Top Hardware Wallets React Differently to Coldcard Crisis
When the Coldcard crisis erupted at the end of July and into August, the top 13 manufacturers of Bitcoin hardware wallets sprang into action to reassure their users. Each team's response was unique, with varying speeds, clarity, and helpfulness.
The US-based company Block, manufacturer of Bitkey, was among the first to warn its users about the exploit and published a detailed technical analysis confirming that the seedless Bitkey wallet wasn't affected. Canada-based Blockstream, the manufacturer of Jade, also quickly informed its followers on X after around 14 hours since the crisis erupted.
However, speed was not always accompanied by thoroughness. For example, Ledger, one of the industry leaders in Europe, took around 14 hours to post on X and was criticized for its slow response.
The teams' communication patterns showed a heavy emphasis on how entropy is generated, as they tried to differentiate themselves from Coldcard. Some manufacturers highlighted support for user-generated entropy as a way to reduce trust in the device's own random number generator (RNG).