Hardware wallets that actually protect your bitcoin

When is a hardware wallet worth buying?

Roughly when the amount you hold exceeds what you would be relaxed about losing. There is no universal threshold, but the reasoning is simple: a hardware wallet costs a fixed amount once, and the risk it removes scales with your balance. At small amounts a reputable exchange is a reasonable place to keep coins you are actively trading. At savings amounts it is not, and the list of failed exchanges that took customer funds with them is long enough to settle the argument.

The other trigger is time. Bitcoin you intend to hold for years will outlive at least some of the companies currently holding it for you. Keys you control have no counterparty to outlive.

What the statuses on this page mean

Active means the manufacturer still sells and maintains the device. Discontinued means it is no longer sold, though existing units may still receive security maintenance, and each of those pages names the model that replaced it. Caution means something is wrong beyond the device simply being old.

KeepKey is the clearest example of the last category. Its firmware upkeep has effectively stalled since ShapeShift, its owner from 2017, dissolved into a DAO in July 2021, and current security roundups advise against continued use. A device nobody is patching is not a safe place for savings, whatever it cost.

Discontinued is not the same warning. The Trezor Model One sold from July 2014 and was the first hardware wallet anyone shipped; the Model T followed in February 2018 as the first with a touchscreen. Both are retired, both are superseded by current Trezor models, and both still work. The reason to read those pages is to find out what to buy instead.

What to look for when comparing devices

Screen size and quality matter more than the spec sheet suggests, because the screen is the only part of the system an attacker on your computer cannot lie to you through. Verifying an address on the device itself is the entire security model, and a screen too small to read comfortably is a screen people stop checking.

After that: whether the firmware is open source and independently reviewed, whether the manufacturer is still shipping updates, and whether the recovery standard is one other wallets can restore from. That last point is what stops a device from becoming a single point of failure. A seed phrase that only one company's hardware understands is a bet on that company.

Price is the least interesting variable. The Ledger Nano X on this page lists at $149, and the range across current devices is narrow enough that it should not decide anything.

Buying one without getting robbed

Buy from the manufacturer directly, or from a reseller the manufacturer lists. Never buy a hardware wallet secondhand, and never buy one from a marketplace listing, however well reviewed the seller looks. A tampered device is indistinguishable from a new one until your coins leave.

When it arrives, generate a new seed on the device itself. A wallet that comes with a seed phrase already written on a card is a theft in progress, not a convenience.