ZachXBT has sparked debate after claiming on his Telegram channel that hardware wallets are \u201ccomplete garbage\u201d for serious crypto use.<\/p>\n
According to him, people who often handle huge amounts are better off using a spare iPhone as a sign-in device.<\/p>\n
The crypto investigator\u2019s Telegram message was blunt:<\/p>\n
\n\u201cHot take: All hardware wallets are complete garbage and I do not advise using them for important tasks like signing transactions or storing funds,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
He went further, arguing that a separate iPhone used only as a wallet could provide a better experience than any hardware on the market right now, while he specifically criticized Ledger.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cLedger is the worst and Ledger Live has regular updates for UI\/apps for no good reason that break simple actions,\u201d claimed ZachXBT.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Back on X, he listed<\/a> several problems that hardware wallet users could face when making a typical time-sensitive high-value transaction. The issues included dead batteries, obligatory upgrades of the device and software, UI changes, and site bugs that prevent signing multisig transactions.<\/p>\n
Soon after, security researchers, wallet developers, and regular crypto users began responding to ZachXBT\u2019s post. Axel Bitblaze agreed<\/a> with the on-chain detective\u2019s criticism of hardware wallets but questioned whether a phone was really a better replacement for them, since they\u00a0would still leave the user with \u201cone device and one seed as the single point of failure.\u201d<\/p>\n
Instead, he recommended a 2-of-3 Safe multisig setup with separate signer devices. He also advised crypto holders to store their seed phrases offline and to do a test before moving large amounts, while keeping spending wallets separate from long-term holdings.<\/p>\n
Tornado Cash co-founder Roman Storm also chipped in, agreeing with the idea behind ZachXBT\u2019s proposal but arguing<\/a> that mobile wallets lack one important feature: BIP39 passphrase support.<\/p>\n
The developer, who is facing a lengthy prison term after being convicted<\/a> of operating an unlicensed money-transmitting business in 2025, pointed out that the extra passphrase layer is the main advantage of hardware wallets and called on software wallet makers to add support for it, which, in his view, would make them more useful for self-custody.<\/p>\n
The debate also attracted responses from hardware wallet companies, with one of the largest, Trezor, saying<\/a> that because a phone runs a full operating system, it has many possible attack points. Meanwhile, a hardware wallet is designed as a dedicated device that keeps private keys away from general computing environments.<\/p>\n
Keystone Wallet took a more balanced position. The team acknowledged<\/a> that ZachXBT was \u201cnot wrong\u201d about the potential of an isolated phone but contended that most users are better served by purpose-built units, since the security of a phone depends heavily on strict user discipline.<\/p>\n
Ledger\u2019s Stance<\/h2>\n
As of this writing, Ledger had not responded directly to ZachXBT\u2019s claims. However, it did publish a well-timed post on its X account, where it stated<\/a> that its core security model is based on keeping private keys away from internet-connected devices.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cA private key that never touches the internet can\u2019t be phished, deepfaked, or prompt-injected out of existence,\u201d it wrote. \u201cThat\u2019s the whole bet on hardware.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Still, such devices are not completely immune to human mistakes. For example, an incident earlier this year saw a victim lose<\/a> $282 million in BTC and LTC from their offline device through a social engineering scam.<\/p>\n
\uac8c\uc2dc\ubb3c ZachXBT\u2019s Hardware Wallet Criticism Ignites Debate Over Crypto Self-Custody<\/a> \uc5d0 \ucc98\uc74c \ub4f1\uc7a5 \ud06c\ub9bd\ud1a0\ud3ec\ud14c\uc774\ud1a0<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ZachXBT has sparked debate after claiming on his Telegram channel that hardware wallets are \u201ccomplete garbage\u201d for serious crypto use. According to him, people who often handle huge amounts are better off using a spare iPhone as a sign-in device. ZachXBT Details the Daily Struggles of Hardware Wallet Users The crypto investigator\u2019s Telegram message was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":50164,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-50162","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-feeds"],"yoast_head":"\n
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