Several New Hardware Wallet Features Introduced As Demand Increases

Over the past few months, the leading hardware wallet manufacturers have improved their services. Demand for these devices has also been skyrocketing over the course of bitcoin’s recent price rise. These days, cryptocurrency enthusiasts who want to secure their funds by utilizing cold storage hardware have more options than ever before.

Also read: The OpenDime ‘Bitcoin Stick’ Review

Hardware Wallets Adding Features

Trezor

The Czech-based company Trezor has been a hardware wallet provider for quite some time. The startup has been steadily adding new functionalities to their product line over the past year while also developing the Trezor 2. Just recently, the company added Ethereum support to the Trezor platform, allowing customers to store Ether on the device. Trezor firmware update 1.4.0 permits the storage and protection of ether under the same recovery seed.

Other features Trezor has added recently is Dropbox support and Universal-Second Factor (U2F). Trezor says people should never use Google Authenticator and explains U2F is better than TOTP (one-time password). The hardware device boasts an array of other features including multi-currency support for Dash and Zcash as well.

Keepkey

The hardware manufacturer Keepkey is also following along the path of multi-currency support as well. The Seattle-based firm announced this February it has added Dash integration.

Founder and CEO of KeepKey, Darin Stanchfield, explained: “With this integration, we are extending our utility, and adding one more asset users can transfer to or from directly on our device.”

Additionally, this past summer Keepkey added Shapeshift support to the device interface. Through the inbuilt Shapeshift function, users can swap between other cryptocurrencies like Ethereum, Namecoin, Litecoin and Dogecoin. Keepkey is the first hardware wallet to integrate with Shapeshift, essentially adding an exchange platform to the hardware experience without ever exposing private keys online.

Ledger

The Ledger hardware company has also been adding more features services to its repertoire. Just recently the company added a bunch of new services with its 1.3 firmware. For instance, users can now have a longer PIN allowing up to eight digits on the device. Alongside this, the company has redesigned its plausible deniability feature to support multiple BIP 39 identities and a secure passphrase entry on the device.

Moreover, Ledger has explained in great detail how customers verify that the device is genuine by proving ownership of a private key signed at Ledger factory. The Operating System attestation scheme provides a device key-pair which can be verified by the issuer certificate. Ledger is also shooting for more multi-currency support and currently enables Ethereum storage on its hardware devices.

Bitcoin Price Primes Hardware Wallet Demand

There’s more of a variety of hardware wallets to choose from these days, and these three companies continue to add features to their devices. As the price of bitcoin has spiked significantly, hardware wallet manufacturers claim company sales have been increasing as well.

For instance, Trezor has announced the company will be out of stock until sometime in March, “due to the exceedingly high and unanticipated demand associated with the increase in bitcoin value.”

What do you think about these hardware wallets and the new features? Let us know in the comments below.

Images courtesy of Shutterstock, Trezor, Ledger, and Keepkey websites.

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