When I'm not shitposting, econ ranting, boomer bashing, or sharing mountain views, I have on occasion been writing about hardware wallets and other Bitcoin setup systems. #800714

It's been a while.

Introducing the bitkey, new and old:

I’ve used a bitkey as my main spend-and-receive hot wallet for the better part of two years. (Level 2 in DarthCoin’s 1-2-3 rendition of bitcoin balances and how to secure them #302681)

So, when an odd tweet by the president of Próspera proposed to send $250 in bitcoin for buying a new bitkey, I saw my cheap chance. I am a shitposter with enough following; I want an upgraded bitkey with a screen; …and oh the ~20% arbitrage right off the top (since a bitkey plus delivery only cost me about $205) is juicy. (Also: bitcoin's exchange rate today is some 25% higher than when Mr. Bomgar engaged in this little redistribution/marketing stunt, so I'll take the difference as my just payout for the labor and inconvenience of setting it up.) Don't mind if I grab free shit

The guy spent some $25,000 to promote and supply a bunch of not-exactly-random strangers on the internet with a bitkey, hoping (in vain?) that they’d reciprocate and write about/video/share their experience with using what he says is “the most amazing bitcoin product ever.” Looking around, I can't say he got too much bang for his bucks (sats).

The smart play (and that presumably some of the ~100 unworthy recipients did) would have been to just take the dough and never talk to Mr. Bomgar again... then again, this is Bitcoin and those of us passionate about this space are pretty generous with our time, and reciprocal and honest in character.

Kudos to Mr. Bomgar for doing this grassroots campaign on his own literal dime, and seems only fair that I give him the time of day to actually write up my unboxing/experience with using bitkey.

The first edition, the screenless version I’ve used for a long time, is super convenient. It’s a 2-of-3 multisig with keys distributed as phone wallet app + physical rock-looking device + bitkey servers, with the backup files (app key + emergency exit kit) stored and encrypted on my Google drive. (I have had no occasion to invoke these, and been too lazy to battle-test the features.)

Their big selling point was toward normies: Abstract away from seed phrases and the pesky mechanics of Bitcoin under-the-hood and just have a secure, functional wallet that any regular schmuck can use. (Even UTXOs are mostly hidden... you can display them and coin-control only via consolidating small ones... not the proper control and overview we're used to from HWWs.)

Recently, they’ve changed that tune and realized that part of their audience and clientele might also be as a secondary/alternative (or travel-friendly) setup for pretty dedicated Bitcoiners.

I certainly fall in this category. I can^[1] safeguard my own single-sig seedphrases and I can store my traditional hardware-in-cold-storage wallet appropriately. But I don’t touch those on a regular basis, and I certainly don’t want to (re)move them for travel purposes. Plus, taking stuff away from the house etc (presuming, indeed, that I keep the HWWs at home...), I’m always wary I’ll drop stuff or clumsily lose e.g., bags. The multisig/back-up feature gives nice peace of mind… plus, the device looks like a decorative rook anyways, and so offers some sort of privacy/opsec protection.

I certainly liked the gold-colored back and altogether rock feeling of the original bitkey. It was smooth and easy to use. TWO drawbacks with the original rock:

1. no screen/ability to double-check fees, address, or amount of the tx that I’m signing.
2. inability to pick fee rates; even at low-fee options, even in our extreme low-fee environment, they seem too high – in the 200-500 sats range, regardless of the going blockspace price, weirdly higher now than ~a year ago. (In contrast, standard transactions from my other wallets easily reach into double-digit sats.) Fine, multisig is a heavier transaction type, but this is annoyingly on the nose.

The new one, while wider and with the benefits of a screen, feels more like... yet another screened device (#1597013). It feels slightly more plastic-y and with the screen definitely more fragile.

The new bitkey comes in a flashy packaging, with the interior box having this nice, shiny tamperproof seal reading “Secured for life” on it. Unpacking it we get this Apple-like feel of quality product: slick, simple, no skimping on costs in even the irrelevant packaging department.

The contrast to the original version is:

• slightly lighter color
• somewhat thicker and larger
• the surface of the new one (with screen on the back) feels more plastic-y – but it could just be that the old one is used and greasy and has been lumped around everywhere.

Migrating from old to new

In a recent interview with Stephan Livera, Clay Garrett (bitkey lead at Block) described how replacing a physical device is as easy as a few clicks with the new hardware and waiting a mandatory 7-day security period… during which the company will literally spam you with emails and messages (in case, you know, there’s some malicious actor or noisy roommate or evil maid hack involved).

Like an idiot, I clicked this option instead of just setting up the new bitkey and moving the funds on-chain. (Turns out the transfer needed an on-chain TX anyway in the recovery process.)

Mimicking a recovery process, is what I was mostly excited (and terrified!) for. I'm glad I could/did this when it wasn't necessary and I could just wait it out, no biggie. Worse in e.g., a coldcard-type of situation.

I waited a week, during which I received about ~3 notifications on the app, some on email, and another few on the associated (burner) phone. Not that bad, actually.

The final recovery process itself was fairly smooth: a lot of clicks and taps between device and phone... and then it all worked.

Today I made the first tx. While I got precisely what I wanted (1), it also meant a few more extra taps and rounds of confirmation between device and phone. Before it was all just tap-tap-tap, done. Now: slightly clunkier.

TL;DR: happy user, happy upgrade, great experience... and the best part, the additional sats became a beautiful carry trade... because obviously I didn't trust Mr. Bomgar, so I took his initial tx on a fresh on-chain wallet, paid bitkey with dirty fiat, and laundered the initial balance through Lightning. Just in case there was some spying/chainalysis spyware going on. (I probs fucked myself in some sense... but Luke says you can only protect yourself so much: #1504762, #1524157...)

Second, privileged/oh-no-woo-is-me observation: What am I supposed to do with the old bitkey?

Can I (SHOULD I?!) reuse it, or gift it away to a friend or family member? probably not, since in some sense the history of these two devices are cryptographically linked! and it's saved with my bio/Google drive??

... so now I just have another pretty rock sitting around?!

Anyway, cool and funky experience. Bitcoiners are funny.

1. (and maybe I do/don't... lost my boat in a CC accident; hi feds/wrench-attackers!) ↩