Four hardware wallets seen at Bitcoin 2024. Clockwise from top left: The Portal, The BitBoy, Jade and Hito. Photos: Brady Dale/Axios
The GOP platform this year says the party will protect individuals' right to self-custody their bitcoin, so we checked out some of the tools for self-custody at Bitcoin 2024.
Why it matters: Self-custody — controlling your digital money yourself — is a cool power Satoshi gave everyone, but it's also a little scary.
Entrepreneurs and technologists are constantly experimenting with ways to make it easier and more secure.
Here are four hardware wallets we saw demoed on the ground.
Portal, a near-field communication (NFC) wallet for mobile users. This was probably my favorite because the Italian team making it touted the fact that they want to make it work with every mobile bitcoin wallet — rather than build their own (let's hear it for interoperability).
Bitboy from Ordz games. This one is up for pre-sale. It's like a handheld gaming system from the '90s, but it's also a cold wallet. They also claimed that it "mines" Bitcoin, too, but I didn't really understand that part.
Jade from Blockstream. Here's one from a major company in the space. Jade is small and simple, and it has a cool QR code feature that allows users to transact without any wires.
Hito. This is a cold storage wallet for crypto. That is, not just BTC. It has an iPod-like look, and that's because it wants users to have a nice screen for admiring their NFT collection.
Flashback: And Crystal wrote about the new Ledger Stax on Friday. They were selling them out of a vending machine inside Music City Center.
💠Our thought bubble: I wish more hardware makers thought like bitcoin hardware makers.
They showed off features like replaceable batteries and open-source software. You hear that, Tim Cook?
Friction point: Another cool one there looked like an old stick phone. I took a photo but I forgot to write down the name.
