Self-custody wallets

Historically, “hardware wallet” has meant a physical device intended to store your private keys offline. But “hardware wallet” is a bit of a misnomer, because it really combines two concepts: wallets and signers. Wallets let you interact with the bitcoin network. Because bitcoin is online, wallets must be online, too. To make transactions or display your balance, your wallet needs to be connected to the bitcoin network. Signers, on the other hand, don't need to be online at all. They just hold private keys and produce valid signatures when prompted by a wallet. They don’t know what your balance is, and don’t care—they just sign transactions. A signer, on its own, isn’t enough to interact with the bitcoin network—it requires you to use some version of wallet software to show balances and make transactions.Bitkey brings a combination of hardware and software, wallet and signers together in a comprehensive self custody system that eliminates the single points of failure that characterize legacy wallet models.

The market for self custody solutions has long been framed in terms of hot wallets and cold wallets, but it’s an oversimplified framing that may have outlived its utility.A cold wallet is a term usually used to describe a setup using an offline hardware signer that holds your private keys offline. A hot wallet is typically a signer (that holds your private keys) and a wallet bundled together into a single internet-connected application. Most people use these to make day-to-day transactions and check balances and avoid storing material wealth in them, since having your only signing key online is considered a security risk.Bitkey combines the security of a cold signer (the Bitkey hardware) with the flexibility of a hot wallet (the Bitkey app) bringing cold keys and hot keys and enterprise-grade security together in a comprehensive approach to self custody—one that minimizes the tradeoffs of both legacy models.