Speaking of hardware Bitcoin wallets, TREZOR is another very popular solution to securing your digital wealth. The small pocket-sized device, created by SatoshiLabs Inc, comes at a relatively high price [according to some users], but it is worth every cent you pay. Top notch security, easy to carry around, and it looks pretty futuristic too! To make matters even better, a firmware update has been released.
Security Improvements As Suggested By The Community
Even though Satoshilabs Inc. has a team of competent developers, sometimes you just have to rely on your community to point out certain security issues that need to be addressed as soon as possible. Enhancing the transaction fee calculation may seem insignificant at first glance, but it does influence the time a transaction requires to be signed by the TREZOR wallet. This process has now been sped up significantly, thanks to the changes proposed by Jochen.
Didtoo, another TREZOR community member, theorycrafted a scenario in which the PIN delay would be delayed, making the hardware Bitcoin wallet potentially vulnerable to a brute-force attack. Even though such an attack is extremely unlikely to happen – let alone successfully – , the TREZOR team has introduced a fix which completely removes the slightest possibility of that ever happening at all.
Smart Property – Harnessing the Power of the Blockchain
Given the recent surge of advanced Bitcoin applications – also known as Bitcoin 2.0 applications – hardware Bitcoin wallet software needs to evolve in order to support this new level of technology. SatoshiLabs has implemented a new featured called OP_RETURN, preparing TREZOR for future use with these advanced applications.
Bitcoin 2.0 applications come in many forms, of which colored coins are the most common example. Any company or individual can offer these colored coins, which sit “on top” of the Bitcoin blockchain, and carry the same characteristics in terms of transparency and can be verified as easily as any Bitcoin transaction.
Smart property will be an integral part of the future use cases of the Bitcoin blockchain. In order to achieve that goal, we need a way to replace the current notary services. Document Timestamping will certainly help with that, as it allows anyone in the world to create an anonymous, public and secure proof of existence for any document. With the recent firmware update, TREZOR wallets are now officially compatible with such transactions.
Custom Home Screen Designs
At certain times, the conversation about your hardware Bitcoin wallet can be a bit less serious, and customizable home screens are a great way to do just that. Users can now replace the TREZOR home screen with any design they like. In fact, the SatoshiLabs team encourages people to submit their designs, which could be made available for all users. The winner of this design contest will receive a complimentary TREZOR, in a color of their choice.