EOS - Hardware Wallet Release Coming Soon?
Hardware Wallets
The community has been asking for a hardware wallet before the mainnet even launched, as of now we have no options available to us, but they may be about to change. Looking at the EOS GitHub repo found here, there is a milestone labeled 'Hardfork 1.0'. Although there are still a bunch of open items (16), we do have four completed, one of which stands out as interesting.
When we dig into the details under the closed listing, there is an item called 'Secure wallet.' There is no real detail when I dig deeper, which I can only surmise is to keep the big reveal a secret for now and that a hardfork is needed to update the chain to support the new feature. Hard forking here does not mean there will be a new chain, it just means that the old version will no longer be used so we should see the chain ID change once this the migration is complete. The hardfork code is due to be completed on August the 1st, 2018 and then the block producers will have to agree on when to update during the weekly block producers meetup call. Dan Larimer has already hinted that Block One is working on a hardware wallet for Apple Inc devices that support secure enclave, and this wallet will work on the complete suite of devices that Apple offers consumers.
I purchased a ledger hardware wallet a few years back to help secure my cryptocurrency but found that it became more of a hindrance than anything else. Having to carry around yet another device to transfer funds and using the tiny screen on the device along with having to open a separate app on my iPhone or the chrome extension was not working for me. If Block One develops this correctly, it will be a game changer for the hardware wallet industry for me as I always have one of my devices with me. With the millions of IOS devices in use today, this could potentially bring cryptocurrency awareness to many more people as it will increase the simplicity if using and secure holding crypto in my opinion.
I am an Apple user, so I am very excited about this wallet having the ability to securely access the features of EOS from any of my Apple devices is super convenient. Not everyone uses Apple though, for those who do not you will still options that are due to hit soon.
Not Just Apple
Block One are not the only team working to deliver hardware wallets to the EOS community. @cypherglass have put out a $100K bounty for EOS integration into the Trezor and the Ledger Nano S wallets. The bounty is split into $50k for each wallet, and so far, someone has managed to show a proof of concept demonstrating signing a transaction with the Ledger Nano S. Work still needs to be completed on an easy to use front end GUI, but this is great progress. More details can be found here
@eosnewyork have also entered the game with a post stating they are working their won hardware wallet, code-named EOS Bridge. For full details, read their post here.
EOS does not currently have reliable hardware wallet integration but it soon will. While, EOS New York has spent the last few weeks exploring Ledger integration, after taking stock of the current landscape, we have decided against pursuing it. We made this decision because there is likely someone who has already beaten us to it, but also because Dan Larimer has publicly stated that BlockOne is working on secure enclave integration into specific Apple Devices.
EOS New York believes in simple and scalable solutions which is why we are shifting our focus to build our own hardware wallet, code named EOS Bridge.Final Thoughts
The EOS community is starting to grow, and in the short time that EOS has become a reality, and we have seen fantastic progress. The community is rapidly growing the ecosystem, coming together to make this blockchain a 'best in class' platform.
Good thanks for sharing
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Good post...I think a better hardware wallet could be yet another game changer for EOS in this space. I have a Ledger, its nice and secure but its a pain. I only use it for cold storage.