-all dedicated online software, for those who's Hardbit is lost or broken.i.e, import the backup wallet file to the software, input an target address(recommends an address created by another Hardbit),input password, and the software sends all the Bitcoin in the backup file to the new address. This software will be available soon.

2 product size and product line
HB02 will be a thinner,lighter and cheaper product, but with less safety.
Our product positioning: HB01 for relatively high-amount customers;HB02 for realtively low-amount customers; and special solution for ultra-high-amount customers.

BTW, thanks to the Bitcoin price surge, we've lowered the product price to 0.269BTC.

Alan Xu
On behalf of Hardbit team

[Ron~Popeil]

I use a rasberry pi as a cold wallet but this seems intriguing. The rasberry pi is limited by the lack of a bar code scanner obviously but pretty secure. 

[ozbitcoinexpress]

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=291155150042

Found one on auction starting at a buck. Interesting to see how this goes.

[ManeBjorn]

That is cool.  Hopefully it goes well.
I see they used one of the pics from my article.  LOL

The HB01 has been working well for me still.  No hiccups or issued.
I have been pleasantly surprised.

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=291155150042

Found one on auction starting at a buck. Interesting to see how this goes.

[joshuad31]

Ok so I received two of my hardbits today.  I would like to direct people to the users manual which is located here:
http://www.hardbit.cn/index.php/downloads

The problem I have is this:
1. No way to upload your own private key.  You must use the private key that comes with your wallet.  This means we need to rely on a third party hardbit.cn to assure us that the private key they generated was either destroyed or is kept somewhere securely.
2. No way to download the private key on the wallet without using their proprietary backup system.
3. No way to via a usb connection transmit data to / from the device.

Seems like the the private keys are generated automatically by the wallet when setup. They still needs to open up the software and how it works for trust to be established.

I will say this that they were quick to process my refund.  They refunded my shipping and handling.  When I pointed out that I wasn't happy that their source code was not open source and there were trust issues they stated that maybe sometime in the future they would like to use open source source code.

This company is genuinely trying to offer value in the bitcoin space I just am not interested in this particular approach.  But their honesty is a positive.  They would do much better if they decided to create online videos showcasing their product and how to use it.  If I could have seen one I would have saved them the trouble of the return process.

Joshua

[zeetubes]

Good to know that they're easy to deal with. A few months back, I was in china and I bought a couple of ultra cheap but not awful android phones (<$30, 4" touch screens), reset them to factory defaults and removed extraneous apps, switched off wlan and BT and side loaded mycelium. IMO it's not a bad option as cold storage and I can make duplicates easier than with the hardbit.  If anyone has any comments about that setup, positive or negative, I'd be interested in hearing them.

[johnatan32]

Very nice, actually my wallet takes a long time until I get, maybe I will replace it yours

[Mikez]

Interesting concept and review. I may consider ordering one in the future. However.. shouldn't this belong in the Development & Technical Discussion where close to all discussion about wallets(even hardware ones) take place?

[logger]

I would not trust any device that was not open source. How do we know this cannot be hacked? How do we know that this isn't sending our private keys to the firm?