Denver Bitcoin User Destroys ColdCard Q Over Firmware Flaw

Denver Bitcoin user Adam (@denverbitcoin on X) took drastic action to protest a firmware flaw in his ColdCard Q hardware wallet. He chose to destroy the device as a symbolic gesture of solidarity with users who were affected by the vulnerability.

The issue lies in the seed generation process, which only used 32 bytes of entropy, making it theoretically easier to brute-force than users thought. However, those who added a passphrase (the 25th word) were largely insulated from the problem.

Coinkite, the company behind ColdCard, acknowledged the issue and released updated firmware. They also advised affected users to generate new seeds and clarified that the hardware itself was not defective.

The incident has sparked criticism of influencers and educators who recommended ColdCard devices without adequately testing their security assumptions or pushing passphrase adoption.