At the forefront of security measures in cryptocurrency and blockchain, hard wallets blend easy-to-use functions with advanced security measures. Hard wallets need the utmost protection, as they are a place to store
crypto and digital assets offline safely. Here’s a look at several different methods these hard wallets use for protection.
12 – 24 word seed-phrase
Many hard wallets require these randomized seed phrases which are known by only the wallet owner and stored in a safe place off the internet. This random string of words makes it impossible to guess a seedphrase and to access the wallet without the owner’s consent.
Air-gapped
The term air-gapped is a form of isolation. An Air-gapped wallet is physically isolated from untrusted and outside sources, usually requiring certain data to pass a certain criteria before it is approved to enter the hard wallet. Some go as far as to require the data to transfer to USB, ensuring the transaction has no malicious intent, before transferring the data to the hard wallet. Air-gapped features such as SD cards and QR codes can connect exchanges or online wallets to hard wallets, essentially acting as the actual air-gap.
Wired wallet
Wired in contrast to wireless, a wired wallet consists of a direct connection between the hard wallet to a device such as a phone or laptop. This is coded to the wallet and requires a one-time generated code confirmation on both the wallet and connected device.
Some hard wallets can be hacked
Almost all hard wallet hacks are to do with tampering. Third party marketplaces such as Amazon are known to sell these wallets brand new. However, always buying from the brand of wallet’s website directly is the only guaranteed safe way to purchase a wallet. Wallet tampering can easily happen in factory to factory shipping, and supply sourcing from popular marketplaces such as Amazon isn’t always reliable. Hackers will open the wallet without it being obvious and acquire the means of access, then ship it out seemingly as a brand new wallet to the third party marketplace.