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It's been some time since I've done a review here and I'm super excited to present to you this device today.
This is the latest Keystone Pro hardware wallet device. It was formerly known as Cobo Vault Pro and I interviewed its founder and key developer Lixin Liu and we discussed everything you need to know about this rebranding from Cobo to Keystone - what was the need for this and what are the main security features of this device - why do I say it's the most secure device... but before we go into my conversation with Lixin, here is what Keystone Wallet offers - what you get for your money:
Let me start with a bold statement here: this is what I call the Rolls Royce (or in crypto jargon - the Lamborghini) of hardware wallets.
It is using an airgapped state of security which is based on QR codes transmissions.
This way the potential malware infiltration risks like with the hardware wallets using USB or Bluetooth are eliminated.
It uses the Keystone app to communicate with the wallet and sign transactions which is available for both iOS and Android devices.
Whole firmware is open source along with the code audit report and you can check it out on GitHub.
It has a nice 4 inch color touch screen which makes all information and signing transactions very visible and easy to use.
Keystone supports Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, Polkadot, Litecoin, Tron, XRP along with ETH and Tron tokens. There's hundreds, if not thousands of more coins and tokens, so to see the full list of supported assets, go here.
Since it can be integrated with software wallets Specter, Bluewallet, Electrum, Metamask, Wasabi, Sparrow it can be used in fact for much bigger number of crypto assets but also for DeFi and Staking purposes.
Keystone also offers the Bitcoin-only firmware version which minimizes the code and attack possibilities for Bitcoin-only users.
Check out the Keystone Wallet with a special discount code by me: CRYPTOCORNER (apply code at checkout)
Website: https://keyst.one/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/KeystoneWallet Blog: https://blog.keyst.one/
There's also a Keystone tablet metal case for a secure back up of your seed phrase which you can order separately - this I do recommend - the seed phrase is ultimately your only and most important recovery code - if your device gets lost, stolen or damaged, you will need this to sync another device with your accounts and access your coins or tokens, so you should never lose or compromise your seed phrase. Do not store it on your computer or in any digital form really.
As far as security is concerned, Keystone has pioneered the hardware wallet industry’s first open source Secure Element firmware. It allows you to see how private keys are derived from physically generated entropy (TRNG) and stay entirely confined within the Secure Element. Their hardware wallet application layer, circuit diagram, and bill of materials (BOM) are also open source.
There is a third-party code audit report which is also open, the first ever made public by a hardware wallet company.
They have now implemented SatoshiLabs’ SLIP39 Shamir Backups which is basically sharding of the back up phrase and storing it onto several cards and you can choose how many of these back up cards will be needed in order to do a restore - this means that you can share the back up phrase on let's say 5 cards, but 3 out of the 5 will be enough to do the recovery, so one day, even if you lose 1 or 2 of the 5 cards, the other 3 will be enough to do the job. You can leave them in different locations - like your parents house, a safe storage etc... and really spread them around, so if anyone gets hold of 1 or 2 of these, they will not be able to do a recovery without a third one - this gives you extra security.
There is a fingerprint sensor for unlocking the device, as well as a password that you set up and a pattern lock, so there are various ways to unlock the device. There's also a self-destruct mechanism built in, so if there is a forced entry or any attempt at breaking in the device, it will protect your data - but it will be destroyed, so you will need that seed phrase to access your funds.
I have some experience with this device from back when it was called Cobo Vault Pro - this was the first company that hired Lixin Liu to create their hardware wallet - which is still in operation, but after disagreements on new features and upgrades to the device, the developers team walked away from Cobo and set up Keystone - which is why I am happy to replace my Cobo with Keystone - even though the Cobo device is still fully functional and without any drawbacks.
In a blog post titled "Leaving Cobo to continue the Cobo Vault legacy", the Former head of hardware at Cobo and main developer Lixin Liu explains the reasoning behind the move to Keystone and in my interview with him, we discussed this again as well as all the key features that make this device un-hackable, and basically the most secure device on the market. We also discussed new features that make it possible to use DeFi and Staking with Keystone.
Take a look:
??Check out the Keystone Wallet with a special discount code by me: CRYPTOCORNER (apply code at checkout)
Website: https://keyst.one/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/KeystoneWallet
Blog: https://blog.keyst.one/
