Passport Bitcoin Wallet – Review

Since Bitcoin was introduced in 2009, it has become synonymous with the terms blockchain or crypto. When people think about either one of those terms, Bitcoin comes up. Bitcoin had been leading the cryptocurrency conversation and hype ever since its introduction a decade ago.

While Bitcoins and cryptocurrencies have only emerged to the mainstream in the past decade, there is already a narrative that is slowly becoming condemning. While it’s nice to see Bitcoins and cryptocurrencies to be doing well; however, it’s almost pedantic that the increasing number of users automatically translates to an increasing number of risks.

As the cryptocurrency ecosystem welcomes more players at a staggering rate, malicious users’ methods to steal tokens and coins grow. The result is often large quantities of your assets going missing. The hacker is nowhere to be found in the void that is the anonymous internet, and they are left richer with your assets, impossible to recover or trace.

And this is because of the decentralized nature of Cryptocurrencies. Cryptocurrencies have no governing body or entity that controls them, and for that reason, it’s impossible to recover or trace your assets once they’re compromised. This is why it is absolutely important to take the responsibility of securing your assets by doing your research and taking necessary precautions against theft or loss of your assets by storing them in a decentralized wallet that is not owned or managed by any third party.

Quite recently, the founders of The Largest Cryptocurrency exchange in South Africa disappeared with over $3.6 billion in Bitcoin after telling their investors the exchange had been hacked. Neither the founders nor the assets are anywhere to be found.

People often invest in cold wallets that look like USB drives and act as a physical store for tokens or coins to save themselves from a heart attack. Some even invest in wallets that look like magnetic disks. While these methods are some of the best ways to protect your investments, they aren’t very user-friendly. They can be slow, choppy, and very hard to understand. Also, their minimal size can be hard to keep track of.

This is where our star shines, The Passport Wallet.

Initial thoughts

We were lucky enough to get our hands on Foundation devices hardware wallet, The Passport. Designed, engineered, and manufactured in the United States, the Passport is a revolutionary wallet that makes storing and securing your Bitcoins easier than ever.

Priced at $299, The Passport wallet is a highly lucrative hardware wallet. Upon first glance, the wallet looks pretty similar to retro Nokia phones. Built of copper-plated zinc alloy complimented by the soft-touch plastic, the Passport measures 4 inches long by 1.5 inches wide and 0.8 inches thin, making it highly versatile, portable, and easy to carry.

You can tell the Passport is designed to be minimalistic, elegant, and premium. It offers a seamless industrial design that doesn’t take a manual to understand. It comes with a camera and a MicroSD slot to ease your storage process.

After experiencing the software firsthand, we could tell the interface is very intuitive. Foundation devices have made it absolutely easy for users to set up their wallets. The Passport’s larger screen, interactive user experience, and software make setting up a hardware wallet child’s play. You don’t need to go through the hassles of setting up various PINs or scroll forever on a small screen.

Moreover, Foundation Devices ensured they’re transparent by making their software open-source. Unlike other close-sourced wallets, Passport’s open-source code allows it to have a higher level of security than any other product in the market. Besides, it’s almost impossible to compromise the Passport because it has no wireless connectivity or USB ports.

So, how does it facilitate the whole process of securing and storing your coins or tokens?

While the Passport already comes with a MicroSD slot, you can go the extra mile by scanning QR codes with its built-in camera. QR codes allow for quick wireless Bitcoin transactions, which means you don’t have to go through the hassles of plugging into a computer and passing around that MicroSD. And that’s not it; Passport uses the PSBT standard, which means it’s compatible with almost every single-sig and multi-sig wallet.

Moving on, you can tell Foundation Devices’ attention to detail and security from the display and keypad. Most devices contain displays and keypads with embedded processors running sketchy firmware that could phish data or display false information. Seemingly, the Passport comes with a tamper-evident display whose circuitry is directly etched into the glass and a verifiably secure physical keypad, meaning that it’ll be very easy to inspect each screen and keypad at production for potential compromises.

Now you might be wondering how you would power this thing if there are no ports? You wouldn’t believe us, but this technology is powered by AAA batteries. Yes, AAA batteries. All of these features, the security, the software, the camera, the experience is powered by standard AAA batteries.

With that said, that’s the end of our overall review and experience.

There’s no denying that hardware wallets are the best and most secure options for storing and securing your crypto assets; however, the current options in the market are very choppy and hard to use. Bitcoin already has a very steep learning curve and for a hardware wallet to have another steep learning curve makes no sense. Foundation Devices’ Passport wallet is one of the most intuitive and user-friendly hardware wallets we’ve seen yet. It’s also one of the most robust, secure, and premium-looking options in the market.

Recently, the manufacturers raised over $2 million in a seed round, showing that Foundation Devices are striving to establish themselves in the hardware foundation for Bitcoin and decentralized internet. The founders aim to empower users like us to use and store Bitcoin while maintaining our sovereignty. That alone should be reason enough to choose the Passport. Tell us what do you think? Will you be getting your hands on the Passport any time soon?

Source: https://btcupload.com/latest-cryptocurrency-news/passport-bitcoin-wallet-review