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Jake-B Pi Zero DIY Hardware Wallet

Latest release: ?? ( 24th July 2017 ) 🔍 Last analysed 26th May 2022 .    
20th July 2017

As part of our Methodology, we ask:

Is the product meant to be ready for use "out of the box"?

 
If the answer is "no", we mark it as "Do-It-Yourself Project".

Many hardware wallet projects aim to be as transparent as possible by using only off-the-shelf hardware with an open design and open code. If the product reviewed is not available in an assembled form - if the user has to source his own hardware to then maybe solder and compile software to install on the device it falls into this category.

But we also ask:

Is the product still supported by the still existing provider?

 
If the answer is "no", we mark it as "Not functioning anymore".

Discontinued products or worse, products of providers that are not active anymore, are problematic, especially if they were not formerly reproducible and well audited to be self-custodial following open standards. If the provider hasn’t answered inquiries for a year but their server is still running or similar circumstances might get this verdict, too.

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The Analysis 

Background

This is a do-it-yourself project that predates several similar projects, because they were built on a Rasperry Pi:

The Jake-B Pi Zero DIY Hardware Wallet was released in July 20, 2017. Jake Bordens has a blog post detailing his efforts.

Description

From Jake’s blog post:

“Airgapped”

It has no onboard networking hardware, making it easy to maintain separation by simply never connecting a network interface.

It needs a host machine to function:

The serial gadget makes it possible to connect the Pi Zero to a host machine and login to the command line. This is what I mean by “pseudo-airgapped”. Yes, I am connecting the machine to another via USB… but in theory, only via a simple serial connection. I’m sure there are state-level hackers that could do something malicious with this connection, but I’m pretty satisfied that it is somewhat secure for my purposes. (If you are really paranoid, you could use the Pi Zero’s serial port and use a USB-to-TTL-Serial thingy, and completely isolate the Pi from anything but a serial console)

Build instructions are all on the blog post noted above.

Analysis

Unlike the SeedSigner or the Pitrezor , this device does not have a display. It is a do-it-yourself project and all the instructions are documented. The project has not seen any updates beyond 2017.

(dg)